Texas hospital gets new ownership, avoids threat of closure

After much uncertainty over its future, Wadley Regional Medical Center in Texas is getting new ownership and will be keeping its doors open.

CHRISTUS Health, the nonprofit Catholic system, announced Friday that it has agreed to take over operations of Wadley Regional Medical Center in Texarkana. Steward Health Care, which is in bankruptcy, owned the facility.

CHRISTUS Health, the nonprofit Catholic system, announced Friday that it has agreed to take over operations of Wadley Regional in Texarkana. CHRISTUS is based in Irving, Texas. CHRISTUS Health’s subsidiary, CHRISTUS Health Ark-La-Tex, is going to operate the facility.

Earlier this month, CHRISTUS Health said it was looking to acquire Wadley Regional, which had been owned by Steward Health Care. After racking up billions of dollars in debt, Steward filed for bankruptcy this spring. The for-profit health system in Dallas has been selling its 31 hospitals around the country.

CHRISTUS Health said in a news release that it would assume operations of Wadley Regional in the coming weeks. Ernie Sadau, president and CEO of CHRISTUS Health, said in a statement that the system will preserve the medical center’s services.

“We are committed to maintaining access to care in Texarkana,” Sadau said in a statement. “And we are honored to serve with compassion, integrity, dignity and excellence at Wadley Regional Medical Center without interruption.”

Paul Generale, chief strategy officer of CHRISTUS Health, pointed to the system’s long commitment to the Texarkana region as it takes over Wadley Regional.

“Together, we are stronger,” Generale said in a news release. “We look forward to welcoming Wadley into the CHRISTUS family. CHRISTUS is proud of its legacy of investing in the health care needs of the Texarkana region for over a century.”

CHRISTUS Health’s announcement that it is assuming operations of Wadley Regional comes just days after the health system announced plans to build a hospital in Beaumont, Texas.

The new hospital will be built at the former Medical Center of Southeast Texas - Victory Campus in West Beaumont. Steward owned that hospital as well, but shut down the facility in February, citing a lack of use.

CHRISTUS has made a couple of other noteworthy deals over the past year or so.

Last year, CHRISTUS reached an agreement to acquire Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, a 98-bed hospital in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Also in 2023, CHRISTUS Health acquired full ownership of St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the system had partial ownership of the facility. The 167-bed hospital is now known as CHRISTUS Health St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

Fitch Ratings has said CHRISTUS Health has a stable outlook, due to its strong performance, according to a report in April 2024. CHRISTUS operates facilities in areas with “good population growth characteristics and stable payor mixes,” Fitch said.

“CHRISTUS’ Long-Term ratings reflect consistent financial strength during a period when many providers have struggled operationally. CHRISTUS benefits from its multi-state and international presence, and strong balance sheet, even with additional debt from two recent acquisitions,” Fitch said in April.

CHRISTUS operates more than 60 hospitals and 600 other healthcare sites in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. The system has been opening more urgent and emergency care facilities and surgery centers.

Steward recently announced that it reached a deal with Medical Properties Trust, which owns Steward’s real estate, that would keep most of the hospitals open. Steward has reached deals to sell hospitals in Florida, Ohio, and Massachusetts.

Two Steward hospitals in Massachusetts closed their doors last month.