Health Care Firm Acquires Needles Facility

Coming hard on the heels of its recent hospital acquisitions in faraway places such as Bowdle, S.D., Gurdon, Ark., and Muleshoe, Tex., Westworld Community Healthcare Inc. is moving closer to home with the announcement Wednesday of the acquisition of its 25th medical facility, this time in Needles, Calif.

The 2 1/2-year-old rural health care company, headquartered in Lake Forest, said it has signed a 30-year lease to operate Needles-Desert Communities Hospital, a 53-bed facility that serves a far-flung population of 10,000 in eastern San Bernardino County.

Terms of the lease with the Needles-Desert Communities Hospital District, a governmental body that owns and has operated the facility, call for Westworld to pay $160,000 a year for 17 years and $12,000 a year for the remaining 13 years of the agreement, according to Walt Kaczor, Westworld’s senior vice president and chief financial officer.

Kaczor said that Westworld in the past has paid far less for hospital leases. For example, it is paying $50,000 a year on a 30-year lease for the Muleshoe facility. The Needles facility is considerably more expensive, he said, because it is relatively new and will require almost no additional investment.

May Acquire 7 More

The hospital is the fourth rural facility acquired by Westworld since October and is one of about eight the company plans to acquire this year, according to Kaczor.

Westworld probably will spend about $15 million on acquisitions and facility improvements in 1985, Kaczor said. Westworld now operates 23 rural hospital facilities and two alcoholism treatment centers in 11 states.

Kaczor also said that Westworld, which went public last June with an initial stock offering that raised $11 million, expects to release its 1984 financial report in mid-February.

The company earned $1.24 million on $31.7 million in revenue for the first nine months of the year and Kaczor said Westworld expects to post a profit in its annual report.