Guthrie Clinic to Borrow $140 Million to Buy Lourdes Hospital

The planned sale of Binghamton-based Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital to Guthrie Clinic of Sayre, Pennsylvania is moving forward.

Guthrie Clinic plans to borrow $140 million to acquire Lourdes and its affiliated facilities in Broome, Tioga and Delaware counties.

The proposed sale of Lourdes from St. Louis-based Ascension was announced last June. Lourdes employees have been told the deal is expected to be finalized around February 1.

A public hearing on the issuance of tax-exempt revenue bonds to help finance the acquisition is scheduled for Friday. The hearing is to be held at 3 p.m. by the Central Bradford Progress Authority in Towanda.

As it prepares to buy Lourdes Hospital, Guthrie Clinic is facing financial challenges. Its bond rating was downgraded in September by a major credit rating agency.

According to Fitch Ratings, Guthrie's downgrade was due to higher operating losses than expected.

Fitch said Guthrie Clinic was facing operational challenges that had been exacerbated by staffing shortages that limited its "efforts towards an operational turnaround."

In the rating agency's opinion, the Lourdes acquisition could result in increased revenue through the "eventual integration of clinical services."

Lourdes Hospital was founded in October 1925 in the former Riverside Drive home of Merritt Corbett. The former Corbett Mansion was demolished in May 1954 to clear the site for an expansion project.

Lourdes was started by the Daughters of Charity. The hospital was acquired by Ascension Health more than two decades ago. The sisters with the Daughters of Charity left the hospital in May 2017.

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Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.