Preliminary injunction removed for Phoebe North

ALBANY — The preliminary injunction on Phoebe North has been formally removed, allowing for development on the property purchased by the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County that had been held up because of the federal litigation.

Meanwhile, approval of a lease arrangement for a medical building near the Palmyra Road hospital campus for Albany Area Primary Health Care is expected to allow for a new space for its women’s health services.

At the board meeting for Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, Phoebe Putney Health System CEO Joel Wernick said that U.S. District Court Judge Louis Sands had “moved with dispatch” to get the injunction, which had prevented further development at Phoebe North, dissolved.

The order removing the injunction, which court documents show was filed at 5:30 p.m. on April 2, follows a settlement announced last week by the Federal Trade Commission regarding its opposition to the purchase of Phoebe North, formerly Palmyra Medical Center, by the Hospital Authority. It allows the Hospital Authority to maintain ownership of the hospital under certain conditions. The Authority has contracted with Phoebe to operate the facility.

After the FTC order was signed, a joint motion went before Sands to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the suit.

Now, Wernick said, officials will be getting to work to determine the future of Phoebe North. Some of the ideas that have been tossed around include expansion of women’s and children’s services, as well as an expansion of emergency services, from Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, which has been operating under the same license as Phoebe North since August 2012.

“There ain’t no future living in the past, and we need to (move into the future) … We have one hospital with two campuses in which we are free to make decisions on,” Wernick said Wednesday.

On the vein of expansion developments, the board approved the establishment of a women’s health facility at a former orthopedic practice at 2100 Palmyra Road near Phoebe North. The building is owned by the Hospital Authority and leased to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, and is in turn being subleased to Albany Area Primary Health Care (AAPHC).

The practice is expected to serve as a new space for the Mirian Worthy Women’s Health Center, which officials say has outgrown its current space.

“The OB/GYN building that Albany Area Primary Health Care has is too small now,” said Dawn Benson, one of the attorneys for Phoebe. “There is a (former) Palmyra Road orthopedic clinic that was part of the Hospital Authority purchase (of Phoebe North). Albany Area Primary Health Care will apply for a federal grant for renovation, and the hospital will agree to lease it long term without rent.”

Dr. Edward Vance, medical staff president at the hospital, and Dr. Bernard Scoggins abstained from voting on the lease arrangement due to their affiliation with AAPHC. The Hospital Authority is expected vote on the sublease at its meeting today.

In other news, the hospital is expected to have a team mobilized by the end of the month on a new initiative to encourage patients to get moving out of bed sooner.

They will be known as the Early Mobility Team, and will be tasked with getting patients moving earlier and safely to help overall quality of life and shorten length of stay.

“We want to work on branding on the team and put them in a special uniform,” said Laura Shearer, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Phoebe.

During medical staff reports, Vance said efforts were under way to make physicians more accessible to each other, and to improve on timing orders and progress notes on patient records. On the latter, he noted that physicians have been counseled on the matter, and that consequences could potentially be tied for failure of adherence.