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Dr. Tariq Mahmood again is trying to buy the Terrell hospital. Dr. Mahmood negotiated with the city a year ago when Renaissance took over and was turned down.
Renaissance bankruptcy filings say that Dr. Mahmood is prepared to buy the hospital’s management contract for $1.2 million and loan Renaissance $150,000 in the meantime to keep the hospital open while the sale is completed.
Dr. Mahmood could not be reached for comment. Renaissance officials did not respond to repeated phone calls.
Renaissance filed papers electronically on Sunday asking the court to allow the loan and to set Sept. 10 as the date to auction the hospital.
While the papers say that Dr. Mahmood is the proposed buyer, others could bid.
City officials have said a group of local doctors is working to find funding to take over the hospital, but no plan has been presented.
It is crucial the hospital remain open. If it closes, even for a couple of days, it would be subject to a new set of health and building regulations. Court filings and city officials say that it would be financially impossible to meet those requirments.
Dr. Mahmood’s other try
Hospital employees have joked that Dr. Mahmood owned the hospital for a day. While the city was negotiating with Renaissance to take over, Dr. Mahmood bought the contract from Resurgence, the hospital’s management firm that previously ran the hospital. But that deal ended quickly after the city signed with Renaissance.
Those close to the negotiations said Dr. Mahmood did not seem to have good financing. Also, city officials who visited a hospital owned by Dr. Mahmood said it was not in good shape and needed cleaning.
Terrell City Manager Torry Edwards said it’s not clear what role the city will play in the bankruptcy proceedings.
“We hope to maintain some local control,” he said in an interview Monday. “We want the council to decide who runs the hospital.”
Mayor Hal Richards said they while the bankruptcy court may have jurisdiction, the city is responsible for “the health and safety of its citizens.”
Financial condition
The hospital building is owned by the city, which leases it to a hospital management firm. The hospital has had five managers in five years.
Renaissance Healthcare took over in March 2007 but quickly ran into financial problems. Atlantic Healthcare bought the company’s interest earlier this year, but did not change the facility’s name.
That company almost immediately began having financial problems. A list of the 20 largest creditors filed with the court indicates the electricity bill and phone bill have not been paid. At one point, the hospital owed the city about $11,000 for water.
Terrell is owed more than $47,000 in taxes. There is a tax lien against the property because of more than $300,000 in taxes to other county entities.
Things got worse at the end August when a government computer service failed and was not able to make Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals for several days. Those payments are the Terrell hospital’s main cash flow, the filings say.
Only the hospital’s emergency room is open and much of the staff has been laid off.
Financial projections filed with the court show payroll expenses dropping from almost $200,000 a week to $20,000 a week by October.
The projections show that the hospital is depending on Dr. Mahmood’s $150,000 loan.
The future
Mr. Richards and Mr. Edwards remain hopeful that the hospital can be saved. But neither know how.
Mr. Edwards pointed out that the bankruptcy doesn’t close the hospital, that the purpose is a reorganization, to find a way to keep the hospital viable.
“To some extent,” Mr. Edwards said, “at the end of the day this could be a good thing.”
© Copyright 2005-2008 by Kaufman County Online
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| Last Updated: Aug 26th, 2008 - 16:36:18 |
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