By Heather Gann
Lawrence Medical Center in Moulton announced Monday that inpatient and emergency department services would end this year and enter a new partnership with Huntsville Hospital Health System.
“This is the best path forward to ensure that the people of Lawrence County continue to have availability of healthcare in our community,” LMC Board Chairman Gary Terry said in a press release.
“The care LMC provides today is overwhelmingly outpatient. Over 99% of our encounters each year are outpatient services such as primary care, imaging, lab testing, urgent care and physical therapy.”
“On the other hand, having less than 1% of our total volume as inpatient care has placed the hospital in a situation that is not sustainable,” the release continued.
Once new outpatient services are in place, the current hospital facility would be vacated, according to the release.
“A recent facility assessment indicates the hospital building is beyond any reasonable hope of repair,” it reads.
“Updating the hospital facility to current code requirements is prohibitively expensive.”
Terry said in the release that the Authority will engage in a forty-year lease agreement with Huntsville Hospital Health System to operate outpatient services.
Although LMC has had a long-standing affiliation with HH Health, the two organizations have been financially separate until now.
The new agreement would maintain local involvement while shifting financial accountability and operational control to HH Health, according to President and CEO Jeff Samz.
Local tax resources that are currently consumed to support hospital operations will be used to create a building fund to build new and modern outpatient facilities, the release says.
It adds that this structure has been used successfully in Colbert, Jackson, Morgan, Limestone, and Marshall Counties.
“We are committing to help the Lawrence County Health Care Authority in finding a workable path,” Samz said in the release.
“The crisis in rural healthcare in Alabama is a well-known fact. There is no easy solution.”
“I applaud the LMC Board for making a hard decision,” he continued.
“Building new outpatient facilities means many more Lawrence County residents will benefit from this tax support than happens today.”
The agreement will ensure that 100% of Lawrence County support is invested in the new Lawrence County operation, and HH Health will pledge to reinvest 100% of any excess margin from services provided in the County back into Lawrence County facilities, according to the release.
It adds that any employees in good standing who are impacted by the closure of inpatient and emergency services will be offered an opportunity elsewhere in the HH Health System.
“Inpatient and Emergency Department services will likely end by mid-2025,” the release reads.
The goal for HH Health is to expand the acuity of services provided at the urgent care locations with the intent of accommodating many of the patients using the emergency room today, according to Samz.
Constructed in 1953, LMC is licensed as a 98-bed facility.
Last year the hospital served over 60,000 outpatient and clinic visits.
