ASHEBORO SEEKS A SUITOR.

Losing Asheboro's hospital, with 1,100 employees and a $55 million annual payroll, is an unthinkable prospect for Darrell Frye, the chairman of the Randolph County Commission. "We're a county of 146,000 people, including 26,000 in Asheboro, and the hospital is a destination for thousands of emergency room calls for county-owned ambulances," says Frye, a commissioner for 38 years. "If there's not a hospital, that patient has to go to High Point or Greensboro, and someone in critical condition might not make it."

But the possibility was made evident when Greensboro-based Cone Health ended talks to potentially become a successor organization to take over Randolph Health. It was a tough blow for the Asheboro hospital, which filed for bankruptcy protection in March after years of financial struggles. It is seeking a $20 million state loan to help cover expected operating losses over the next three years under a rural hospital support program passed by state lawmakers.

Cone...