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A Florida health care company has purchased Forest Park and St. Alexius hospitals of St. Louis, hospital officials announced Wednesday.

Success Healthcare LLC of Boca Raton, Fla., founded in August, took over operations at the struggling hospitals on Dec. 10. The company owns one other hospital with two campuses in Southern California.

This marks the most recent ownership turnover for the St. Louis hospitals.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. sold the hospitals to Argilla Healthcare Inc. for $42 million in 2004. Argilla soon after merged with Doctors Community Healthcare Corp. of Arizona, which had just emerged from bankruptcy. Doctors Community later changed its name to Envision Hospital Corp. No one at Envision could be reached for comment Wednesday. Officials at Forest Park and St. Alexius hospitals also could not be reached for comment.

Forest Park Hospital, 6150 Oakland Avenue, has 450 licensed beds. The two south city campuses of St. Alexius, one at 3933 South Broadway and the other at 2639 Miami Street, have 476 licensed beds.

St. Alexius had a net income of $842,000 and Forest Park posted a loss of $2.3 million in 2006, the latest figures available, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Both hospitals have had a series of troubles in recent years.

Forest Park and AmerenUE reached a deal in February to keep the hospital’s electricity running after repeated problems with payments cheap pay day loans.

In 2006, the hospital’s owners announced they would lay off about 100 hospital workers, close the obstetrics unit and reduce orthopedic services.

Also in 2006, St. Alexius was sued by Aramark Healthcare Support Services Inc. of Philadelphia for more than $200,000, alleging that the hospital failed to pay for food services. A nurse-staffing company filed a similar suit against both hospitals that same year.

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The St. Louis hospitals will keep their names and there have been no changes in their services, according to Success Healthcare.

In a statement, the company said it planned to enact a financial strategy in the next six months "that will support the immediate and long-term objectives for the hospitals."

"I think they saw that these hospitals are community assets that would benefit from Success Healthcare," said company spokeswoman Bonnie Kaye.

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