By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

The former home of Herington Hospital’s Hillsboro Health Care Clinic, a clinic in Junction City, and the hospital building itself are scheduled to be sold as early as Jan. 25 in sheriff’s sales. But the sales won’t happen if Herington resident Robert Danzman gets his way.

The clinic in Hillsboro and the hospital in Herington stopped providing services Oct. 9. Some employees remained on duty a few days longer.

Chief executive Isabel Schmiedemann already had left the hospital when the operation came to a close October.

On the same day that the hospital stopped providing, Emprise Bank filed a $1.9 million suit in Marion County District Court.

The suit seeks foreclosure of a mortgage on the clinic building and possession of property and equipment inside the building. It asks for the building to be sold at a sheriff’s sale.

No one representing Herington Hospital filed a response to the lawsuit.

Parent company Amberwell Health, also known as Amberwell Atchison Association, filed a response that asked for more time to answer the petition.

Amberwell no longer lists Herington Hospital as an associated facility on its website.

The court granted Emprise a default judgment Dec. 4 and on Dec. 27 ordered sale of the property.

Danzman, now chairman of a newly appointed board of directors for Herington Hospital Inc., filed a request Thursday seeking emergency relief.

Writing that the hospital’s new board of directors was appointed by Amberwell in late November, Danzman asked to stay any court orders concerning liquidation of hospital assets.

“From on or about April 2018, through on or about Oct. 10, 2023, the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and governing body of HHI managed, mismanaged, HHI into a state of financial insolvency,” Danzman wrote in his request for a stay.

Danzman contends Emprise filed its petition knowing there would be no management team and, thus, no challenge to Emprise’s suit.

In its suit, Emprise also named hospital owner Amberwell Atchison Association, pharmaceutical distributor Amerisourcebergen Drug Corp., business lender First Business Specialty Finance, GE Healthcare Financial Services, and ASD Specialty Healthcare, a supplier of oncology and supportive care products that is part of Amerisourcebergen.

Emprise claims the hospital owes $976,468.33 for a business loan signed Dec. 29, 2021. The hospital’s original loan was $1,451,000 with interest at 3.75%. In May, 2022, the bank and the hospital changed the terms of the loan, extending it four additional months.

Emprise claimed the hospital defaulted by not paying the loan and not providing annual audit reports to the bank.

Emprise also claims the hospital took out a second loan for $876,000 on Dec. 29, 2021, and owed $417,723.07 plus interest.

Emprise additionally claimed that the hospital owes $504,931.50 for a $500,000 loan made June 12, 2023.

The bank sought mortgage foreclosure because a mortgage lien was used as collateral for the loans.