Charlie Martin, serial entrepreneur and a former HCA exec before joining HealthTrust, takes over the 11 hospitals formerly known as Republic Health. Martin renames the company OrNda, which he says is an Iroquois word for “wellbeing.”

Martin’s group immediately sets off on an aggressive buying spree, creating a 46-hospital chain by the end of 1993. At that time, it is the third-largest investor-owned chain of hospitals.