The privately owned company that unexpectedly closed Yadkin Valley Community Hospital in Yadkinville, N.C., last month has been found in civil contempt for its willful and knowing violation of a temporary restraining order, according to a Winston-Salem Journal report.
Yadkin County owns the building the hospital operates out of, but HMC/CAH leases and operates the facility. HMC/CAH is scheduled to run the hospital until July 31, but the company closed the hospital May 22. That same day, Wake County Superior Judge Donald Stephens approved a temporary restraining order to keep the hospital open.
In response to the closure, Yadkin County officials filed a lawsuit against the hospital operator along with its parent company and local operational unit, requesting the company be found in contempt for breaching its lease contract.
A federal judge found HMC/CAH to be in civil contempt and ordered the company to pay damages from May 22 — when it shut down the hospital — until the hospital is reopened. The judge is also requiring the hospital operator to compensate the county for "additional measures implemented to mitigate potential harm caused by the shutdown," according to the report.
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