LifePoint Hospitals, which operates 50 rural hospitals in 17 states, reported a profit of $38 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a release from LifePoint Hospitals.
Same-hospital admissions declined 2.8 percent, due mainly to a decline in inpatient surgeries.
Combined inpatient and outpatient volume rose 1.7 percent, on higher emergency-room visits, and per-patient revenue rose 4 percent.
Read the release on LifePoint's fourth-quarter.