Ascension Health has announced plans to open a professional service center in Indianapolis, creating up to 500 new jobs by 2013.
The Ascension Health Ministry Service Center will provide support services in human resources, supply chain, finance, and accounting for the Catholic nonprofit health system's 70 acute care hospitals and more than 400 related facilities in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Ascension Health is finalizing a lease on an office building in northwestern Indianapolis that will house the new center, with a total investment in the facility of nearly $11 million.
"Bringing our capabilities together in one place to serve the national health ministry in vital support areas will allow us develop new capacity and expertise, lower our costs and improve our ability to serve overall," said Ascension Health's President/CEO Anthony Tersigni in a statement.
"Over the years," he said, "the Health Ministries of Ascension Health have demonstrated a willingness to innovate in ways that allow us to devote more resources to our Mission and service to our communities. We are very excited about the potential of this resource for our ministry, those we serve and for the community."
Based in St. Louis with 113,000 associates around the country, Ascension Health is the nation's largest Catholic nonprofit health system, and is already is a major employer in Indiana. St. Vincent Health, a 20-hospital system in Indiana that has more than 13,000 associates and 2,500 physicians, is a part of Ascension Health.
TriMedx, an Ascension Health subsidiary and healthcare equipment services company, also is headquartered in Indianapolis. In Evansville, St. Mary's Health System is a member of Ascension Health that employs 3,765, and the national system also operates an information services division in that city.
"The establishment of this new center is a key part of a larger transformational process under way within Ascension Health to standardize and synchronize systems, processes and data," said Robert Henkel, Ascension Health's president, healthcare operations/COO. "We're giving our Health Ministries new insights into their operations and enabling the sharing of best practices across our national health ministry. All of that contributes to better controlling healthcare costs."
Hiring for the center will begin in a few months, and the facility is expected to be operational in mid 2011.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Ascension Health up to $5 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $90,000 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans. Develop Indy and the City of Indianapolis offered Ascension Health infrastructure support and a training grant worth up to $300,000. Develop Indy will also support property tax abatement for Ascension Health before the Metropolitan Development Commission. Indy Partnership served as a project liaison, providing research and site selection support.
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John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.