SoutheastHEALTH picked up the lease for Missouri Southern Healthcare in Dexter on Monday for $9.8 million.
The Cape Girardeau-based health care provider acquired the lease for the 50 bed acute-care hospital from Atlanta-based Sun Link. The lease will transfer to SoutheastHEALTH at the end of the year, but Sun Link will continue to manage the facility until the end of June next year.
SoutheastHEALTH executive vice president Jim Limbaugh says his organization will continue to provide health care as well as take care of the facilities.
“We would plan to commit resources to the hospital in terms of fixed asset improvements to the actual building and the structure and also upgrade equipment that needs to be upgraded,” Limbaugh said.
Missouri Southern Healthcare employs approximately 200 people.
Limbaugh does not anticipate any job losses.
“We will obviously go through our due diligence process to see what really the needs are of the hospital, but we really don’t see any changes at this point, certainly,” Limbaugh said. “We think that the organization right now is lean and mean and that it has good physicians, good providers and good employees. And we hope that would continue much the same way as it is right now.”
The Dexter Community Regional Healthcare Foundation owns the hospital. Their lease to SoutheastHEALTH will run through 2029.
This is not the first time SoutheastHEALTH has taken the management reins of a local hospital. They assumed management responsibilities of Ripley County Memorial Hospital in Doniphan in 2010.