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As Winona Memorial Hospital explored an offer to sell late last week, a former executive and a growing pile of lawsuits depicted a ledger sliding deeper and deeper into the red
The hospital has depended on weekly loans from a New Jersey company for operating cash since Leland Medical Centers Inc. bought Winona in 2002, according to former Chief Financial Officer Wayne Knight.
Knight also told Indianapolis Business Journal that Winona gave more than $1 million to support a Texas hospital owned by Leland, which is based in Plano, Texas. He declined to give a specific figure, saying only that it was a "substantial amount."
Meanwhile, several vendors have gone to Marion County court to get paid for services they gave the troubled Indianapolis hospital.
Hospital CEO Patrick Feyen declined to comment on the offers to sell, the weekly loans or the litigation. But he did say Knight's estimate of the amount sent to Texas "is absolutely inaccurate and overstated." He declined to give an estimate of his own.
"I won't disclose any other confidential financial information regarding the hospital," he said.
A steady diet of loans
Each week, Winona leaders must wait until Wednesday to find out how much working capital they have, said Knight, who left the hospital earlier this month. That's because every week the hospital turns to Healthcare Business Credit Corp. for a loan.
The corporation bills itself as "one of the nation's leading suppliers of debt financing for the health care services industry," according to its Web site. It states it has 80 clients in 30 states. Officials there could not be reached for comment.
Healthcare Business Credit Corp. provides loans based on the hospital's patient charges and payments made from the previous week, Knight said. The money goes toward bills and employee paychecks. He declined to say how much Winona receives each week, other than to note the amount varied.
"The key is the amount wasn't enough to maintain...