St. Mark’s Building and Equipment: What Happens Next?

Emergency Medical Options

After the doors are locked and the lights turned off upon the official closure of St. Mark’s hospital Thursday, what happens next?

A complicated default process would then occur for the physical building and equipment of the hospital, which is closing after 18 years because of steep financial losses.

With information provided by St. Mark’s board Chairman Dudley Piland, here’s the road ahead: The hospital would fail to make the mortgage payment to Lument (its lender) on Oct. 15.

Lument would then file a mortgage insurance claim with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the loan guarantor, after a roughly 75-day monetary default period.

HUD would then approve the mortgage insurance claim and pay Lument and HUD becomes the lender.

HUD would then complete a public note sale process where bids would be received for the hospital property.

While all this is taking place, St. Mark’s is still in the Owner position and has responsibility to oversee the facility (along with collecting the accounts receivable and paying expenses) until the note sale is complete.

There is a “protections checklist” where St. Mark’s would have to take reasonable steps to protect the collateral monitor equipment, utilities, security, etc. The goal is for the structure to not fall into a state of disrepair.

There is a small group of employees St. Mark’s is retaining for a short period of time post-closure to look after the building/equipment.

Once the note sale is complete and title passes to the new owner the new owner will likely foreclose immediately at which point St. Mark’s would no longer be the Owner.

The entire process can take anywhere from three to five months. It can take longer if there is an issue with title.

Long story short, nothing can (or will) happen with everything at the hospital for a while.

The St. Mark’s ER will stop admissions at 7 a.m. Oct. 12. Upon the closure of the ER Thursday here are some options for medical emergencies: Fast Aid Urgent Care (next to Walmart) in La Grange is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the week and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Additionally, 24-hour hospital emergency rooms remain open in Columbus, Smithville, Hallettsville, Bastrop and Brenham.