Group of doctors leaving Shoals Hospital

A dozen primary care physicians in Colbert County will no longer be admitting patients to Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals beginning May 1.

The doctors, led by Dr. Jack McLendon, an internist with Medical Associates of the Shoals in Muscle Shoals, will admit their patients exclusively to Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield.

Despite repeated attempts by the TimesDaily for comment, calls to McLendon were unreturned. A source close to the doctors said, however, their reasons for leaving Shoals Hospital are two-fold and involve an effort to cut back on on-call hours as well as keeping their call groups at a single location, rather than multiple locations.

In addition to McLendon, Drs. Brad McAnalley, Joshua Vacik, Randy Pounders, Donald Conklin, Loren McCoy, Ronald McCoy, Andre Taylor and Charles Albert are involved in the move. Drs. Laurence Carmichael and Lynn Ridgeway, pulmonologists with a practice in Sheffield, will also no longer admit at Shoals.

Some of the doctors have submitted their intentions in writing. Some also will maintain their doctor privileges with Shoals Hospital.

Bill Anderson, chief executive officer at Keller, said he came to know of the decision by the doctors during the "last several weeks."

Although he said he's unsure what the actual results will be of the move, Anderson said he expects an "increase in admissions and in the medical/surgical floors, but I believe we can handle that. I don't anticipate any great problems going forward."

Shoals Hospital is a part of Coffee Health Group, which also has campuses in Florence with Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital and ECM East. ECM acquired Shoals, Florence and Russellville hospitals in 1998 at a cost of more than $120 million. Coffee later sold Russellville to Life Point, converted Florence Hospital to an outpatient facility and maintains Shoals Hospital.

Carl Bailey, CEO, and Jody Pigg, chief financial officer for Coffee Health Group, have met with employees at Shoals to discuss how the change will affect them now and in the future. They estimate the move by the doctors will take around one-third of the patient load from the hospital. They also said eight primary care physicians would remain on staff at Shoals Hospital.

"We will work through the issues as they unfold based on this decision," Pigg said. "But we will remain a viable health-care option in the area."

Some changes are already in the works. The Certificate of Need board at the State Health Planning and Development Agency has approved the addition of six beds to the facility's J.D. Somer Rehabilitation Unit, which is housed at Shoals.

This is not the first time doctors have left one hospital for another, and Bailey said it's bound to happen in the current Medicare reimbursement climate.

"With more and more patients without insurance or less insurance, it puts (ECM) in dire financial straits," he said. "It's the same for doctors; they have to find ways to make their practice more efficient."

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@timesdaily.com.