Hospital Chain Buys Santa Barbara Center

Expanding its turf in a market that has grown increasingly competitive among national health care chains, the operator of St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard has acquired St. Francis Medical Center in Santa Barbara County. The merger was announced Thursday.

Catholic Healthcare West, the state’s largest nonprofit health care chain, owns several other hospitals in the region, including St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo and Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria. The chain’s latest acquisition brings to 38 the number of hospitals it operates in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Catholic Healthcare West representatives also have been involved in recent talks with Ventura County hospital officials about forming a health care partnership. Columbia HCA, the nation’s largest private hospital chain and owner of Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, is another possible county partner.

Meanwhile, St. Francis officials said that the merger with the Catholic health care network will provide added benefits for their hospital and physicians.

“This merger gives the economic support we need, the marketing synergy of a large system, together with continued local control of our local hospital,” said hospital administrator Ron Biscaro.