LIBERTY, October 15, 2009 - Through a complex series of legal and financial negotiations and moves the Hospital in Liberty reopened on Monday night at 9:30 PM according to Liberty County Hospital District No. 1, board member Paul Henry.

Unlike last time, it reopened without fanfare from Hospital District Board member Bruce Stratton in a press release received a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday making a public announcement.

Henry told i-dineout.com on Wednesday that the Liberty County Hospital District No. 1 has created two corporations. One is a non-profit corporation called LCHD No. 1 and it was funded with $1,001,000 dollars in taxpayer funds from the hospital district. This corporation in turned funded a second corporation, Liberty Dayton Regional Medical Center with a $1,000,000 from the non-profit corporation. Liberty Dayton Regional Medical Center will run the operations of the hospital.

The Hospital District is running the hospital with the assistance of Southern Plains Medical Group out of Oklahoma, a subsidiary of TI Group that will handle day-to-day operations headed by Mr. Yancey, who has worked at the hospital for some time.

The Hospital District has signed a short-term lease with Frontier Healthcare to lease the hospital until a permanent arrangement is fully negotiated and finalized.

The Hospital District has issued a letter of intent to purchase the equipment in the hospital, assume the accounts receivable and accounts payable of the hospital and intends to lease the hospital from a third party for a period of ten years. Additionally they must obtain the hospital license and critical access designation from Frontier Healthcare the former operators of the hospital. The cost of acquiring these assets from Frontier was not stated. The third party will secure ownership of the hospital from the lien holder on the property, pay off the IRS lien, delinquent property taxes and money owed the City of Liberty for delinquent utility bills.

Although not completely known at the present time, the accounts receivable of the hospital is thought to be around $500,000 and the accounts payable are thought to be around $700,000 dollars, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the difference. The accounts payable of the hospital consists basically of money owed to a host of vendors and suppliers of goods and services to the hospital.

The Hospital will operate under this temporary arrangement for a period of 30 to 45 days until all the final negotiations and final documents are signed placing the Liberty County Hospital District No.1 firmly in the hospital business for the first time.