San Augustine Memorial Medical Center will soon have new ownership, as the hospital’s parent company, Memorial Health System of East Texas, will be transferred to Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives. The announcement came yesterday at a press conference in Lufkin. A CHI official said the plan is to grow Memorial with added jobs, not reduce them, in the long run. The current Memorial board and executive team are expected to remain in place. Memorial board chairman Jack Sweeney said this is a big deal for the area, and it’s going to get bigger. He said the board was looking for a partnership that allowed East Texas health care system to remain non-profit. CHI is one of the nation’s largest health systems, and is the parent company of St. Luke’s Health System in Houston, and has a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Heart^® Institute

Memorial Health System of East Texas has health-care facilities in Lufkin, Livingston and San Augustine’s Memorial Medical Center. The transfer of ownership is expected to be finalized this spring.