The following comes from a Jan. 13 story in the Mercury News.

Faced with a rapidly changing industry, the Daughters of Charity Health System, which includes six hospitals spanning the Bay Area to Los Angeles, announced on Monday it was putting its hospitals up for sale.

The decision by the hospital’s board, based in Los Altos Hills, follows a two-year-long review of options to preserve the hospitals and access to care. The hospital network will seek proposals from Catholic, public, nonprofit and for-profit organizations to buy its hospitals individually — or the entire health system.

“After careful consideration, our board, management team and advisers have determined that the sale of our hospitals is the most sound and responsible business decision,” said Robert Issai, the hospital system’s president and CEO.

“Like other health systems across the country, we recognize that the way health care is provided today — where it is offered, how it is paid for, how it is measured — is changing dramatically, and we believe that new ownership is in the best interest of the communities we serve.”

Daughters of Charity hospitals in the Bay Area include O’Connor Hospital in San Jose; Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy; Seton Medical Center in Daly City, and Seton Coastside in Moss Beach.

In Southern California, it owns the St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood.

“One reason for the decision to sell our hospitals comes in response to the rapid changes in the health care industry resulting from federal health care reform, cuts in reimbursement and an uncertain general economy,” said Elizabeth Nikels, Daughters of Charity’s spokeswoman. “Across the U.S., there is a significant proliferation of hospital partnerships, mergers, joint ventures and other arrangements designed to address economic challenges by bringing together like-minded hospitals.”

The hospital chain would not disclose desired sale prices.

DCHS said it has 8,000 associates and physicians that serve its patients. Last year, it formed an affiliation with Ascension Health, which remains in effect, though it said it will not merge with Ascension Health.

The Daughters of Charity Health System in California is sponsored by the Daughters of Charity, Province of the West, a Society of Apostolic Life serving the sick and those who live in poverty.

Its history in the state began after five Daughters of Charity arrived in San Francisco in 1852, founding a hospital, an orphanage and beginning their work of caring for the sick.

To read the original story, click here.