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'''Baptist Health Care''' ('''BHC''') is a community-owned, not-for-profit regional system serving northwest Florida and southern Alabama. Nationally recognized for performance excellence and quality achievement, BHC has consistently ranked in the 99th percentile for patient satisfaction as recognized by Press Ganey. Baptist Health Care includes four hospitals ([[Atmore Hospital]], [[Baptist Hospital]], [[Gulf Breeze Hospital]], and [[Jay Hospital]]), two medical parks ([[Baptist Medical Park – Navarre]] and [[Baptist Medical Park – - Nine Mile]]), Baptist Manor, Baptist Home Health Care and Durable Medical Equipment, Baptist Leadership Institute, [[Andrews Institute]] for Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine and [[Lakeview Center]]. With more than 5,500 employees, Baptist Health Care is the largest non-governmental employer in northwest Florida.

Baptist was chartered as the Pensacola Baptist Hospital Association on [[February 15]], [[1943]], following the efforts of Dr. [[Sid Kennedy]] The current president and a group CEO of Baptist Health Care is [[First Baptist ChurchAl Stubblefield]] deacons to create a modern hospital in Pensacola.<ref>"Baptist Hospital founder honored with birthday bash." ''Pensacola News Journal'', July 30, 2001.</ref> Still today, BHC operates on the mission established by the founding fathers "to provide superior service based on Christian values to improve the quality of life for people and communities served.”

==History==Baptist was chartered as the Pensacola Baptist Hospital Association on [[February 15]], [[1943]], following the efforts of Dr. [[Sid Kennedy]] and a group of [[First Baptist Church]] deacons to create a modern hospital in Pensacola.<ref>"Baptist Hospital founder honored with birthday bash." ''Pensacola News Journal'', July 30, 2001.</ref> BHC operates with a mission established by its founding fathers "to provide superior service based on Christian values to improve the quality of life for people and communities served.”  ==Expansion=={{main|Baptist Health Care expansion}}For years, Baptist Health Care has sought to expand its service away from its main [[Baptist Hospital]] campus, which is located near Pensacola's urban core and provides indigent care for a large number of low-income patients. The current president hospital averages about 50 percent occupancy at any given time,<ref name="newhospital">"Baptist plans new hospital." ''Pensacola News Journal'', January 15, 2004.</ref> and CEO Baptist has sought to transfer some of its allowed acute medical care beds from Baptist Hospital to other branches in more affluent neighborhoods. However, such a transfer is only allowed after following the state's Certificate of Need process, overseen by the Agency for Health Care Administration, which has repeatedly denied requests by Baptist Health Care . Baptist officials have argued that the process is anticompetitive and overly regulatory, and that the ability to serve more "paying customers" would offset losses and increase their financial capacity to provide charity care. On four occasions, Baptist has lobbied to receive special legislative exemption from the Certificate of Need process. For many years they had an ally in [[Jerry Maygarden]], a top Baptist executive and Republican majority leader of the State House of Representatives, but efforts to transfer about 100 beds to a new hospital near their [[Nine Mile Road]] [[Baptist Medical Park - Nine Mile|medical park]] were never successful. On [[Al StubblefieldJune 26]], [[2008]], two years after holding brief talks about collaborating with [[West Florida Healthcare]], Baptist Health Care announced an [[Baptist Health Care expansion|expansion project]] that included acquiring [[West Florida Hospital]] for $245 million, plus $85 million in new construction. The project was set to move forward, but after a major [[Wikipedia:Subprime mortgage crisis|credit crisis]] made it difficult to obtain the necessary financing, the plans were called off at the beginning of [[2009]] — with an estimated $8 million lost in forfeited earnest money.<ref>"Cost of merger collapse: $8 million." ''Pensacola News Journal'', January 4, 2008.</ref>