Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston announced Friday that it's buying St. Francis Hospital in Charleston for 37.5 million dollars.

This information is coming from an 11:30am news conference at St. Francis.

This is information we're just getting in--so we don't have any details about the sale yet. This announcement comes just a few weeks after CAMC said it's buying Putnam General Hospital. At that time, management at Thomas Memorial told us they were also interested in buying Putnam General, but that deal didn't happen.

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Just three months after buying them, LifePoint Hospitals is selling two West Virginia hospitals. The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company announced Friday that it's
selling St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg and St. Francis Hospital in Charleston.

St. Joseph's is being sold to Signature Hospital Corporation of Dallas. St. Francis will be sold to the Herbert J. Thomas Memorial Hospital Association, which operates South Charleston's Thomas Memorial Hospital. WSAZ was told St. Francis was sold for 37.5 million dollars.

The 325-bed Parkersburg hospital and 155-bed Charleston hospital were purchased by LifePoint in June, along with Raleigh General in Beckley.

LifePoint says the majority of the proceeds from the sales will be used to pay down company debt.