Red Bud Regional Hospital is making a play to own a majority stake in the Monroe County Surgical Center located on the Southern Illinois Center for Health campus in Waterloo.

According to filings with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, Red Bud Regional Hospital, through parent company Community Health Systems — which owns nine hospitals in Illinois — plans to invest $2.2 million in an effort to acquire a 51 percent stake in the center located at 501 N. Hamacher Street.

If approved, the current physician owners of the facility would retain a 49 percent stake, according to the filings.

“Red Bud Regional Hospital is committed to providing quality patient care and making healthcare services
more accessible to the community,” hospital spokesman Tyler Buchheit issued in a statement on Friday.

“We are in discussions with the physician owners of Monroe County Surgical Center to acquire 51 percent ownership interest and look forward to presenting our plans to the Certificate of Need Board in April.”

Approval by this state board represents a major step in the deal.

The surgical center opened in December 2011 and is currently 100 percent physician owned.

Officials with the center and the Southern Illinois Center for Health campus reserved comment until a deal is finalized.

The purpose for this effort by the hospital, according to the state filing, is to improve access by allowing for better physician-hospital alignment and provide the center with greater access to capital improvements.

The proposed joint venture will allow for coordinated care, efficiencies in medical record coordination and communication, less costly services for those might otherwise receive endoscopy services at the hospital, and capital investments, the filing states.

Red Bud Regional Hospital added in the filing that it believes it best to engage in a partnership with the current physicians at the surgical center rather than purchase the facility in total.

The surgical center features two operating rooms capable of performing 1,700 procedures that do not require an overnight stay including general surgery, orthopedics, spine surgery, podiatry, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, cardiovascular-vascular, urology, pain management, plastic and hand surgery, and otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat).

The space also houses medical offices.