// a href = ./ //

The family of a woman was left unable to speak has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit  against SSM Health Care-St. Louis and a local neurosurgeon for allegedly operating on the wrong side of a woman’s skull and brain.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports the patient, 53-year-old Regina Turner of St. Ann, was scheduled on April 4 for a “left-sided craniotomy bypass” at St. Clare Health Center in Fenton, according to a complaint filed in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County in Clayton.

Instead, she received a “right-sided craniotomy surgical procedure,” the suit alleges.

Turner now is unable to speak intelligibly, according to her Clayton-based lawyer, Alvin Wolff Jr. Once the operating team realized they had made an error, a second surgery was performed six days later on the correct side of Turner’s skull.   The St Louis Post Dispatch reports the suit accuses SSM and the neurosurgeon, identified by the paper as Dr. Armond Levy. In the suit he is identified by the initials “A.L.” with negligence and carelessness that led to a wrong-site surgery.

Kristen Johnson, an SSM spokeswoman, would only confirm that Levy is an employee of SSM Health Care with staff privileges at St. Mary’s Health Center and DePaul Health Center. She said federal patient privacy law prevents Levy from discussing the case.

  

ST. LOUIS (AP) - SSM Health Care, one of the largest Catholic health care providers in the U.S., plans to purchase the Dean Health Systems group in Wisconsin.

The merger announced Tuesday is pending approval of Dean physician shareholders and regulators. SSM says the transaction could be complete by this summer. Terms were not disclosed.

St. Louis-based SSM is a non-profit organization with 18 hospitals and other health care operations in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Dean Health Systems is a Madison, Wis.-based physician-owned organization with more than 60 clinics, plus eye care and pharmacy operations. It already partners with SSM for the Dean Health Plan insurance provider in Wisconsin.

MEXICO, Mo. (AP) - A St. Louis-based health system says it will acquire the Audrain Medical Center in Mexico, Mo.

The agreement between SSM Health Care and the hospital will be effective April 1.

Under the agreement, SSM Health Care will own and operate the 88-bed acute care hospital and its nine MedChoice rural clinics. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.

SSM Health Care owns 17 hospitals in four states. The Columbia Daily Tribune reported Tuesday that SSM will form a Mid-Missouri region to encompass its hospitals and clinics in the region.