CHI Memorial on Monday said it plans to take over management of Cornerstone Medical Center, formerly Hutcheson Medical Center, in Fort Oglethorpe.
The hospital on Gross Crescent, built in the 1950s with federal funding and contributions from local mill workers, is no stranger to upheaval in recent years.
In 2011, with Hutcheson hemorrhaging about $20 million a year, Erlanger Health System took over management. Erlanger provided administrators and a $20 million loan. But in August 2013, Hutcheson’s board voted to kick out Erlanger. Then Hutcheson sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2014. Then the hospital shut down in December 2015.
Days later, in bankruptcy court, ValorBridge Partners bought the hospital for $4.2 million. A portfolio company of ValorBridge’s, ApolloMD, had actually been running the emergency department at Hutcheson prior to the purchase. This would be the company’s first attempt at running an entire hospital. They renamed the operation Cornerstone, in reference to the honor bestowed upon the mill workers who contributed to the hospital about 60 years earlier.
Now, the hospital will undergo another leadership change.