Hospital in custody fight; Florida officials may take facility away from parent company to keep it open.(St. Mary's Hospital)(Brief Article)

Modern Healthcare, January, 2001 by Bellandi, Deanna

The Florida attorney general is threatening to take away custody of St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach from its parent company, Intracoastal Health Systems, to save the hospital from closing.

"The best use of the (St. Mary's) charitable assets are to remain as they are -- as an acute-care facility," said Cece Dykas, an assistant deputy attorney general in Fort Lauderdale.

But Intracoastal disagrees. So much so, in fact, that the system said it is putting both of its hospitals up for sale for 60 days to see if someone else wants to take a crack at running them.

The move to sell the hospitals is an attempt to "definitely answer that question," said Robert Stanek, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Catholic Health East....