Hutcheson Medical Center announces an agreement with Community Hospital Consulting (CH Consulting) of Plano, Texas. CH Consulting is the consulting and hospital management division of Community Hospital Corporation (CHC), a Texas hospital support organization.

CH Consulting will provide both financial and strategic advisory services to the hospital. Through this agreement CH Consulting will work with hospital management and the board to assess the current market and financial position of the hospital and evaluate opportunities to position the organization for continued success.

“Community hospitals such as Hutcheson are facing significant challenges today due to market forces and the economy,” said Charles Stewart, president and CEO of Hutcheson Medical Center. “As health care reform advances, Hutcheson wants to continue its legacy of providing quality health services in north Georgia. This announcement marks the first step in a process to gather information that will enable our board and management to analyze relationship opportunities with other not-for-profit health care systems. We look forward to exploring organizational options that will benefit Hutcheson Medical Center and the communities we serve.”

CH Consulting and CHC strive to help community-based health care organizations, like Hutcheson Medical Center, deliver on their mission, remain community-owned, and improve operations and care through partnership and shared vision.

“We are honored to work with Hutcheson Medical Center,” said Mike Williams, president and CEO of CHC. “We feel that the collaboration of experienced staff and CH Consulting resources will help us identify an organizational structure to benefit Hutcheson Medical Center and the communities it serves.”

About Hutcheson Medical Center

As one of the largest community hospitals in Georgia, Hutcheson Medical Center is a 300-bed comprehensive health care system located in Fort Oglethorpe. Accredited by the Joint Commission, Hutcheson has provided quality health care to the citizens of Dade, Catoosa, and Walker counties in northwest Georgia as well as the Chattanooga area, for more than 50 years. With over 1,000 staff members and more than 200 of the area’s finest physicians, Hutcheson continues to provide quality health care and economic advances to the communities it serves.

About CH Consulting

CH Consulting is owned by Community Hospital Corporation (CHC), a not-for-profit corporation, created in 1996 to preserve the not-for-profit status of community-based health care organizations. Its vision is to be the nation’s leader in advancing community-owned hospitals. For more information about CHC, visit www.communityhospitalcorp.com.