Advocate Aurora Health to buy remaining stake in Bay Area Medical Center in Marinette

Advocate Aurora Health has signed an agreement to buy the 51 percent of Bay Area Medical Center in Marinette that it does not own.

The agreement calls for Advocate Aurora Health to contribute $25 million to a new foundation that would focus on supporting health and wellness programs in the Marinette area and at the hospital.

Aurora Health Care — which merged with Advocate Health Network last year — bought a 49 percent stake in Bay Area Medical Center for $43 million in cash and $6.45 million in other consideration in 2014.

Since then, Aurora and Bay Area Medical Center have added urgent care clinics, expanded access to primary and specialty care, built a new hospital and moved to electronic health records, Advocate Aurora Health said in a news release.

The hospital will be renamed Aurora Medical Center-Bay Area.

Bay Area Medical Center had net income of $3.2 million, including non-operating income, on $117.1 million in revenue in 2017, according to information filed with the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

Other small community hospitals and smaller health systems also have aligned with larger health systems in recent years.

Memorial Medical Center in Neillsville and Rusk County Memorial Hospital in Ladysmth, for example, became part of Marshfield Clinic Health System last year.

And Agnesian HealthCare, which operated St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac and hospitals in Ripon and Waupun, became part of SSM Health, which operates St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison and hospitals in Janesville and Baraboo, last year.

Monroe Clinic, based in Monroe, also became part of to SSM Health last year.

Community Health Network, which operated a hospital in Berlin and 10 clinics in east central Wisconsin, became part of ThedaCare, based in Appleton, in 2014. And Shawano Medical Center became part of ThedaCare in 2011.