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Stabler Hospital purchase official

BY BRUCE BRANUM

The Greenville Standard

On Wednesday, Nov. 1, L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital’s ownership officially changed hands from Quorum Health to The Health Care Authority of the City of Greenville. After months of negotiations, corporate representative meetings and many conference phone calls, Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon said the deal is final. “We are excited about the future and our partnership with UAB Hospital. It has consumed the vast part of my year, but it is done and we can move forward,” said McLendon. The city council passed three important resolutions necessary to purchase Stabler Hospital. The first was to establish a health care authority. The second was to pass a .5 percent sales tax within the city limits which would allow the city to contribute $825,000 per year to the authority, from the years 2018-2032. The third resolution allowed the city to borrow $1 million on a conditional guarantee to fund the Stabler Hospital’s operating expenses while the invoice transition occurs. “It could be up to two months before the hospital will receive some invoice money…or longer. We needed to make sure we had money to cover expenses,” said McLendon. The total amount the city can borrow is $8 million. The loan is through First Citizens Bank of Greenville. According to McLendon, in the deal, Quorum Health would receive the money from invoices for medical services through midnight Oct. 31. After that, Stabler Hospital would receive any monies from future invoices. In total, McLendon said the city was able to purchase Stabler Hospital for $2.8 million. Board members from Greenville are: Jim Dunklin, regional president at First Citizens Bank of Greenville; Eddie Cook,associate board member with the Alabama Board of Pardons and Mayor Dexter McLendon.  The UAB appointees are Don Lilly, senior vice-president at UAB Health System and Peter Selman, CEO at Baptist Medical Center South. McLendon met the new employees of the authority at 6:30 a.m. the morning of the sale to welcome them. He has expressed there are no immediate personnel changes planned but that over 90 days there would be an assessment of strengths and weakness and then meaningful changes could happen. McLendon also stated UAB would bring on more physicians and change the culture from a corporate atmosphere to more of a personal nature. “That’s the thing we want everyone to understand,” said McLendon, “This is our town’s hospital. We are going to stress that we treat everyone the same and that employees feel comfortable and want to come to work.” He added about the purchase of the hospital, “We can make this work, but we have to support the hospital. It is very hard to have a rural hospital and having UAB partner with us means much more than good healthcare. It means potential jobs when businesses wish to locate near our city because of our hospital.”

 

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