Meeting a federal judge’s deadline, the would-be buyers of Grant Hospital said Friday that they have secured financing for their $24 million purchase of the troubled North Side health-care facility.
The financing plan, which still has to be OKd at a hearing in Chicago next week, is the only hope for keeping Grant open, the hospital’s managers say.
Grant lately has been trying to fend off creditors and finalize a sale to a group of investors led by a New Jersey health-care financier and a south suburban cardiovascular surgeon.
Healthcare Transactions Inc., the would-be buyer, also said it is providing a “seven-figure” escrow fund requested by U.S. District Court Judge Wayne Andersen. If the deal fails to close, the hospital stands to get the money, likely to defray the cost of shutting it down, its attorneys said.
Grant is trying to avoid succumbing to a similar fate of its sister facility, Edgewater Medical Center, which closed in December amid millions of dollars in losses and debts owed to government insurers as a result of an alleged health-care fraud ring. There are no allegations of fraud at Grant.