Company Successfully Bids For Five OK Hospitals

SHAWNEE, Okla. (AP) _ Five hospitals previously owned by an Oklahoma City company that is in bankruptcy have been sold to a Louisiana-based company, officials said. <br/><br/>Acadian successfully bid $6.8

Saturday, May 5th 2007, 7:54 pm

By: News On 6

SHAWNEE, Okla. (AP) _ Five hospitals previously owned by an Oklahoma City company that is in bankruptcy have been sold to a Louisiana-based company, officials said.

Acadian successfully bid $6.8 million for hospitals in Anadarko, Prague, Seminole, Stroud and Tishomingo, beating out Rural Healthcare of Oklahoma's $6.2 million offer, said Steve Saxon, city manager of Seminole.

The hospitals were once owned by The Schuster Group, which filed voluntary bankruptcy in late 2006 for the ``development of a plan to reorganize.''

Bruce Carlton, a physician assistant at Prague Municipal Hospital, and five hospital officials proposed a bid to gain control of the Prague facility, but the courts decided to not separate the hospitals in the bidding process.

``There were weeks of interaction,'' Saxon said in a story in the Shawnee News-Star.

The courts have required 10% of the bid, or $680,000, to be wired to a trust fund while proceedings continue. Operations at each hospital will fall under the control of Acadian following a confirmation hearing set for Wednesday.

``We're all excited about this change and think it will be beneficial to the hospital, the employees and the citizens of Prague,'' Carlton said, speaking on behalf of the Prague Municipal Hospital.

The Schuster Group began having financial problems in September and delayed the distribution of its hospital payrolls by one week. Officials sent a letter to employees indicating that delays in Medicare payments nationally caused a shortage of funds for meeting payroll needs.

A few weeks later, the company filed bankruptcy and ambulance services in Prague and Stroud also under its control were stopped.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tom Cornish later gave an order allowing the five hospitals affected by the bankruptcy to continue paying employees while The Schuster Group underwent reorganization.