Ailing MedCath sells its last North Carolina hospital asset

MedCath (NASDAQ:MDTH) has sold another piece of its fragmenting hospital network — and its last remaining piece in North Carolina.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, has purchased MedCath’s ownership stake and management agreement in Coastal Carolina Heart for $5 million. Coastal Carolina Heart provides catheterization laboratory management services to the Wilmington Hospital.

MedCath owns and operates specialty hospitals that diagnose and treat cardiovascular conditions. MedCath maintains a Charlotte headquarters, which houses management and other services supporting its hospital network. But the healthcare services that MedCath provided in North Carolina were through its MedCath Partners division, which includes Coastal Carolina Heart. The majority of that division was sold for $25 million to DLP Healthcare, a joint venture between Duke University Health System and LifePoint Hospitals (NASDAQ:LPNT). Coastal Carolina Heart was the last remaining North Carolina piece.

MedCath last year formed a strategic committee to consider the sale of the company or its assets. MedCath’s financial reports are not a picture of health. They show the company has been losing money since 2008 and report a net loss of $48.3 million in fiscal 2010. The sale of Coastal Carolina Heart is the seventh announced transaction since the formation of that committee.

Following the sale of the MedCath Partners assets, MedCath’s remaining interests are ownership stakes in six hospitals with a total of 533 licensed beds located in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas.