Mercy Medical Center Becomes Baystate Mercy Hospital as $300 Million Deal Closes in Springfield

Photo: Mercy Medical Center on Carew Street in Springfield, now Baystate Mercy Hospital (file photo). John Phelan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., became Baystate Mercy Hospital on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, as Baystate Health completed its roughly $300 million acquisition of the Carew Street hospital from Trinity Health Of New England. Baystate called it the largest acquisition in its 50-year history, and it leaves both of Springfield’s acute-care hospitals under one owner.

The deal at a glance

Under the structure filed with the state Health Policy Commission in May, Baystate Health, Inc. becomes the sole corporate member of The Mercy Hospital, Inc. Mercy’s medical groups, accountable care organization and laboratory services join Baystate, which also takes a stake in two imaging providers, Western Massachusetts PET/CT Imaging Center and Greater Springfield MRI. The filing said the parties did not expect “a significant impact on reimbursement rates.”

Why Mercy was sold

When the deal was announced in April, Mercy officials described “significant challenges and financial pressures that threatened its long-term viability,” according to Western Mass News. They cited inadequate reimbursement for care, declining payment rates, patients shifting toward outpatient care and staffing shortages.

Baystate CEO Peter Banko told the station in October that the city cannot rely on one hospital. “Springfield needs two hospitals,” he said, adding that Baystate Medical Center alone could not have absorbed the roughly 50,000 emergency room visits Mercy handles each year, according to Western Mass News.

What changes for patients

According to Baystate’s Nov. 1 announcement, patients will keep seeing the same care teams at the same locations in Springfield, Chicopee and Agawam, with no change to insurance coverage. Scheduled appointments go ahead as planned, and phone numbers for the hospital and clinics are unchanged.

The main change is technology. Baystate switched the whole system, including Baystate Mercy, to a new Oracle Health electronic health record on the same day. Baystate’s Mercy transition page says the MyBaystate Health portal replaces Mercy’s MyChart portal, and Mercy patients need to register for a new account beginning Nov. 1.

Baystate Mercy’s emergency department remains open around the clock and is now staffed by Baystate’s board-certified emergency medicine faculty. The Sister Caritas Cancer Center becomes part of Baystate’s cancer program.

Leadership and what comes next

Andrew Ritz, who led the integration, is president and COO of Baystate Mercy Hospital. “Throughout the integration process, it has become clear that we are far more similar than different,” Ritz said in the release.

Banko said in the same release that “Springfield must have two thriving, growing, successful hospitals,” and that after a few weeks of stabilizing, physicians and clinicians will look at how “two hospitals six blocks apart” can collaborate, expand access and improve quality. He described the hospital’s history as a “152-year legacy” begun by the Sisters of Providence.

Baystate has not announced any service changes or consolidation between the two campuses. Updates are posted on the Baystate Mercy transition page. Trinity Health Of New England’s transition FAQ said the stated goal of the deal is “to preserve and enhance local access to care, not reduce it.”

For more Massachusetts health coverage, see our report on the Harvard Street Health Center groundbreaking in Dorchester and our look at the cheapest places to live in Massachusetts.

Sources

• Baystate Health: Baystate Health Welcomes Baystate Mercy Hospital (Nov. 1, 2026)
• Baystate Health: Mercy Medical Center transition page
• Massachusetts Health Policy Commission: Notice of Material Change, Baystate Health and Mercy
• Western Mass News: Baystate completes acquisition of Mercy Medical Center

Additional sources

• Trinity Health Of New England: Mercy Medical Center Transition
• Western Mass News: Baystate, Mercy Medical Center to finally merge next month