Norton Healthcare sheds another rural hospital

Associated Healthcare Systems, Brentwood, Tenn., has agreed to purchase the lease that Norton Healthcare, Louisville, Ky., holds to operate 25-bed Carroll County (Ky.) Hospital, Carrollton. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the parties hope to close the deal on June 30. Norton Healthcare is focusing its resources on its four Louisville hospitals; last year, the not-for-profit system sold 64-bed Spring View Hospital, Lebanon, Ky., to another investor-owned company from Brentwood, LifePoint Hospitals, for $15.5 million. For Associated, the deal would add the first leased hospital to the four hospitals the company owns and operates, said A. Ronald Turner, president and chief executive officer of Associated. The deal is subject to approvals by the boards of Associated, Norton, the Carroll County Fiscal Court and CCMH Corp., the public hospital authority that owns the hospital. Associated also is negotiating with CCMH for a new lease that should be similar to the agreement that Norton had, Turner said. -- by Vince Galloro