Atrium Surgery Center on Gunbarrel Road will close its doors July 9, and its elective surgery services will be consolidated at the Chattanooga Surgery Center, said an official with the centers' parent company, HCA, based in Nashville.
The Atrium Surgery Center was completing about 150 procedures per month, about half the monthly volume handled regularly at the Chattanooga Surgery Center downtown on Holtzclaw Ave., said Tim Evans, vice president of operations for the HCA ambulatory surgery division for Tennessee.
In the recession, many patients have delayed elective surgeries, worsening the low volumes at Atrium, Mr. Evans said. But the 13,000-square-foot Atrium site was handling fewer surgeries than its downtown counterpart even before the recession began, he said.
HCA, which acquired Atrium from Memorial Hospital almost 10 years ago, is still maintaining its medical license for the facility in an "inactive" status, and may eventually reopen the facility in another capacity, Mr. Evans said.