Rich Leichwig

BJC and St.

Luke's had a 10 to 12 year relationship prior to us formally joining together at the start of 2024.

We had formed an organization called the BJC Collaborative.

And so we had worked together for 10 to 12 years.

Because of that relationship, because we knew each other so well, Dr. Mindy Estes, the CEO of St.

Luke's, and I had conversations about what we both felt we needed to do, given some of the headwinds that were impacting the industry.

And as a result of that, we were able to be very creative.

And from that discussion led us to the joining of the two organizations.

We quickly shared that with our respective board chairs and had support from both of them as well to proceed.

But it really was evolutionary, not revolutionary, given the longstanding relationship that we had with each other.

Probably the most significant opportunity we each envisioned at the time was the need to have greater scale.

And we could have done that independent of one another.

Again, because of the relationship, it led us to say, hey, why don't we join and really create scale immediately that would serve us well going forward.

We each have been in our communities for generations, and you're exactly right.

And both are very proud of the exceptional care that we provide in the communities that we're privileged to serve.

In coming together, one of the initial goals was to make sure that we're going to be here for future generations.

So at a minimum, to continue to maintain the access that already existed.

But then we wanted to take it one step further.

We wanted to be able to expand access, access for the communities we serve and those communities that we envision we would be able to serve, given the size and scale of joining together.

We also thought through that scale, we could better innovate, better invest capital, better