SAN CLEMENTE: Former Columbia Hospital Sold To Tennessee Firm
Tennessee-based NetCare Inc. has acquired "the money-losing, 81-bed San Clemente Hospital and Medical Center," which Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. shed after a three-year joint ownership last month. The Los Angeles Times reports that NetCare purchased San Clemente's "only hospital ... in hopes of doubling the institution's business and making it profitable." NetCare President and CEO Michael Koban Jr. "said the San Clemente facility is just the sort of business his company specializes in: hospitals that are the only providers in a growing community." The acute-care facility "serves only about 25% to 30% of the area's roughly 50,000 residents." However, Koban believes San Clemente's "market share can be doubled," noting that many patients "are turning to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, as well as other nearby institutions." NetCare appointed "veteran hospital executive" Karen Poole as the hospital's interim CEO; she is charged with finding a permanent replacement "within three months." Meanwhile, the Times notes that Columbia, "the hospital industry's troubled giant," still operates hospitals in Huntington Beach and West Anaheim, although it sold off a Sonoma County facility in mid-May (Marsh, 6/2).
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