St Joseph Health System

David A. Reed has been appointed president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph Health System, which operates eight hospitals in California and Texas, including St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, St. Jude in Fullerton and St. Jude Yorba Linda. Reed, now president and chief executive of Samaritan Foundation, a hospital management company based in Phoenix, Ariz., will assume his new position Jan. 2, said St. Joseph Hospital spokesman Dennis Gaschen.

Squeezed by a low-paying managed-care system, Orange County's largest health-care provider said Friday that it will not accept any new patients from health maintenance organizations and may sever ties with all 17 HMOs with which it contracts. St.

St. Joseph Health System, which operates St. Joseph Hospital and nine others, said Wednesday that it has tentatively agreed with a Roman Catholic health group in Torrance to form an affiliation, essentially a merger. St. Joseph and Little Company of Mary Health Services would operate seven hospitals in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, five more in Northern California and one in Lubbock, Texas.

Falling revenue and cuts in government funding will force the layoffs of 121 employees at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, officials announced Thursday. The layoffs are expected to help the 333-bed hospital recover from the low HMO reimbursements and rising medical costs that contributed to a $3.5-million drop in revenue so far this fiscal year, said Alain Jourdier, a spokesman for Orange-based St. Joseph Health System, which is St. Jude's parent company.

Squeezed by a low-paying managed-care system, Orange County's largest health-care provider said Friday that it will not accept any new patients from health maintenance organizations and may sever ties with all 17 HMOs with which it contracts. St.

Seeking to enter the South County market, the St. Joseph Health System, which already operates two major hospitals in Orange County, said Wednesday it is exploring a merger or close alliance with Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Thomas Porath, vice president of corporate services for St. Joseph Health System in Orange, said the hospital chain has signed an agreement with Mission to study "the most effective way to affiliate."

In the continuing consolidation of the health-care industry, St. Joseph Health System in Orange said Thursday that it has bought Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. St. Joseph Health System, which already owns St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, said it will keep the Mission Viejo facility's 1,300 employees in the deal, terms of which were not disclosed. The fate of senior executives at Mission Hospital was not clear.

Standard & Poors Corp. and Moody's Investors Service have affirmed their high credit ratings for St. Joseph Health System in Orange. Officials of St. Joseph, a nonprofit operator of several hospitals and the Health Plan of America health maintenance organization, made their biannual presentation to the financial rating services in December. S&P gave the company an A+ rating; Moody's gave it an A1. The "A" rating is considered "investment grade," indicating a minimal risk that a corporate bond issue will default.

Robert W. O'Leary will resign as chief executive of the St. Joseph Health System in Orange to become president and chief executive of Voluntary Hospitals of America Inc., a Dallas organization that provides services to a nationwide network of hospitals, officials said Tuesday. O'Leary, 45, has served as president and chief executive at St. Joseph Health System since 1983. The health-care organization, owned by the Sisters of St.

St. Joseph Health System, which operates St. Joseph Hospital and nine others, said Wednesday that it has tentatively agreed with a Roman Catholic health group in Torrance to form an affiliation, essentially a merger. St. Joseph and Little Company of Mary Health Services would operate seven hospitals in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, five more in Northern California and one in Lubbock, Texas.

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, one of Orange County's few remaining independent health-care institutions, announced plans Wednesday to forge a business relationship with Orange-based St. Joseph Health System. The linkup with the larger organization, while intended to help Hoag better compete for business with large health plans, would stop far short of a full-blown merger. "This is not a merger of our assets. We will remain separate," Hoag President Michael D. Stephens said Wednesday.

Richard J. Statuto has been selected as the new president and chief executive of St. Joseph Health System in Orange, which owns and operates nine hospitals and other health services. He succeeds David A. Reed. Statuto, who has been with St. Joseph's for four years, had been chief operating officer since April. Before that, he was vice president of business development, marketing and planing for Bon Secours Health System in Maryland.

In the continuing consolidation of the health-care industry, St. Joseph Health System in Orange said Thursday that it has bought Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. St. Joseph Health System, which already owns St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, said it will keep the Mission Viejo facility's 1,300 employees in the deal, terms of which were not disclosed. The fate of senior executives at Mission Hospital was not clear.

Seeking to enter the South County market, the St. Joseph Health System, which already operates two major hospitals in Orange County, said Wednesday it is exploring a merger or close alliance with Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Thomas Porath, vice president of corporate services for St. Joseph Health System in Orange, said the hospital chain has signed an agreement with Mission to study "the most effective way to affiliate."

When a group of Catholic nuns in the lumber town of Eureka was called on to nurse influenza epidemic victims 60 years ago, the medical assignment was supposed to have been a temporary one. The Sisters of St. Joseph, after all, wanted only to run a girls boarding school. But after nursing the influenza victims, the nuns saw both a bigger challenge and bigger rewards in health care, and their nursing stint provided the beginning of what has evolved into one of California's largest hospital chains.

Southwest Orange is that part of the city just east of the Santa Ana Freeway and north of Santiago Creek. Homes are corralled by Chapman Avenue to the north, the Garden Grove Freeway on its southern border and, to the west, the Santa Ana Freeway. And the Santa Fe Railroad tracks a borderline across the neighborhood's east side streets. But if there is one thing that changed the neighborhood, it was the automobile.