Committee chooses buyer

Pardee Hospital's executive committee selected Georgia-based UHS Pruitt Corp. to buy the Pardee Care Center on Tuesday.

The committee's recommendation goes to the full Pardee board of directors for approval Monday. If the board OKs the buyer, its finance committee will oversee negotiations with the health care corporation, which runs 66 health care centers in the South including Ivy Hill Health and Retirement Center in Brevard.

Pardee President and CEO Kris Hoce said the decision came down to economics. UHS Pruitt Corp. bumped up its monetary offer to $8 million from $5.85 million. It also committed to $750,000 in renovations to the 130-bed nursing and rehabilitative care facility on the campus of Blue Ridge Community College.

UHS Pruitt was among four potential buyers considered by Pardee's executive committee after presentations Monday and Tuesday.

"All the presentations were very well done, and really every one of the proposals addressed the issues of quality patient care, protecting the associates and maintaining relationships with other community organizations like Hospice and Pavilion," Hoce said.

"Then you look at how UHS Pruitt came in with those increases in their economic piece, and that got to be the differentiating aspect," Hoce said.

The figure topped the previous high offer of $8.4 million from a group of local physicians called Hendersonville Physicians and Associates.

The sale of the financially struggling Care Center was part of a string of cost-cutting measures Pardee's board approved in October.

A UHS Pruitt official told the Pardee committee that Care Center associates would be offered employment and tenure would be honored. Hoce said Hospice officials who sat in on the presentations indicated they "were very comfortable" with UHS Pruitt.

"Their input obviously weighed into this also," Hoce said.

UHS Pruitt Corp., based in Norcross, Ga., started with one facility in Toccoa, Ga., in 1969. It has since grown to 66 health care centers and five hospice centers concentrated in the Southeast, said Chris R. Bryson, chief operating officer with UHS Pruitt Corp.

A family-owned company since its inception, the privately held business is a long-term, experienced and financially stable business partner with a model of care that supports the hospital and community, he said.

The company has opened 22 centers in the last five years and operates North Carolina war veterans facilities in Salisbury and Fayetteville.

Fourteen health care companies made bids to buy the Care Center. The other finalists included Hendersonville Physicians and Associates, Laurel Healthcare Co. and Lutheran Services for the Aging.