Community Health Systems, Inc. continues its ongoing efforts to reduce debt with the sale of a community hospital in Oklahoma City. It's CHS's eighth hospital divestiture this year.
Debt-ridden Community Health Systems, Inc. has sold Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City to INTEGRIS, the two companies announced.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The sale was one of several planned divestitures discussed by CHS this spring in a first quarter earnings call.
Deaconess, a 291-bed community hospital, operates under CHS' affiliated AllianceHealth brand name in Oklahoma and the purchase does not include other AllianceHealth hospitals in the state. When the sale is finalized, CHS affiliates will operate seven hospitals in Oklahoma.
Tim Johnson, president of nearby INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, told The Oklahoman newspaper that Baptist has to turn away about 1,200 patients each year because of a shortage of critical care beds.
"What we really need is more critical care space," Johnson told the newspaper. "It really gives us some breathing room."
INTEGRIS said no layoffs are planned at Deaconess.
Franklin, Tennessee-based CHS has sold eight hospitals this year in its ongoing effort to reduce its debts that accrued after its $7.6 billion acquisition of Health Management Associates, Inc. in 2013.
The company reported a nearly 18% drop in net revenues and a 21% drop in total admissions in the first quarter of 2018.
On June 1, CHS sold the 85-bed Tennova Healthcare – Jamestown in Jamestown, Tennessee, to West Palm Beach, Florida-based Rennova Health, Inc., which had been delisted from Nasdaq earlier this year for excessive stock splitting
John Commins is the news editor for HealthLeaders.