St. Louis-based Ascension Health announced Friday morning that it would open a professional service center in Indianapolis, creating up to 500 jobs by 2013.

The nation's largest Catholic and not-for-profit health care system said it would spend $10.9 million to open the Ascension Health Ministry Service Center in leased office space on the northwest side.

The new center will provide services in human resources, supply-chain management, finance and accounting to support the system’s 70 acute-care hospitals and more than 400 related health care facilities in 20 states and Washington, D.C.

Hiring for the center will begin in a few months, and the facility is expected to become operational in summer 2011.

Ascension Health already has a significant presence in Indianapolis. St. Vincent Health, a 20-hospital system in Indiana that has more than 13,000 employees and 2,500 physicians, is a part of Ascension Health. TriMedx, an Ascension Health subsidiary and health care equipment services company, also is headquartered in Indianapolis.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Ascension Health up to $5 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $90,000 in training grants based on the company's job-creation plans.

Develop Indy and the City of Indianapolis offered Ascension Health infrastructure support and a training grant worth up to $300,000. Develop Indy will also support property-tax abatement before the Metropolitan Development Commission.