St. Mary's buys Ty Cobb Medical Center for $12.9 million, rescues it from debt

Image of Ty Cobb Medical Center from Ty Cobb Healthcare.

St. Mary’s Health Care and parent organization Trinity Health have acquired the recently-built Ty Cobb Regional Medical for $12.9 million, according to St. Mary’s, rescuing the facility from its millions in debt.

Ty Cobb Regional Medical has been renamed St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital.

The purchase does not include acquisition of the $62 million in debt incurred during construction of Ty Cobb Regional Medical in 2010, according to St. Mary’s.

“Without the burden of debt and with access to the financial strength of St. Mary’s and Trinity Health, we are confident that all the ingredients are in place for St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital to thrive,” said Jeff English, Sacred Heart’s interim president.

[Also: Tracking 2015 mergers and acquisitions]

Previously, Ty Cobb Healthcare System operated two competing hospitals in the same region, Cobb Memorial Hospital and Hart County Hospital. Both losing money, according to reports.

The systems combined in a partnership model that had physicians as majority owners to help secure the needed financing for a new building. However, two years after its 2012 opening, Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center could not make the bond payment.

To keep the hospital open, the local county accepted responsibility for the bond payments, and Ty Cobb Medical Center went looking for a partner.

On June 1, St. Mary’s Health Care purchased the 56-bed Lavonia, Georgia. facility, medical office building and related services. Sacred Heart Hospital will continue to offer all of the inpatient and outpatient services provided by Ty Cobb Medical, according to St. Mary’s.

The Ty Cobb Healthcare System retains certain facilities that were not included in the sale including The Gables at Cobb Village, Home Base Health Services and the Ty Cobb Museum.

Twitter: @SusanMorseHFN