Hutcheson Medical Center is seen on Oct. 21 in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.The City of Chickamauga will purchase the local clinic that Hutcheson Medical Center shut down last month.
The City Council voted to purchase the property during its meeting Monday night. The hospital will sell for $350,000, the same price that Dade County paid to buy another former Hutcheson clinic in Trenton.
Last month, the Walker County Development Authority voted to buy the Chickamauga Family Practice. However, Chickamauga Mayor Ray Crowder said city officials decided they should be the ones to own the clinic.
“We just felt like it was the thing to do,” he said. “It’s in Chickamauga. We just thought it would be good for us to have it and make citizens here feel better about it. It’s a real good opportunity for us to take it.”
The clinic, which hospital officials say was host to 800 patients, closed Oct. 15 when Hutcheson reduced several services and laid off about 70 employees as a cost-cutting measure. The hospital is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and in the process of closing, assuming a suitor does not purchase the hospital.