City Of Franklin Tennessee

Catholic Health Partners to sell Tenn. hospitals for $525M

Cincinnati-based Catholic Health Partners, which also operates Mercy Health Partners in Cincinnati, and Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates plan to close the deal by Oct. 1.

The seven-hospital, Knoxville-based network, also known as Mercy Health Partners, generates net revenue of $600 million per year.

“Through Health Management, our hospitals will be able to invest in their facilities and new technologies, and provide the training needed to ensure Mercy continues to provide the best, most current care available in our communities,” Jeffrey Ashin , CEO of Mercy Health Partners in East Tennessee, said in a news release.

The hospitals included in the transaction are:

• Mercy Medical Center St. Mary’s in Knoxville;

• Mercy Medical Center West in Knoxville;

• Mercy Medical Center North in Powell;

• St. Mary’s Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Jefferson City;

• Baptist Hospital of Cocke County in Newport;

• St. Mary’s Medical Center of Campbell County in LaFollette; and

• St. Mary’s Medical Center of Scott County in Oneida.

Catholic Health Partners, which had $4.4 billion in revenue last year, announced in May that it was in exclusive negotiations with Health Management Associates.

The acquisition is subject to “review and approval by appropriate authorities, including the Vatican,” Health Management Associates noted in a news release.

Catholic Health Partners in May sold Mercy Health Partners – Northeast Region in Scranton, Pa., to Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. Including the East Tennessee hospitals, the organization operates eight hospital networks, including hospitals in Ohio and Kentucky.

Teams Drive Saabs in “Best of the Road” 10 City Rally | My Blog

Five two-person teams will be spending the next three weeks participating as they drive Saab autos in the Rand McNally/USA Today “Best of the Road” rally across the U.S. The teams will be visiting the best small towns in the United States in the final phase of Rand McNally/USA Today’s effort to find “Best of the Road.” The teams will be driving a variety of Saabs including the 9-3, 9-5 and new 9+4X crossover as they traverse a unique route from New York City to Los Angeles.

Along the way they will visit some of the towns selected online in one of the five “best” categories: most beautiful, most fun, most patriotic, best for food and friendliest. Towns were nominated at the Best of the Road Web site and the selections were cut down to six in each category by a panel of travel experts along with public reviews and comments. Selected cities include: Baker City, OR; Franklin, TN; Walla Walla, WA; Rapid City, SD; Park City, UT, and Lafayette, LA.

As they travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the teams will post an online travel journal that combines Facebook posts, blogs, texts, videos and Twitter feeds. Judging will be on the number of towns visited, quality and originality of the journal as well as the quality of the category descriptions, and must be completed by July 15, the deadline for arrival in Los Angeles. Time and distance are not a factor for judging in the rally. The best journal will earn the grand prize of a Saab 9-4X crossover and $10,000.

“What a natural fit – taking the ‘best on the road’ – a new Saab – to find the ‘best of the road,’” said Timothy Colbeck, Saab Cars North America President and Chief Operating Officer, “The contestants are going to be pleasantly surprised by both the cars and the great towns they will see as they make their way across the country. They may have heard of the Saab 9-5 or Emporia, Kansas, for example, but once they experience them, they will be amazed.” For more information visit www.bestoftheroad.com .

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