Ardent selling damaged Florida hospital to Ascension

Ardent Health Services and Ascension Health have signed a letter of intent for Ardent to sell its majority interest in a 323-bed Florida Panhandle hospital to Ascension, including physician clinic operations in Panama City and Bay County, Florida.

Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart is a joint venture of Ardent and Ascension's Sacred Heart Health System; Ardent owns 80 percent of that partnership courtesy of its 2017 acquisition of LHP Hospital Group. In Florida, Ascension — which also owns the Saint Thomas system in Middle Tennessee — runs three Sacred Heart Health System hospitals as well as St. Vincent’s HealthCare in Jacksonville. The parties' deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter.