ATLANTA -- Attorneys for Hutcheson Medical Center are hammering out a deal today to re-open the hospital.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Paul Bonapfel approved a management agreement this afternoon between Hutcheson and ApolloMD, a health care company based out of Atlanta. ApolloMD was already providing Hutcheson with ER doctors before the hospital closed Dec. 4.
ApolloMD made an offer for Hutcheson during a hearing Friday. The company will pay $4.2 million, all in cash.
The groups involved in the deal will also have more time than initially expected to negotiate the final details. Because Hutcheson's hospital license was scheduled to expire today, some lawyers involved in he case thought the hospital had to be running again by the close of business.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 12/4/15. Workers wrap the signage and board up the former Emergency Room entrance at Hutcheson Medical Center in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., on Friday, December 4, 2015. But State Rep. Tom Weldon, R-Ringgold, who represents Hutcheson's governing body, said the Department of Community Health will give the parties until Christmas Eve to finish the deal.
ApolloMD plans to first manage the hospital before eventually purchasing it.
Rob Williamson, an attorney representing the trustee who handles Hutcheson's finances, said the hospital needs to begin operating again.
"The trustee wants to reopen this hospital as soon as possible," Williamson said. "The more time it's not operating, the harder it is to reopen."
Williamson believes the attorneys can hammer out the final details of the deal today.
Bonapfel also approved of Maybrook Healthcare purchasing Hutcheson's nursing home and child care center for $7.3 million.
"The sale is in the best interest of the estate," he said, "and in the best interest of all the parties, and, most importantly, in the interest of all the residents."