The Bourbon Country Commission transferred ownership of the former Mercy Hospital Building at 401 Woodland Hills on November 17, 2022 to Legacy Health Foundation.
Editors note
The agreement document was originally sent by the Bourbon County Clerk to fortscott.biz for publication on Nov. 17 but an email from the clerk said her office was just notified that there was an error in the document and was asked to pull the document off of the Bourbon County site. Fortscott.biz also pulled the document out of the story until the corrected document was available.
Here is the corrected agreement document between the county and Legacy Health Foundation.
“We have been in negotiations with them for six months,” Commissioner Clifton Beth said. “We transferred the building to them to develop. The building is the responsibility of Legacy Health Foundation as of today.”
In addition, the commission gave Legacy Health Foundation a combined $2 million dollars, he said. Mercy Hospital gave the commission the building and $600,000 after the hospital closed in December 2018.
To view a prior press release:
Bourbon County Takes Ownership of Former Mercy Hospital Building
The rest of the money given the Legacy Health Foundation is from American Rescue Plan Act funds.
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319
This bill provided additional relief to address the continued impact of COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses.
Jennifer Massey is the local contact for Legacy Health. On her Linkedin profile is stated that she is a self-employed hospital operations executive, since July 2022.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-massey-msn-rn-70a3b0147/
Her skills are listed at healthcare consulting, healthcare improvement, healthcare management and process improvement.
She works for Legacy Health Foundation full-time now, she said in an interview, and her title is Chief Clinical Operations Officer.
“The Legacy Health Foundation was created to bring health care back to Bourbon County,” Massey said.
She has an office at the former Mercy Hospital building and lives in St. Charles, Missouri, she said.
Ascension Via Christi will stay in place as the emergency department, she said.
“Members of the community will be part of the foundation,” Massey said. “We will be having community meetings, and more info will be forthcoming.”