The Tennessee Attorney General has signed off on the sale of Houston County’s hospital to private investors in a letter dated July 19. The buyer, Florida-based Braden Health, has been snapping up several distressed or closed hospitals in the state.
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This hospital is in Erin, about 30 minutes west of Clarksville. The takeover was approved by the Houston County Commission more than a year ago. But anytime a nonprofit or government-owned hospital is moving into private hands, the attorney general has to weigh in, and the proceeds have to be used to benefit public health.
Houston County Mayor James Bridges says the wait delayed investments by the new owners who’ve committed to spend millions.
“We kind of have been operating on a shoestring budget for so long. We really need to try to get this deal wrapped up and done as soon as possible,” he says.
The county purchased the hospital in 2013 for $2.3 million, and the property assessment is somewhere around $3 million, according to the county assessor. But the purchase price was just $20,000. And the money isn’t for the building or the land, says Braden Health chief compliance officer Kyle Kopec. Rather, it’s the estimate for the only piece of medical equipment that had not yet fully depreciated: a 2016 ambulance with 180,000 miles on it.
Braden Health is also buying the county-owned hospital an hour south in Decatur County for a similarly symbolic price. That deal should not require the attorney general’s approval since the hospital surrendered its license when it closed in 2020. Kopec says that hospital is also going to be licensed as a satellite campus for the Lexington hospital, in neighboring Henderson County, which Braden bought in 2020.
Haywood Community Hospital, which has been closed since 2014, has been undergoing a renovation since Braden’s purchase and, after several delays, is scheduled to reopen in August.
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