According to paperwork filed with the court today, the hearing has been rescheduled for 10:00 a.m. Central Time, Friday August 16th. 

Hope’s hospital purchase hearing was not the only one the delay applies to.  Hospital purchase hearings for facilities in Louisiana, Massachusetts, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas were also delayed in the same announcement. 

The parent company of Hope’s only hospital voluntarily went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in May. Since then, Hope and Hempstead County each agreed to put up as much as $1 million toward keeping the hospital open. An agreement has been reached between these two government entities and MPT of Hope, the owner of the hospital’s real estate for the county and the city to purchase that real estate for $500,000.  The county and the city will split that cost down the middle. 

At the same time, Pafford Health Systems has reached an agreement with Steward to purchase the operating license to the hospital. Pafford had already been operating Wadley’s emergency department. It is now up to Judge Christopher Lopez of the bankruptcy court to approve these arrangements in the hearing that was to have occurred Tuesday afternoon