DEL.ICIO.USSouthwest Atlanta Hospital no longer taking emergencies
Wants to focus on surgery services
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
An Atlanta hospital that has closed twice in the past four years has shut its emergency room over financial losses, replacing it with an urgent-care center.
Southwest Atlanta Hospital shut tered its emergency room because more than 95 percent of its emergency patients had minor injuries and illnesses, said Sandra Crayton, Southwest’s interim CEO.
Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com
‘The hospital is trying to re-establish itself,’ says Southwest Atlanta Hospital’s interim CEO Sandra Crayton (right, talking with Theresa Barnes). The hospital closed its ER because it was treating only minor injuries and illnesses.
File photo
As of Monday, Southwest Atlanta Hospital had no patients in its 125 licensed beds. It twice has filed for bankruptcy and most recently reopened in April.
- Topic: Metro Atlanta Hospitals
- Back to Health
Recent headlines:
• Atlanta and Fulton County news
“It’s very expensive to take care of relatively minor injuries with a full-service ER,” said Crayton, who also works for New York-based consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal.
Despite the ER cutback, Southwest is pursuing hospital accreditation and seeks to become a facility specializing in surgical services, she said.
Southwest is losing money, Crayton said. It has no patients currently in its 125 licensed beds, as of Monday. “The hospital is trying to re-establish itself,” she said. “We don’t have any resources.” A $12 million line of credit helps the hospital meet operating expenses.
Southwest has filed for bankruptcy protection twice. At the time of its first filing, in 2004, the hospital’s financial trouble had stemmed largely from low reimbursements for care; most patients were uninsured, underinsured or in government programs Medicaid and Medicare.
Built in 1964 by a Catholic group, the hospital established deep roots in southwest Atlanta. Southwest was one of a few hospitals in the United States that were controlled or operated by African-Americans.
The 65-acre campus is close to the intersection of I-20 and I-285 near the affluent Cascade Road area. But hospital leaders said by the time it closed, many of the privately insured area residents went elsewhere for care.
A group of doctors and businessmen bought Southwest out of bankruptcy in 2005 and renamed it Legacy Medical Center. But continued financial trouble, combined with lawsuits and acrimony over executive decisions, led to a second closing and bankruptcy filing last year.
Southwest Atlanta Hospital is now owned by Georgia Medical Provider Financial, a corporation that reopened the hospital in April. It seeks accreditation from the federal Medicare agency and the Joint Commission, which Crayton said would boost the facility’s finances.
Atlanta City Council member C.T. Martin said a medical facility in the Southwest area “can be a valuable operation, just due to the location.”
Martin said the ER closing is a concern, but added, “I certainly don’t want them to operate something that’s not profitable.”
The former board chair of the hospital, Johnnie Clark, also expressed optimism that the hospital could succeed, despite the current economic downturn.
“The need is there,” Clark said, citing an influx of new homes and apartments. “The nearest hospital is 10 miles away,” she said.
“This community really needs to step up to the plate and support the hospital,” Clark added.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
