Late News: District kills deal to buy Memorial Hermann hospital

The Harris County Hospital District in Houston terminated its plans to purchase a 469-bed hospital and much of the surrounding medical campus in southwest Houston from Memorial Hermann Healthcare System just one month after a letter of intent between the two providers was announced. Administrators with the publicly owned district said they terminated the nonbinding agreement to purchase Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, Houston, because Memorial Hermann officials demanded that the due-diligence process be accelerated because of the Nov. 30 anticipated closing date. The termination means that the 851-bed hospital district will continue with its previously announced plans to expand through new construction, including a 122,000-square-foot ambulatory-care tower. Those plans had been put on hold after hospital district officials decided that purchasing existing facilities might be a more efficient use of resources.