Welcome to ZZ Sumter Regional Hospital

Many Questions Still Remain About Original SRH
Michael J. Ross (April 29, 2007)

AMERICUS— Many of the questions surrounding the original Sumter Regional Hospital (SRH) are still unanswered.

SRH's President and CEO David Seagraves said Thursday that he is still waiting on direction from the hospital's insurance company, the Chubb Group, concerning the fate of the original structure.

Seagraves has said, in previous statements, that he doesn't know the fate of what is left of the original structure — he doesn't know if it will be saved and rehabilitated or torn down and completely rebuilt.

He said a permanent hospital might be built at an entirely different location. “I'm anxious to have these questions answered just like the rest of the community, but I can't force anything. It's going to take time,” said Seagraves.

Seagraves said he realizes that many rumors about the fate of the hospital are circulating around the community. He said these rumors aren't grounded in any truth and facts about the hospital will only be released through official SRH statements.

Currently, equipment from the original structure is still being removed. Some of the equipment might be able to be saved and rehabilitated and some of it will have to be scrapped stated Seagraves.

The temporary hospital that it is in the parking lot adjacent to the original structure will move Monday into a hard wall structure in the southwest corner of the parking lot of the former Healthplex.

“We're excited to move out of the tents and into some thing sturdier,” said Seagraves. The area where the Healthplex facility originally stood is being evaluated for the site of an “interim” hospital, Seagraves said. The Healthplex stood at the northern end of the parking lot before it was destroyed by the tornado.

Seagraves said the interim hospital, wherever it is built, will offer most of the services and care of the original hospital but on a smaller scale. “Our community will need to support this interim hospital once it is built. It would defeat the purpose to go through the expense and trouble of building an interim hospital and the community doesn't support it.”

SRH has been paying its employees, since the tornado struck, through its business interruption policy, Seagraves said Thursday that “this money will run out eventually.” He didn't get any more specific on this particular matter.

Seagraves hopes revenue from the interim hospital, once it is operating, will allow SRH to continue to meet its payroll.

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