Hardin County selling Elizabethtown hospital to Baptist Health, which has managed 300-bed facility for 20 years

Reinforcing its status as Kentucky's largest hospital chain, Baptist Health will buy Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown for a price that will be disclosed when the sale closes.

Baptist announced Monday, Nov. 6, that it had signed a letter of intent to buy the hospital and its outpatient facilities. The letter is non-binding agreement, but "follows a two-year long HMH process of exploring potential affiliations and authorizes both parties to move forward with necessary steps to pursue a proposed acquisition," Mary Alford reports for The News-Enterprise. "Following due diligence and the negotiation process, projected to take several months, the terms of the final agreement will be made public," according to a news release.

"The parties are familiar with each other," Alford notes. "For the past 20 years through a series of agreements, Baptist Health has provided management services for the county-owned hospital and its health system."

Hardin County Judge-Executive Harry Berry, chair of the hospital's board, "said the challenge for independent, county-owned hospitals such as HMH, faced with a demanding and uncertain environment of increased costs and declining reimbursements, is to continue to ensure that clinical expertise and capital investment keep pace with local demands for the highest level of health care," Alford reports.

“This transaction will assure HMH will emerge stronger operationally and financially as a regional health care leader,” Berry said in the news release. “This will clearly benefit the 400,000 individuals in 10 counties which our health system has served with quality health care for more than 60 years.”

Alford notes that HMH has 300 beds and "operates more than 45 outpatient facilities, including a cancer center and surgical cen­ter, and "is the third largest employer in Hardin County with 2,389 employees and a volunteer corps of 119."