Prime Healthcare, fresh off its deal to save struggling Southern Regional Medical Center in Clayton County, is seeking to buy another ailing Georgia hospital.
California-based Prime said it has made a bid to acquire Hutcheson Medical Center, a northwest Georgia facility that’s about to close.
Hutcheson, in the small community of Fort Oglethorpe, is operating under bankruptcy court protection, and the judge issued an order for closure Dec. 4. If that happens, Hutcheson would be the fifth rural Georgia hospital to shut its doors since 2013.
Prime Healthcare Services and the nonprofit Prime Healthcare Foundation own and operate 38 acute-care hospitals in 11 states. They are known for acquiring financially distressed hospitals and turning them around.
The foundation’s purchase of Southern Regional is set for review by the Georgia attorney general, after a bankruptcy court issued its final approval order on the deal in late October. The AG is considered likely to agree to the sale.
Southern Regional would be California-based Prime’s first hospital in Georgia.
Prime spokeswoman Elizabeth Nikels said Prime “is committed to keeping Hutcheson Medical Center open and serving the community with quality care.”
Hutcheson has been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since November 2014. It owed about $80 million at the time of the filing, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
Andy Miller is CEO and editor of Georgia Health News. This story was done in collaboration with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
