Hutcheson Medical Center is back in business, at least on paper. The 114-bed acute care facility in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2014, and was closed on December 4, 2015. There was still some hope that a buyer would emerge before Monday, December 14, when its license was scheduled to expire.
At least two bidders showed up on Friday, December 11: Chicago-based People’s Choice Hospital, a boutique company that specializes in managing struggling healthcare systems, placed a $4.0 million bid for the main hospital campus. That was eventually topped by Atlanta-based private investment company, ValorBridge Partners, with a $4.2 million offer. A ValorBridge operating company, ApolloMD, just happened to have been running the hospital’s emergency department prior to the closure, and ValorBridge partner Chris Durham also serves as president of ApolloMD.
The hospital owes approximately $32 million to its creditors, chiefly Erlanger Health and Regions Bank, as well as the governments of Catoosa and Walker counties. Parkside Nursing Home and a child day care center went to New York’s Maybrook Healthcare LLC for $7.2 million. A satellite campus, Hutcheson on the Parkway, in Ringgold, Georgia, with a cancer and surgery center is still looking for a buyer, so there are still some clauses to be hammered out in the final settlement.