Woodland ER to officially close at midnight

Tiffany Green

Jul. 1, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Woodland Medical Center's emergency room will officially close at midnight June 30.

Cullman Regional Medical Center (CRMC) will close the Woodland hospital July 15, but the transition begins today with the emergency room no longer operating.

According to a joint press release issued from both Woodland and CRMC, as of midnight June 30, the emergency room at Woodland would be closed and other outside services would cease operating at the hospital.

Officials with CRMC said it was not their decision to close Woodland because they officially have no control over the hospital until July 15.

"Woodland is not officially ours until July 15," said Maria Stanford, marketing director at CRMC. She said the decision to close the emergency room "is out of our control." However, a source at Woodland Hospital told The Times that it was CRMC's decision to close the emergency room today.

The closure of the emergency room was not announced to the public until a post was placed Monday on CRMC's Web site.

When asked why the public was not notified sooner of the emergency room closure, Stanford said it was because the State of Alabama just approved both the ER and Woodland hospital closure on Monday.

"The Alabama Department of Public Health requires a transition plan be submitted, and a joint transition plan between Woodland and CRMC was submitted to the state," Stanford said, speaking on behalf of hospital CEO Jim Weidner. "The final approval from the Alabama Department of Public Health was just received. The Alabama Department of Public Health just notified both parties regarding the final approval to close both the hospital and the ER."

"The joint transition plan included phasing out certain services July 1," she said. "It's common to phase out certain services (before the date of the actual closure.)"

Stanford said CRMC is working to help those who may travel to Woodland's emergency room thinking it is still open.

"CRMC is working closely with the Woodland staff so in the event that there's any type of emergency, the ambulance will be there to help someone who arrives on the campus to provide the necessary emergency treatment," she said.

CRMC maintained their plan all along was to close the Woodland emergency room on July 1, upon state approval. In the transition plan to the state, CRMC outlined closing the ER July 1, and after the approval was granted on Monday it notified patients with the Web post.

Other services are being reduced at the hospital today as well.

Woodland's clinical laboratory, pharmacy and radiology departments will only service in-patients admitted prior to today.

No new patients will be admitted from now until July 15, and any patients who remain on July 15 will be moved to the facility of their choice.

"The intention is to have the smoothest transition for any patient at Woodland," Weidner said. "We will cease filling the pipeline, so there are no patients affected."

Weidner said the acquisition of Woodland is going smoothly.

"Everything is on target for the financial closing and facility closing," he said. "The process is going as planned. We have received great cooperation from Woodland, the Alabama Department of Public

Health, State Health Planning and Development Agency (SHPDA) and the Certificate of Need Board."

Weidner hopes all existing Woodland patients will allow CRMC to help with their medical needs.

"Give us a chance," he said. "We have done extremely well on national quality and patient satisfaction benchmarks. We are in the top 10 percent in patients' quality outcomes."

Woodland Hills, a local mental health facility, will no longer accept new patients as of today. Patients admitted prior to today may remain at Woodland Hills until July 15.

"The board has made it a top priority for management to keep an in-patient psychiatric facility in Cullman County," Weidner said. "We feel we have a very good transition plan that will provide excellent psychiatric health to those individuals."

According to the press release, CRMC is currently researching all options to have a psychiatric in-patient service in Cullman County.

The sale of Woodland Hospital was announced on June 1 when the Healthcare Authority of Cullman County announced the transaction to the public. CRMC will not release details of the transaction, including the purchase price, citing a confidentiality agreement it made with Woodland.

The home health patients serviced by Woodland Home Health agency who have not been discharged by July 1 will receive a list with contact information of all home health agencies in the Cullman area.

By law, CRMC is required to publish a legal notice in the local paper 14 days in advance of the hospital closure. The legal notice is published in today's paper. Signage will be placed at Woodland to notify the public of the emergency room closing, the press release said.

-- Tiffany Green can be reached by e-mail at tgreen@cullmantimes.com orby telephone at 734-2131, ext. 221.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0396-36166423