The Albany Herald - Jennifer Parks
4/16/2015
Consolidation avoids unnecessary duplication of services, Phoebe officials say.
ALBANY, Ga. — Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital officials have announced that they will begin taking steps toward refocusing the Phoebe North facility, starting with the temporary consolidation of surgical services while further evaluation is done concerning the hospital’s future.
Phoebe officials say health care delivery, and the needs of the Southwest Georgia community, have changed over the five years since the acquisition of Phoebe North, formerly Palmyra Medical Center. Inpatient utilization has fallen, not just at Phoebe, but throughout all hospitals, Phoebe officials said.
Hospital officials say the growth of outpatient and home care alternatives are replacing institutional-based services, and that high-deductible health insurance has made consumers demand more accessible and affordable alternatives.
To that end, Phoebe says it must both embrace and excel in assuring both high quality and affordability.
“Our plans must take into account these two sides of the same coin,” said Phoebe President/CEO Joel Wernick in a news release late Wednesday.
“Where expansion is warranted, we will expand. Where moving services is warranted, we will move services. Where costly duplication occurs, we will seek to minimize. All decisions will focus on what is in the best interest of our patients’ care and what brings the greatest value to our community — meeting both current and future need.”
Laura Shearer, senior vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer at Phoebe, said Thursday the closure would be temporary to allow hospital officials a chance to work with Sg2, a health care consulting company based out of Illinois, to establish a long-term plan for the former Palmyra.
“We are engaging a company to determine the best use of that campus,” she said.
Once a final decision is made, planning will occur. Shearer did not offer a specific time line on how long the closure would be, other than to say “probably not less than a year.”
Consolidation of surgical services, Phoebe officials said, avoids unnecessary duplication of services at campuses located less than five minutes apart, and appeared to be an opportunity for consolidation when assessing logistics, efficiency and deployment of resources.
The operating rooms at the Phoebe North campus were seeing four or five cases a day, as opposed to the 50 a day typically seen at the Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital campus. Duplication of services, and recent financial constraints associated with lack of Medicaid expansion, made the operation of surgical services at both locations less than practical when patient needs could be met at one location, Phoebe officials said.
“There is more than enough capacity at the main campus to take care of that volume,” Shearer said.
Over the next few weeks, there will be shifting of surgical cases, equipment and supplies from the nine operating rooms at Phoebe North to the main campus, where there are currently 19 operating rooms.
“This change helps to address current circumstances and needs,” Wernick said. “As we further assess long-range utilization of the north campus, the future use of the operating rooms will be a part of those considerations.”
Effectively immediately, there are no new postings of surgical cases at Phoebe North. Patient needs and procedure schedules will be taken into account during the shift, with an anticipated target date of May 7, Shearer said..
“It comes down to the value equation,” she added on the reasons for the change. “(We want to provide) quality of care and do that in a cost effective manner … It brings better value. (I think there will) be angst, and there is no need for that. Employees needs will be met.
“We were looking at things we could do more effectively and more efficiently, and we had an opportunity to act on that.”
One of the ideas on the table for Phoebe North is a women’s and children’s center. If that plan holds, that would be at least one scenario in which the operating room space would end up reopening.
“We will incorporate that space,” Shearer said. “It will be used.”
As with previous transitions, Phoebe officials said they would work closely with the individuals impacted by the consolidation and treat those staff members as priority candidates. Hospital officials say they anticipate a seamless transition for staff as it is moved to other positions within the Phoebe Putney Health System.
“Again, all decisions related to the best use of the two campuses will focus on what is in the best interest of our patients’ care and what brings the greatest value to our community,” said Wernick.
There were 20 positions impacted by the transition, but with more than 20 open positions in the health system, it is anticipated there will be no job loss associated with the consolidation. The impacted personnel have already started applying for jobs, with offers having already been extended to a few.
“Interviews are under way. We don’t anticipate any job loss.”
Shearer said that evaluation would continue as the planning process for Phoebe North gets under way to determine if further consolidation of services is needed.
This particular consolidation, she said, is not expected to have an overall impact on the health system, and that other services will continue at the hospital as they have.
“We don’t anticipate the closure will impact the rest of the organization … because we have such a high census,” Shearer said. “There are rumors that the campus will close, and that is false. We need that campus.”
