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The Hospital Authority, a group of state and county officials tasked with selling the financially ailing Prince George's County hospital system, is asking for a delay in making a decision on the medical system's future.

After working for more than a year with companies interested in the three county-owned hospitals, authority members say the economic decline has made the purchase offers less likely to go through.

The hospitals serve about 180,000 patients annually — one-quarter of which are uninsured, causing the system to lose about $12 million each year. After more than a decade of debate between state and county officials about how to resolve the problem, the two parties agreed to form the authority, which would be responsible for overseeing sale of the system.

Now, however, the authority would like to consider a plan mentioned by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) in February to have an academic medical institution partner with the hospitals. The idea was also suggested by others more than two years ago, but a partnership was dismissed as unlikely given the hospital's large debt.

Word that the authority is looking at options long dismissed does not instill hope in the problem being resolved anytime soon.

County and state leaders must get together to reassess the previous agreement made — which laid out plans to have the system nearing sale by May — and ensure that everyone is on board with the direction the authority is heading, before the hospitals end up back on life support.