The sale of Lutheran, the CHS era, and the fight of 2017–18

Sold 1 August 1995 — dispute settled 19 November 2018

From church hospital to chain hospital: On 1 August 1995 the Lutheran Hospital Association sold the assets of Lutheran Hospital of Indiana to a subsidiary of Quorum Health Group. The price is in conflict in the record and both figures stand: Quorum's own filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission report approximately $172 million, while the genealogical society's copied account gives $137 million. The proceeds of the sale endowed the Lutheran Foundation, established in 1996, which has distributed the hospital's charitable legacy across the region's churches, schools, and wellness organizations ever since. The corporate chain then ran with the industry: Quorum was absorbed by Triad Hospitals in a transaction agreed in 2000 and completed in 2001, and Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tennessee, bought Triad in July 2007 — bringing Lutheran, and St. Joseph with it, under the ownership both networks carry today. Under CHS the Jefferson Boulevard hospital grew a fifth floor, opened in late 2011, and stands at 396 beds. The CHS era's open wound was the fight of 2017–18, documented in the trade press at the time. In May 2017 a group of the network's own physicians offered $2.4 billion for the eight-hospital Lutheran Health Network, alleging that CHS had underinvested in the Fort Wayne hospitals; CHS rejected the offer as inadequate. The network's chief executive, Brian Bauer, was fired in June 2017; other leaders were fired or resigned, among them Chuck Surack and Tom Kelley, who resigned from advisory boards. CHS and the network sued Bauer in Tennessee in November 2017; a February 2018 injunction found that he had disclosed confidential information but declined to bar him from working with IU Health, which that August opened its first Fort Wayne primary-care office. The litigation settled on 19 November 2018, on confidential terms except that Bauer was barred from disclosing confidences and from soliciting network employees until 13 June 2020. No sale of the network followed: Lutheran Health Network remains CHS-owned, and the 2017 physicians' offer stands in the record as the moment the city's second system nearly changed hands.

Sources:

1. Quorum Health Group, SEC Form 10-Q filings (1995) — the 1 August 1995 acquisition of the assets of Lutheran Hospital of Indiana for approximately $172.0 million; against ACGSI's copied account at $137 million, both carried in the entry.
2. Lutheran Foundation history — the foundation established in 1996 from the proceeds of the 1995 sale.
3. Becker's Hospital Review and Modern Healthcare, 2017–2018 — the physicians' $2.4 billion offer of May 2017 and CHS's rejection; Brian Bauer's June 2017 firing; the November 2017 suit; the February 2018 injunction; IU Health's August 2018 Fort Wayne entry; and the settlement of 19 November 2018 with its 13 June 2020 non-solicitation term.
4. Community Health Systems / Triad Hospitals transaction record — CHS's July 2007 acquisition of Triad for $6.8 billion, completing the chain Quorum to Triad to CHS. (A competing February 2007 private-equity offer for Triad at $6.4 billion did not prevail and is not the sale.)
5. Lutheran Health Network — the fifth floor opened in late 2011; Lutheran Hospital at 396 beds.