St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Idaho, has announced it will buy Catalyst Medical Group.
The cost of the purchase is confidential, said St. Joseph’s CEO Ed Freysinger, but money for it came from a fund dedicated to community investment when the hospital passed into private ownership in 2017.
“Catalyst Medical Group and St. Joe's have worked together for many, many years,” Freysinger said. “We're here to serve the community, and we believe working together we're gonna do that even better than we have historically.”
Catalyst Medical Group has about 30 providers, which will roughly double the size of the hospital’s existing medical group, he said.
The purchase of Catalyst will bring St. Joseph’s total employee count to roughly 850 people, Freysinger said.
Catalyst will continue to operate independently until the transition is completed. Freysinger said that transition is expected to be complete in early November.
The acquisition also includes Lewiston Orthopedics and Valley Medical Center, which are part of Catalyst.
Catalyst was originally formed in 2016 as a physician-owned, for-profit medical group led by a six-person board that brought together employees at Moscow Family Medicine, Lewiston Orthopedics and Lewiston's Valley Medical Center under one umbrella.
Currently, patients will still be able to see their same providers at Catalyst or St. Joseph’s as they do currently.
Freysinger said there is no plan to move providers in the short term.
“Within that, there'll be discussions on where do we locate, how do we integrate, and how do we function most effectively again, for the patients,” Freysinger said.
Dr. Angela Roth, Catalyst’s president, said the joining of the hospital system would allow for more robust and well-coordinated care.
“Aligning with St. Joseph Regional Medical Center opens up exciting prospects for growth and development moving forward,” she said in a news release.
Catalyst providers joining St. Joseph’s will expand the medical center’s cancer, maternity, heart and vascular, neurology, wound, orthopedic, primary care and pediatric services.
Freysinger said the merger reflects a shared commitment to the health and wellbeing of patients in Lewiston and the surrounding region.
"As one system, we will help shape the future of healthcare in the region while continuing to honor the rich 123-year history of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center,” he said.
St. Joesph's was a nonprofit hospital for more than a century until 2017, when it was purchased by for-profit company RCCH Healthcare Partners. It was then sold to ScionHealth in December 2021, which remains its parent company.
