Iasis is looking to acquire a struggling hospital in Arkansas, according to reports in area media.

Hope Medical Park Hospital is being overseen by Jack Spencer, a consultant at Franklin-based Spectrum Health Partners, who assumed operational control of the hospital Monday. A Circuit Court Judge recently appointed Spencer to, according to the Hope Star, “to protect its assets during the judicial foreclosure filed in Hempstead County Circuit Court on April 18.” The foreclosure was filed late last month by Iasis’ Wadley Regional Medical Center — which sits 30 miles from Hope — in Texarkana, Texas, against Medical Park Hospital and its owners.

Iasis bought the 78-bed hospital’s debt in March of this year and immediately demanded payment on nearly $4.5 million in principal and unpaid interest. Also at issue was some $416,000 in unpaid property taxes. When the balances weren’t paid, Iasis turned to the courts seeking to foreclose on the debt. (For more background on these developments, click here.)

As exemplified by a statement Spencer recently gave to the Star, many aspects of this case remain up in the air while the present state of the hospital is sorted out. Spencer told the Star, “As soon as I have any news, good or bad, I will call you.”

In addition to the 370-bed Wadley Regional, Iasis also runs Glenwood Regional Medical Center in northern Louisiana, as well as four other hospitals in Texas.