Community Health Buys Town Hospital for $9M

OAK HILL, WV-Brentwood, TN-based Community Health Systems, Inc. has expanded its business to cover 21 states with the recent $9.3 million acquisition of Plateau Medical Center from Charleston Area Medical Center Health System. The 90-bed hospital is the only acute care facility in the city. The move takes the hospital–which is among Fayette County’s largest employers–out of the hands of a non-profit organization and puts it in the possession of a for-profit operation.

CAMC acquired Plateau for $20 million in 1997. Over the past few years the hospital had been suffering financially, accruing a $24 million debt, but CHS has plans turn around the situation. “We will be implementing our other key strategies to grow revenues, recruit additional physicians, provide capital resources, and improve the efficiency of the operations at this facility,” says CHS president and CEO Wayne T. Smith.