With a deadline looming this weekend, Hutcheson Medical Center attorneys will ask a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge today to approve a deal with a company looking to re-open the hospital.
People’s Choice Hospital, an Illinois-based company, has offered to buy Hutcheson for about $4 million, according to a purchase agreement filed in court Thursday. The hospital would need the deal to go through by Sunday, according to Hutcheson sources, because Hutcheson cannot remain closed for more than 10 days.
Hutcheson shut its doors on Dec. 4.
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. It is unclear how all the parties feel about this deal with People’s Choice. Last week, attorneys negotiated a $4.75 million deal with Prime Healthcare Services – only for that deal to fall apart minutes before the court hearing.
But the sticking point on that deal might have been resolved with People’s Choice. Regions Bank, which according to a December 2014 court filing is owed $33 million from Hutcheson, opposed the deal with Prime Healthcare because Prime Healthcare wouldn’t make certain promises about Hutcheson’s surgery and cancer center.