Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare proposed a new $602 million lease to run Desert Regional Medical Center for another 30 years, Desert Sun reported Sept. 19.
Desert Healthcare District currently owns the Palm Springs, Calif.-based hospital. Tenet’s current lease to run the hospital expires in 2027. The health system's new 30-year proposal would give it an opportunity to purchase the hospital at the end of the lease.
If the new lease is approved, Tenet will make an initial payment of $75 million and a final payment of $75 million if it decides to purchase the hospital at the end of its lease. Additionally, Tenet would be responsible for retrofitting the hospital to meet seismic requirements, which would cost an estimated $222 million.
"We don't see the need to have a big, lengthy, drawn-out negotiation over this term or that term or this issue or that issue," Tenet Healthcare CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, told the Sun. "It's our general belief that the organizations have worked together effectively, through multiple leaders on both sides, and issues get worked out that don't need to be put into the finest of language."