CHI Memorial of Chattanooga, Tenn., has acquired the 19-bed Cornerstone Medical Center of Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., and two centers in Ringgold, Ga. The transaction closed Dec. 29. Fort Oglethorpe is about 10 miles south of Chattanooga; and Ringgold is nearly 20 miles southeast of Chattanooga.
CHI Memorial anticipates growing the hospital's bed count to 36 by spring. It also plans to restore surgical services that had been discontinued at the small hospital.
CHI Memorial had managed Cornerstone since August 2017 under an agreement with the hospital's former owner, ValorBridge Partners, an Atlanta-based capital management company. Under CHI Memorial ownership, the hospital no longer is a secular, for-profit facility. It now is a Catholic, not-for-profit. CHI Memorial renamed the hospital "CHI Memorial Hospital — Georgia."
The hospital employs about 200. CHI Memorial said it has retained the facility's top leadership; it is keeping staffing levels the same as before the acquisition, and the facility's services remain the same. The hospital provides emergency, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy and select inpatient services. CHI Memorial also purchased cancer and surgery centers in a Ringgold medical office building that also houses a family medicine practice, pediatric diagnostic services and a heart institute. The medical office building was called "Hutcheson on the Parkway" and is now called "CHI Memorial — Parkway."
The acquired hospital and medical practices are located in north Georgia, within the service area of CHI Memorial. In addition to the acquired sites, CHI Memorial includes a 336-bed hospital in Chattanooga and a 69-bed hospital in Hixson, Tenn. According to information from CHI Memorial, the north Georgia region near Tennessee border has been experiencing residential and industrial growth for several years that is projected to continue apace in the near term. CHI Memorial had been making investments in north Georgia outpatient facilities prior to the December acquisition.
According to coverage in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the newly acquired hospital was built in the 1950s with federal funding and contributions from local mill workers. Formerly called Hutcheson Medical Center, the hospital was losing about $20 million a year when in 2011 Erlanger Health System took over, according to the Free Press. Erlanger provided administrators and a $20 million loan. But two years later, Hutcheson's board voted out Erlanger. The medical center sought bankruptcy protection in November 2014. It shut down in December 2015. Shortly thereafter, ValorBridge bought the hospital for $4.2 million in bankruptcy court and renamed it "Cornerstone Medical Center."
CHI Memorial purchased the cancer and surgery centers at the Ringgold medical office building from SunTrust Bank, which had taken over the hospital and its services when they were in bankruptcy.
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