Despite optimistic projections a month ago, Landmark Medical Center has not yet reached agreement with a potential partner to acquire the financially troubled Woonsocket hospital.

But Jonathan N. Savage, the special master who is running the hospital under court supervision, said in an interview Tuesday that only “scheduling issues” –– rather than substantive roadblocks –– have delayed the agreement. “I’m hopeful that we’re a few weeks out” from having an agreement, Savage said.

A month ago, Savage had told Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein that he expected to announce “positive news” before his sixth interim report.

Tuesday morning, Savage presented his sixth interim report to Silverstein, noting that a year had passed since he’d been appointed to manage the hospital because it was on the verge of financial collapse.

“As the court knows, we have gone in in the past year and to a large degree stabilized the operation of the hospital,” Savage told the judge. With more than $6 million in cash on hand, the hospital has come “a long way from earlier predictions that the hospital would not have enough cash to survive.”

Silverstein questioned Savage about a “letter of intent” with the prospective buyer. Savage said, “We have a form of a letter of intent. It’s premature to say we have a letter of intent. We continue to have discussions of a letter of intent.”

Asked to elaborate after the court session, Savage said, “I’m not going to speak about that right now. We have had many written communications.” Savage said that the hospital was bringing in enough money that it could potentially continue indefinitely under his stewardship, although that is “not our goal or objective.”

Earlier this year, Landmark employees received a letter identifying Caritas Christi Health Care as a potential partner for Landmark, but, on Tuesday, Savage declined to say whether Caritas Christi is the organization currently in negotiations with Landmark. Caritas Christi is a Catholic chain of six hospitals in Massachusetts, including St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River.

Meanwhile, Landmark’s contract with the United Nurses and Allied Professionals, a union representing about half the hospital’s 1,200 employees, will expire on Sept. 30. The union has had preliminary talks with the hospital, and Savage expressed optimism that negotiations would go smoothly. Rick Brooks, UNAP director, said it was too soon to tell because the union doesn’t yet know who will own the hospital in the coming years.

Landmark is half-owner of the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island, in North Smithfield, which was to be acquired by a St. Louis company. That deal fell through, and Savage said that attempts to sell the rehab hospital are in “a holding pattern” until the Landmark deal is resolved. The prospective buyer of Landmark is considering whether to also buy the rehab hospital, he said.

With no endowment to cushion the hard times that all hospitals are facing, Landmark ran up debts that far exceeded its assets (the deficit had reached $19 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008). By early last year, the hospital was in danger of shutting down and asked Superior Court to intervene.

When Savage took over on June 26, 2008, he stopped making payments to vendors. They are still owed some $7 million for services and products supplied before June 26, but all vendors are being paid on time for everything they’ve provided since June 26.

The community has continued to come to the hospital; there were 120 patients there Tuesday morning, said hospital president Richard Charest.

Maureen Glynn, the health care advocate in the attorney general’s office, expressed concern about the length of time the special master has been running the hospital. Glynn said she wasn’t questioning the quality of Savage’s work but said that every dollar spent on the special master is “one dollar less that is available for health care.” She persuaded Savage to reduce his most recent bill from $76,000 to $73,000.

ffreyer@projo.com