Transactions & Valuation Issues

Audrain Medical Center in Mexico, Mo., entered into exclusive talks with St. Louis-based SSM Health Care for an alignment, which would include SSM Health Care operating and managing Audrain Medical Center.

South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta has sold its 50-bed inpatient psychiatric facility, Greenleaf Center, to for-profit Acadia Healthcare, according to an Acadia news release.

Phoenix-based Banner Health has terminated Phoenix Children's Hospital's lease for a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit within Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, according to a Phoenix Children's announcement.

The following hospital mergers and acquisitions took place within the past three weeks, beginning with the most recent.

City officials in Weymouth, Mass., plan to request a public hearing for the proposed merger between Boston-based Partners HealthCare and South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, according to a Patriot Ledger report.

The current healthcare environment is creating one of the most active hospital and health system consolidation markets in decades. This is partially driven by provider responses to the challenges and opportunities created by national and state healthcare reform. In addition…

E.J. Noble Hospital in Gouverneur, N.Y., has entered into a management contract with Canton-Potsdam (N.Y.) Hospital, according to a Watertown Daily Times report.

The New York State Department of Health has approved the affiliation between Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital Medical Center in Plattsburgh, N.Y., Elizabethtown (N.Y.) Community Hospital and Fletcher Allen Partners in Burlington, Vt., according to a Press Republican report.

Ardent Health Services, a for-profit health system based in Nashville, Tenn., and Amarillo, Texas-based Baptist Community Services have finalized their purchase of Baptist St. Anthony's Health System, also in Amarillo.

Although officials at Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, Calif., hoped to complete its merger discussions with University of Southern California's Keck Medical Center in Los Angeles by the end of 2012, the talks are behind schedule, according to a Cañada…