Kansas City, Mo. ? Health Midwest announced Friday it has signed a formal contract to sell its 14 hospitals and other assets to HCA Inc. of Nashville, Tenn.

The proposed $1.13 billion sale still must be approved by the attorneys general of Kansas and Missouri and the Federal Trade Commission.

Health Midwest owns three Kansas hospitals: Menorah Medical Center and Overland Park Regional Medical Center, both in Overland Park, and Allen County Hospital in Iola.

Under the completed contract, HCA promises not to close any of Health Midwest’s three urban hospitals for at least three years. During that same three-year period, HCA will not close any other Health Midwest hospital unless it has built a new hospital or expanded capacity of an existing hospital.

The contract requires HCA to pay $1.125 billion for Health Midwest and make $450 million in capital improvements. Within two years of the transaction, HCA will spend $300 million of those capital improvements and spend $50 million during each of the next three years.

In a prepared statement, Health Midwest Board Chairman Bernard Erdmann said the contract was in the best interests of the communities and employees served by Health Midwest.

The contract also stipulates, among other things, that HCA will not end or significantly change any service currently provided by Health Midwest for at least three years; will not close any emergency department at a Health Midwest hospital for five years; and will maintain each hospital’s cultural and religious traditions for at least 10 years.

And, the contract states, HCA will offer jobs to “essentially all” current Health Midwest employees at wages at least equal to their pay at the time of the sale.

It also will, for at least 10 years, provide at least the same aggregate dollar amount of charity, indigent or other uncompensated care as Health Midwest provided during the year before the sale closing and will participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

If the sale is approved, it would provide an estimated $800 million for a charitable foundation. Friday’s statement said the Health Midwest Board of Directors is listening to comments from the public and community organizations regarding the use of those funds. It also said it would strengthen the ethnic and geographic diversity of the foundation’s board.