At 26 years old, Kyle Kopec is helping reopen previously shuttered hospitals as co-founder and chief compliance officer of BradenHealth.
The company has assumed operations of dozens of hospitals since 2020, acquiring the buildings of closed hospitals or facilities nearing closure. BradenHealth analyzes rural hospitals across the U.S. to identify those that are financially unstable, losing inpatient admissions or facing severe staffing shortages. Once a hospital is flagged, Mr. Kopec typically visits the site with founder and CEO Beau Braden, DO, or another team member.
“We’ll take the temperature and see, is there community support?” Mr. Kopec told Becker’s. “That’s the most important thing: Is the community in a position where they’ve been burned by the folks before?”
BradenHealth began in Ave Maria, Fla., where Dr. Braden ran a clinic — 49 miles away from the nearest hospital. Mr. Kopec and co-founder Joseph Rivera also lived in the community and saw firsthand the limitations of rural healthcare access.
“You have people showing up at your door with severe medical conditions, and there’s only so much you can do,” Mr. Kopec said. “We went around to the nearest hospitals to see if they would put a facility in Ave Maria and instead discovered the rural hospital crisis. We thought, if no one’s going to build a hospital, we’ll do it ourselves.”
Dr. Braden consulted at nearly 180 rural hospitals while brainstorming solutions with Mr. Kopec and Mr. Rivera. They discovered administrative breakdowns and deteriorated staff relationships were recurring issues.
They faced regulatory roadblocks in opening a hospital in Ave Maria but found a new opportunity surfaced at Henderson County Community Hospital in Lexington, Tenn.: BradenHealth could take over in 60 days, or it would close.
“We thought, let’s put our money where our mouth is,” Mr. Kopec said. “We started fixing the broken business processes and medical staff engagement, then focused on rebuilding community support. We saw results right away. As we brought processes back in house and trained local staff, the model became really successful.”
The company now owns and operates hospitals throughout Tennessee and recently expanded into Virginia, purchasing the former Pioneer Community Hospital in Stuart for about $599,000. The building’s license as a critical-access hospital remains active, allowing for up to 25 beds, emergency services and a surgery center. BradenHealth is also eyeing expansions in North Carolina and Florida.
BradenHealth manages all operations internally — from clinical to administrative — and remains on site until systems are fully functional. The company addresses physical issues such as mold and asbestos removal and collaborates with CMS and fire inspectors to meet compliance standards.
BradenHealth is both for-profit and mission-driven, Mr. Kopec said.
“We’re not really interested in putting money in our own pockets,” he said. “Success is when the hospital reaches profitability and we can reinvest in new equipment. All of our open hospitals have met that metric.”
A core measure of success is community trust, which Mr. Kopec said had often been lost at these facilities. BradenHealth welcomes skepticism and encourages people — including Tennessee lawmakers — to visit its hospitals and speak with staff.
“Anyone can say, ‘I’m gonna go save your hospital.’ But actions speak louder than words,” he said. “That’s why it was important for us to purchase one and perfect it before going out to the others.”
Legislative changes have aided BradenHealth’s mission. For example, Tennessee no longer requires a certificate of need for reopening hospitals in rural counties without one. Still, resistance from local governments unwilling to sell defunct hospital properties remains a hurdle.
“Our goal is to stop the high rate of deaths in rural communities,” Mr. Kopec said. “Everyone’s aligned on the mission, and we’re able to execute it better each time.”
