NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) July 19, 1999--Standard&Poor's today assigned its triple-'B'-plus underlying rating (SPUR) to North Carolina Medical Care Commission's $13.5 million revenue bonds series 1999, issued for Scotland Memorial Hospital. The bonds are scheduled to sell July 28, 1999. The SPUR rating reflects: -- The system's strong financial performance, despite serving a large number of indigent patients, including liquidity; -- Increased leverage; -- The hospital's dominant market position within its primary service area (Scotland County), tempered somewhat by the outmigration of patients seeking services at competing facilities; and -- The hospital's small size (124-beds), which makes it vulnerable to the potential loss of one or more of its physicians. The hospital is a member of
