Lancaster Pollard helps health care, senior living, affordable housing and private education organizations expand and improve their services by providing financial advice and financing solutions. Lancaster Pollard’s services enable hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, rural housing properties and private schools to develop the financial plans and secure the funding necessary to continue to serve their communities and lets them focus on what’s truly important –their residents, their patients, and their students.
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Home > News > Press Archive > 07-21-05 bucyrus hospital

Bucyrus Hospital first in Ohio to use federal mortgage insurance since program's 1968 inception

COLUMBUS, Ohio (July 21, 2005) – Bucyrus Community Hospital in north central Ohio today closed on the first financing of its kind in the state, allowing the 25-bed hospital to modernize and providing small Ohio hospitals with a local model for using federal programs to access otherwise scarce funding.

Bucyrus will be able to use its $26 million debt offering to replace its operating room, relocate its heliport, expand its oncology department and add new food areas and nearly 50,000 square feet of space – key renovations for a hospital depended on by a community of about 25,000.

“We needed to update our services to keep up with new technologies and our patients’ high demands, within the constraints of our limited resources,” said Gerard D. Klein, chief executive officer of Bucyrus. “Lancaster Pollard, our underwriter, brought forth an option that assures we will be able to meet changing technologies and patient demands. This funding option made it possible for us to remain a strong contributor to the region’s physical and economic well-being.”

Bucyrus is a Critical Access Hospital, a designation that recognizes its essential community role and entitles it to full government reimbursement for Medicare treatment. Thirty of Ohio’s 163 hospitals are designated Critical Access, and as such are entitled to special underwriting guidelines to make it easier to qualify for federal lending programs. Hundreds of small and rural hospitals nationwide are approaching 40 years old and face critical technology and service updates, but they often lack the financial strength to get loans without federal support.

“Critical Access Hospitals are integral components of their communities, and the funding option we were able to offer carries economic implications far beyond the hospital project,” said Bill Wilson, senior vice president of Lancaster Pollard.

The debt issue is backed by the Federal Housing Administration’s Sec. 242 Mortgage Insurance, which puts the government’s strength behind hospitals loans. This is the first time the program has been used in Ohio since its inception nearly 40 years ago.

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