St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare will consider terminating its 30-year operating lease with Columbia, Mo.-based Boone Hospital Center early if the hospital successfully finalizes its partnership with University of Missouri Health Care, also in Columbia, according to the Columbia Missourian.
BJC officials reportedly outlined the potential early termination of the lease in a letter to Boone Hospital Center board of trustees dated June 29, 2016, according to report issued by Verite Healthcare, a healthcare consulting firm in Alexandria, Va., and obtained by the Columbia Missourian.
BJC officials said "the current Boone Hospital Center operating lease, its short term lease … and its governance model … [are] no longer responsive to what [Boone] hospital will need to succeed, indeed to thrive in the years ahead," officials wrote in the letter.
Boone Hospital Center would "sustain any possible costs associated with early severance" if it chooses to end the lease early, BJC officials wrote in the letter.
The institutions' lease expires in 2020. The parties have until December 2018 to notify each other if they intend to end their lease agreement.
Boone Hospital Center officials received an estimated 20 proposals from interested institutions last year, including proposals from BJC HealthCare and MU Health Care. The board of trustees announced they entered into exclusive negotiations with MU Health Care in August.