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Phoebe: Sumter not on buy list

An Albany hospital is “supportive” of Sumter Regional Hospital and has increased staffing at its facility to help meet area health care needs.

Barbara Rivera Holmes
Albany Herald March 25, 2007

ALBANY — A Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital executive has quelled any rumors that have been percolating regarding Phoebe's interest in purchasing Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus.

“We have no interest, no intention, no design to acquire any additional hospitals,” said Dr. Doug Patten, senior vice president of medical affairs at Phoebe, Thursday afternoon during a phone interview.

“It is clearly in the best interest of the people of Sumter County and the area it serves for the hospital to re-emerge as a viable part of the health care delivery of Southwest Georgia,” he said. “We are supportive.”
Indeed, with 700 people on staff, the Americus hospital is the biggest employer in Sumter County and is at the heart of the local economy.

Since the March 1 tornado, Phoebe has been on overdrive working to meet the health care demands of the area after the neighbor hospital was all but leveled during the deadly storm.

Already Phoebe is processing requests from four physicians who have applied to become part of the regular medical staff at Phoebe, “along with the privileges to do procedures and things,” Patten said.

Those same four physicians, whose specialties are obstetrics/gynecology or pediatrics, were granted temporary credentials earlier in the month to practice at Phoebe.
Members of the medical staff are part of the “independent medical community” and can work at more than one hospital at a time, Patten explained.

Only 20-25 percent of the medical staff is employed by the hospital, he said, which simply “provides the environment in which the care occurs.”
Patten said Phoebe has offered to allow other physicians to utilize its facilities.

“We've extended the offer to evaluate any application for any physicians from up there (Sumter County) to create a situation where ... they (can have) access to a hospital to practice in the care of their patients,” he said.
The Albany hospital's limits have been tested, but Patten said Phoebe is working through it.

“We have adapted with increased staffing, certainly including the additional physicians (from Sumter Regional), but it's also put an increasing load in certain areas of the hospital,” he said.

“Labor and delivery is certainly one area,” he said. “General medicine and the surgical floors have seen an increased volume as a result of there not being a hospital in Sumter County.”

Sumter Regional spokesperson Marcus Johnson said the hospital appreciates the “helping hand” offered by Phoebe and other hospitals and organizations.

Johnson said Phoebe has “done a real good job of assisting us with our oncology patients, obstetrics unit, birthing of the babies. They've been real good neighbors.”

An “inflatable hospital” set up by federal and state emergency workers near Sumter Regional has allowed the medical center to re- established outpatient services.
The Georgia Department of Human Resources has evaluated the unconventional set- up and found it to be a safe environment, a spokesperson said Thursday.

US Patent Numbers 7,720,998 B2, 7,836,207