The nearly brand-new Thomasville Regional Medical Center has closed. Residents found a hand-written sign on the door.
And on the City of Thomasville’s Facebook page, a notice from the company running the hospital: “Due to staffing shortages, TRMC will be closed until further notice.”
A meeting of stakeholders was set for today. And residents were advised to go to hospitals in Grove Hill, Camden or Butler for needed care.
Mayor Sheldon Day responded with a quick statement: “My thought and prayers go out to the awesome staff at TRMC. They have been through more than anyone can imagine yet performed their jobs with great professionalism and character. None of the circumstances currently being faced by TRMC are a result of the performance of their duties.”
Over the weekend, Day followed up on Facebook.
“We were informed a little over two weeks ago that cash was short,” the Facebook post says. “That has happened more than two dozen times over the last 2 years and the owners always found a way to close the gap. This time they didn’t. Our TRMC employees did not get paid on time last week and some of them had checks bounce. They were also told by ownership on Friday there was a good chance they might not get paid on time next week. The ER doctors did not get paid this week either. The City Healthcare Authority (HCA) offered a short-term loan to assist TRMC until expected funds come in over the next couple of weeks to pay us back, but the authority insisted on a personal guarantee by the owner to pay them back.”
The post presents additional background:
“The owner told the TRMC employees and myself over the last few weeks there was a $20 million loan that had been approved or pending approval for Tenor Group (who is currently under contract to operate the hospital) to purchase TRMC and if the employees would hang on, things would be in good shape soon. We verified this week the loan has not been applied for yet.”
Day says that the current management firm and others are interested in purchasing the hospital and that the city and its health care authority will be meeting with them as soon as possible.
TRMC opened in 2020 and has struggled from the first, because it missed out on federal funding that supported hospitals that were financially damaged by Covid-19.
