FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Barb Meyer
Executive Director - Corporate Communications
Sisters of Mercy Health System www.mercy.net
v: 314.628-3633
f: 314.628-3734
e: bmeyer@corp.mercy.net

Sisters of Mercy Health System Anounces Upcoming Leadership Change

St. Louis, MO (Sept. 20, 2006) – Ronald B. Ashworth, president and chief executive officer of the Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy), has announced his decision to step down by mid-2007. Ashworth has served as president and CEO since July 1999 and previously held the position of executive vice president and chief operating officer for five years. He has been a member of the Mercy Board of Directors since the organization’s founding in 1986. To ensure continuity of leadership and strategic direction, Ashworth will assume the role of Board Chair following the appointment of a new president and CEO.

“I have been contemplating this decision for some time, for the purpose of having more time to spend with my family, travel and pursue personal interests. Upon sharing my plans earlier this year with members of the Health System’s Executive Committee of the Board, Sponsor Council and Sisters of Mercy Regional Leadership Team, we began to plan for a leadership transition that would ensure the integrity of Mercy’s mission and consistency of our initiatives into the future,” said Ashworth.

“Ron Ashworth has been a vital part of the Sisters of Mercy’s health ministry since our founding as a System more than 20 years ago. His leadership has been instrumental in helping to establish our vision, and in creating and sustaining the environment to fulfill our mission,” said Sister Mary Roch Rocklage, RSM, chair of Mercy’s Sponsor Council. “We are very pleased that Ron will continue to be part of our future endeavors in the role of board chair.”

Mercy will engage an executive search firm to assist with the recruitment of a new CEO, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Board and representatives of the System’s Sponsor Council. It is anticipated that a new CEO will join Mercy by mid-2007.

Bishop Joseph Sullivan of Brooklyn, NY, current board chair, has expressed his desire to relinquish that position next year. In assuming the role of board chair, Ashworth also will serve as an adviser to the new president/CEO and other members of the Mercy leadership team.

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The Sisters of Mercy Health System (Mercy) operates hospitals, physician practices, outpatient clinics, health plans and related health and human services in a seven state area including Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Its members include 18 acute care hospitals providing more than 4,000 licensed beds, a heart hospital, a managed care subsidiary (Mercy Health Plans), physician practices, outpatient care facilities, home health programs, skilled nursing services and long-term care facilities. Services are provided by approximately 26,000 co-workers and 3,100 physicians who are employed or practice at Mercy facilities. Mercy is the ninth largest Catholic healthcare system in the United States based on net patient service revenue and is sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy–St. Louis Regional Community.

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