North Georgia hospital executives said Wednesday they are scrambling to save a rural hospital in Chatsworth that hasn't been able to make ends meet for years.
Murray Medical Center has stayed afloat since about 2006 with loans from its affiliate in Dalton - Hamilton Health Care System.
But Hamilton Health Care, now owed about $7 million, cannot loan the 42-bed, nonprofit Murray County hospital any more money after July 31 without damaging its own mission, said Lamar Lyle, chairman of the Hamilton Health Care system.
"On average they have about eight patients a day," Mr. Lyle said of Murray Medical Center. "On some days just three.
"Something more than 75 percent of people in Murray County don't use that hospital for services. They go somewhere else," Mr. Lyle said. "(The hospital's) satisfaction rating is great, and they have good docs and a good nursing staff, but the hospital's lease with the hospital authority there is structured in such a way that there is no flexibility to offer just what people need there."
Gary Middleton, chairman of Murray Medical Center Inc., said he learned Tuesday of Hamilton's decision not to continue supporting the Murray County facility.
He said he already is trying to arrange talks with the Hospital Authority of Murray County to amend the Chatsworth facility's lease.
"The lease says we have to offer some specific services whether they are profitable or unprofitable," he said. "So we're going to be having meetings with the authority to ask that they let us just provide the services needed and hopefully make it profitable. We hope to have a plan worked out in about 10 days."
He said it is too early to say what services might be eliminated or added.
Murray Medical Center is projected to lose $2.4 million in 2010, according to a statement issued Wednesday by Hamilton Health Care System spokesman Daryl Cole.
"Hamilton Health Care System is committed to Murray County and will ensure its residents have access to quality health care through one or more of its health care affiliates," Mr. Cole said in the statement.