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Baptist Saint Anthony's sale finalizes

Expansion at Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital can move forward now that the purchase of the hospital was finalized Wednesday.  Ardent Health Services now owns 80 percent of BSA and Baptist Community Services owns the other 20 percent.

Ardent of Nashville, Tennessee plans to invest $125 million in the hospital over the next five years. Twenty-five million of it will go toward expanding the Emergency Room and another $25 million will go toward building a new cancer center.

"The remaining 75 million will be invested in projects that will come up over the next five years, they've made that commitment," added Mary Barlow with Baptist St. Anthony's.

But BCS of Amarillo teaming up with Ardent, a company that owns 14 hospitals, isn't just about the money they're investing, it's also about the money they're saving.

"We will have the ability to purchase equipment, purchase supplies in bulk as you may call it where you can negotiate a better price when you're buying over a large system than if you're a stand alone hospital," added Barlow.

BSA will also keep it's name, mission, management team as well as it's reputation for excellent health care.

"We're going to invest some dollars in other areas," said Kevin Gwin, Vice President of Communication for Ardent Health Services. "But this is a great hospital and health system and you're not going to see a lot of changes."

"They came in here and really appreciated that about our facility," said Barlow. "They made that commitment to not only allow us to keep our facility up and modern but also keep our services too."

Another upside to the finalized purchase is that it will not affect any of the employees at the hospital or their jobs.