It appears that Hartselle Medical Center may have new life after closing its doors for the last time Tuesday.

Huntsville Hospital and Capella Healthcare of Franklin, Tenn., jointly announced in a press release that they have tentatively agreed for Huntsville Hospital to purchase the assets of the Hartselle hospital. According to the Huntsville Times, the $1.5 million deal is expected to be completed in March.

Officials on both sides expect to finalize the agreement in the next 45 days.

“We are pleased to be able to confirm our ongoing discussions with Huntsville Hospital,” said Mark Medley, president of the hospital division of Capella Healthcare. “While we have not been able to identify a new owner willing to provide inpatient services, we are pleased to find a potential partner in Huntsville Hospital who is willing to evaluate providing some level of health care services in the community.”

However, Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers said they are not looking at a full-service inpatient hospital.

“Unfortunately, while you can’t make the hospital work as an inpatient facility, there may be an opportunity for us to provide some services on an outpatient basis,” Spillers said. “Certainly, we will look at trying to keep the physicians in the community by providing access to the services needed for their practices, such as lab and imaging services, if at all possible.”

In the meantime, Spillers said that his management team needs to assess what services and technology the community can support, giving no indication of exact services which might be considered.

“We would definitely want the community to be supportive of any plans we might develop, but whatever is proposed would have to make financial sense,” Spillers added.

In early January, Capella Healthcare, owner of HMC, announced the shutdown citing challenges of healthcare reform, a weak economy, the tough reimbursement climate and too few patients for too many hospital beds.

A state study by the state’s health planning agency has shown that Morgan County has 300 too many hospital beds for the population. Hospital officials said a majority of patients were choosing to receive care outside the Hartselle community.

Letters were mailed last week to the 400+ members of HMC’s Senior Connections program, announcing an agreement with Parkway Medical Center, which was purchased by Huntsville Hospital in December.

Under the agreement, Senior Connections memberships are being transferred to PMC’s senior program MatureLife, which offers similar hospital and activity benefits. Additionally, Parkway officials are evaluating the possibility of continuing to sponsor some local activities in Hartselle for the membership.