New owners expect February closing

By Jeremy Weldon

Local leaders learned more in a Friday meeting about the deal approved by a bankruptcy court judge in Nashville that will allow the new owners of Panola Medical Center to officially begin operations in Batesville sometime in February.

Oxford attorney Quentin Whitwell, Jr., led the effort by the new owners to buy the beleaguered hospital, and he used Friday’s meeting with Mayor Jerry Autrey, Board of Supervisors president Cole Flint, Panola Partnership CEO Joe Azar and others to assure officials that he intends to be a partner with the city, and not an absentee investor.

“I’m an eighth generation North Mississippian so I want to make sure that everything we do here is in line with what the community desires and needs,” he said.

A Jan. 11, 2019, meeting with all parties involved, including Curae Healthcare who bought the facility last year along with hospitals in Amory and Clarksdale, will provide the final arrangements for a closing and transfer of assets, probably in February.

Besides Whitwell, the other local investor in the new ownership group will be Dr. Kenneth Williams of Holly Springs who owns Williams Medical Clinic with two locations and is an owner of Alliance Hospital, a 24-bed level four trauma center in Marshall County.

Joining Whitwell and Dr. Williams in the venture is Vizion Health based in Charlotte, N.C., and Java Medical Group headquartered in Nashville. Java this year purchased a failed hospital in Haleyville, Ala., from Curae Healthcare and brings valuable experience to the table in these types of purchases and transitions, Whitwell said.

“We have assembled an incredible team. Panola Medical Center has served this community both on the acute and psychiatric side for many years,” he said. “We are bringing resources to continue those services and to improve the hospital’s service along those lines.”

Whitwell said he will serve as the managing partner of the hospital and will be accessible on a day-to-day basis. “I will always wear my legal hat, but for now this hospital is priority number one.”

Whitwell has extensive experience in health care investments operations and serves as chief of legal operations for Progressive Medical Inc, a company that sells and distributes disposable medical devices and equipment.

Whitwell said the new owners will keep the Panola Medical Center name for now, and will be seeking community input before any changes are made. He said the partners will have public forums to meet residents of Batesville and Panola County and hear feedback about the hospital and what residents here want from the local health care provider.