State Rejects Request for Putnam General Sale Info
Posted on: Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 00:00 CDT
By Lawrence Messina
State health-care regulators have denied a bid for more information from HCA Inc. regarding its proposed sale of Putnam General Hospital and three other West Virginia facilities to an HCA spin-off company.
The three-member Health Care Authority unanimously rejected a request from the Charleston law firm of Curry & Tolliver to expand the authority's review of the planned sale to LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
The law firm has sought to link HCA's attempt to shed Putnam General to the avalanche of more than 100 lawsuits alleging medical malpractice by Dr. John A. King.
The firm believes the claims that King killed, maimed and otherwise hurt patients during a six-month stint there, largely through botched surgeries, will result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The firm represents 71 patients of King or their survivors.
Putnam General suspended King's privileges in May 2003 amid mounting complaints, and he has since surrendered his West Virginia medical license and left the state.
The authority must approve the proposed sale. Its order, signed Wednesday, denied the firm's request for more records as well as for a delay of a Nov. 21 hearing to consider the proposal.
"The Health Care Authority is not the appropriate forum for attorneys to engage in discovery for a civil case pending in another venue," the order said.
HCA wants to sell Putnam General as part of a $330 million deal that also involves four other hospitals, including three in West Virginia: St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg, St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, Raleigh General Hospital in Beckley and Clinch Valley Medical Center in Richlands, Va.
With more than 270 hospitals and surgery centers in 23 states, HCA has said it wants to shed all facilities "primarily in rural and nonurban markets." It announced the proposed sale in July.
An HCA spokesman has said the sale has nothing to do with the allegations over King. At least some of the lawsuits fault HCA for the lack of a systemwide policy for granting doctors hospital privileges and credentials.
HCA officials also say the King claims have nothing to do with the massive sell-off of HCA stock by corporate executives and insiders that totaled at least $112 million between January and June.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has since begun investigating the insider sales as well as the sale by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., of all his stock in the company. Frist's father and brother founded HCA.
Frist has said he sold the shares to eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest, using only information that was publicly available.
Source: Charleston Gazette, The
Related Articles
- USC University Hospital and USC/Norris Cancer Hospital Named Blue Distinction Centers for Complex and Rare Cancers(SM)
- MedCath Corporation Announces 120-Bed General Acute Care Expansion of Louisiana Hospital
- LifePoint Hospitals to Sell Two West Virginia Hospitals
- U.S.News & World Report Names The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia the Best Hospital for Children in the U.S. For the Fourth Consecutive Year
- LifePoint Hospitals Completes Acquisition of Four Hospitals From HCA; Company Also Obtains Additional Senior Financing
- Owatonna Hospital, Allina to Build New Hospital
- Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to HCA's Sale of Putnam Hospital
- School Specialty Hopeful of Sale to Private Equity Firm
- Lutheran General May Be State's First 'Green' Hospital
- U.S.News & World Report Names The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia the Best Hospital for Children in the U.S. For the Third Consecutive Year
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds