Triad Hospitals, Inc. Remains on Rating Watch Negative

Business Wire, March 19, 2007

CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings announced that Triad Hospitals, Inc.'s (Triad) ratings remain on Rating Watch Negative. The watch applies to the following ratings:

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BB- ';

--Secured Bank Credit Facility 'BB ';

--Senior Unsecured Notes 'BB-';

--Senior Subordinated Notes 'B '.

The action follows Community Health Systems Inc.'s (Community) announcement that it intends to acquire Triad for approximately $5.1 billion. Community will also assume approximately $1.7 billion in existing debt, for a total deal valued at $6.8 billion. This is a competing offer for Community's previously announced leveraged buy-out offer of $6.4 billion, including debt.

As noted in the press release dated February 5, 2007, Fitch notes that Triad's existing bank debt and subordinated notes have financial covenants that would be breached by the transaction, thus, the transaction would likely require refinancing of the current capital structure. The resulting post-acquisition structure could result in a multiple notch downgrade. The ultimate rating category will be determined as more information becomes available.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.