The financial-services company Standard & Poor’s has reaffirmed its long-term credit rating for Vidant Health, officials with the Pitt County-based health-care provider announced.

Standards & Poor’s reaffirmed its long-term A+ credit rating on six series of bonds issued for Vidant Health, formerly University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, by the state Medical Care Commission and, in a report issued Feb. 21, indicated the system’s outlook is “stable.”

“This reflects favorably on the strength of Vidant Health’s market position and strategic direction which we believe position the organization well for the future of health care reform,” said David Hughes, chief financial officer for Vidant Health, in a statement released last week.

Vidant Health’s credit rating was one of the issues discussed by Harvey Case, president of Vidant Health Beaufort and Vidant Health Pungo, at a recent meeting of the Beaufort County Republican Club.

That credit rating was the subject of recent news reports following the announcement that Fitch Ratings downgraded the system from an AA- rating to an A+ rating.

That downgrade “had no impact on the system,” Case told the GOP crowd. “The system is solid and revenue is strong.”

Credit ratings, generally, are opinions about future credit risk.

Standard & Poor’s credit ratings show the agency’s opinion about the ability of a corporation or state or city government to meet its financial obligations in full and on time.

Credit ratings “can also speak to the credit quality of an individual debt issue, such as a corporate note, a municipal bond or a mortgage-backed security, and the relative likelihood that the issue may default,” according to information provided by Standard & Poor’s

Typically, ratings are expressed as letter grades that can range from AAA to D to indicate the agency’s opinion of relative level of credit risk. Ratings from AA to CCC may be modified by the addition of a plus sign or minus sign to show relative standing within the major rating categories.

Based on these rating grades, an A rating shows that Vidant Health “has a strong capacity to meet financial commitments, but somewhat susceptible to adverse economic conditions and changes in circumstances.” The ‘plus’ indicates that the system has a high standing within the A category, according to information provided by Standard & Poor’s.

The report on Vidant Health cited the system’s “dominate and growing market position in Pitt County and throughout eastern North Carolina,” the system’s “continued excellent volume growth at Vidant Medical Center with evidence of a rebound at the system’s smaller and more rural hospitals” and “good financial results” as contributing to the A+ rating.

The report also notes “the financial metrics are relatively weak for an ‘A+’ rated system” and indicates “that for Vidant Health to maintain the current rating, it must continue to demonstrate long-term progress toward lowering debt.”

Vidant Health’s strongest credit factor is “its market dominance,” according to Standard & Poor’s, which notes that Vidant Medical Center, formerly Pitt County Memorial Hospital, garners 92 percent of the Pitt County market share.

All Vidant Health-owned hospitals have a 79.6 percent share of the system’s larger primary service area market in 2010, up from 78.6 percent in 2007, according to the report.

Vidant Health earned $53 million from operations in 2011, according to Standard & Poor’s, up from $24.6 million in 2010. Vidant Medical Center and Vidant Community Hospitals earned $90 million and $30 million, respectively, in 2011. But, the report notes, Vidant Medical Group, which employs 160 primary- care and specialty doctors, 78 hospitalists and 86 midlevel practitioners, lost $25 million from operations in 2011.

The average age of the physical plant for Vidant Health is “young,” the report notes, at 9.5 years. And other than construction of 48 additional beds at Vidant Medical Center and renovation and a $42 million expansion project at Children’s Hospital, Vidant Health has “no significant capital needs,” the report notes.

“We view this favorably because debt as a percentage of capitalization is high for the rating category,” the report said.