Republic Health Agrees to Sell 9 of Its Hospitals : $64-Million Deal Includes 4 Raleigh Hills Centers

Republic Health, a nationwide organization of acute-care and mental health hospitals, signed letters of intent Thursday to sell nine of its hospitals for $64 million, officials said.

Republic is selling the facilities--five of them acute-care and the other four Raleigh Hills alcohol treatment centers--to concentrate on its more urban markets, said Sharon Smith, Republic investor relations manager.

Republic’s $57-million letter of intent with National Health Care, based in Dothan, Ala., would transfer Berrien County Hospital in Nashville, Ga.; Woodview Regional Hospital in Pineville, La.; Doctors’ Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, Mo.; West Seattle Community Hospital in Seattle, and Randolph County Medical Center in Pocohontas, Ark.

Retains 81 Facilities

A second letter of intent for $7 million would divest Republic of Raleigh Hills hospitals in Bellflower and Redwood City, Calif.; Boise, Idaho, and Jefferson City, Mo.

Those centers are being sold to a group of West Coast partnerships, Smith said.

The sale leaves Dallas-based Republic with 81 facilities throughout the country, 46 of them wholly owned and the remaining 35 managed by Republic.

“One of our goals this year has been to divest facilities not in our target market and that are less profitable,” Smith said. “We now have a concentration of facilities in Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco and plan to develop further in Miami and Atlanta.”

Republic, a 4-year-old firm that specializes in acute-care hospitals, still has about three acute-care hospitals and three to four Raleigh Hills facilities that it wants to sell, she said.