50-305. HOSPITALS — MAINTENANCE. (1) Any city may acquire, in the manner provided for acquiring other property, by purchase or otherwise, hospital grounds, buildings and equipment, and clinics or other health care facilities, and maintain and operate the same and to provide by general ordinance, rules and regulations for governing the same. Cities acting through their respective city councils may convey or lease city hospitals, and the equipment therein, subject to the following conditions:

(a) The entity to which the hospital is to be transferred shall be a nonprofit corporation;

(b) No lease term shall exceed ninety-nine (99) years;

(c) The governing body of the nonprofit corporation must be composed initially of the incumbent members of the board of hospital trustees, as individuals. The articles of incorporation must provide for a membership of the corporation which is:

(i) Broadly representative of the public and includes residents of the city; or

(ii) A single nonprofit corporate member having articles of incorporation which provide for a membership of that corporation which is broadly representative of the public and includes residents of the city.

The articles must further provide for the selection of the governing body by the membership of the corporation, or exclusively by a parent corporation which is the corporate member, with voting power, and not by the governing body itself, except to fill a vacancy for the unexpired term. The articles must further provide that no member of the governing body shall serve more than two (2) consecutive three (3) year terms.

(d) The nonprofit corporation must provide care for indigent patients, and receive any person falling sick or maimed within the county.

(e) The transfer agreement must provide for the transfer of patients, staff and employees, and for the continuing administration of any trusts or bequests or maintenance of records pertaining to the existing public hospital.

(f) The transfer or lease agreement shall provide for a transfer or lease price which shall be either of the following:

(i) The acceptance of all assets and assumption of all liabilities; or

(ii) Such other price as the city council and the nonprofit corporation may agree.

(2) If any hospital which has been conveyed pursuant to this section ceases to be used as a nonprofit hospital, unless the premises so conveyed are sold and the proceeds used to erect or enlarge another nonprofit hospital for the city, the hospital so conveyed reverts to the ownership of the city. If any hospital which has been leased pursuant to this section ceases to be used as a nonprofit hospital, the lease shall terminate.

History:

[50-305, added 1967, ch. 429, sec. 45, p. 1249; am. 1990, ch. 409, sec. 1, p. 1136; am. 1995, ch. 222, sec. 1, p. 768; am. 1996, ch. 106, sec. 1, p. 408; am. 2001, ch. 331, sec. 9, p. 1164.]