Fairmont Regional Medical Center Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Fairmont Hospital Closing In 'Days,' Owner Says In Letter

The Fairmont Regional Medical Center is shutting down ahead of schedule and will cease operations over the next several days, the hospital’s owner said in a letter Monday.

Alecto Executive Vice President Michael J. Sarrao wrote that the hospital will complete its winding down of services and will stop admitting patients over “the next several days.” Hospital officials said on Feb. 18 that the facility would close within 60 days.

The letter comes after last week’s announcement that West Virginia University Medicine would take over portions of the facility while constructing a new hospital in the area. Gov. Jim Justice and Albert L. Wright Jr., CEO and president of the WVU Health System, said Fairmont Regional Medical Center would be closed for around a month to allow for administrative turnover at the facility.

Sarrao wrote that the decision to shutter in the coming days was “based on Governor Justice’s and WVU Medicine’s announcement.”

“In other words, the plan announced by Governor Justice and WVU Medicine on Friday specifically calls for FRMC and its emergency room to be closed for a period of time before WVU Medicine commences operations at the FRMC location,” he wrote.

Wright last week said he anticipated that the Fairmont Regional Medical Center would be closed from the end of March to around early-to-mid May while preparations are made for WVU Medicine to operate there. He said he planned to have resources to transport patients to different facilities while the Fairmont hospital is temporarily closed, acknowledging potential problems that could emerge as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.

“We might have a bumpy couple months here but long term we’re going to get it right,” he said last week.

The new WVU Medicine hospital will be about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the shuttering Fairmont Regional Medical Center and is expected to have 100 beds and about 500 employees, Justice said. It is expected to be open within 18 to 24 months.

The California-based Alecto has drawn severe local criticism over its decision last month to close the hospital. Hospital officials said they could not find a buyer for the facility.

State Del. Michael Angelucci, who operates an ambulance service in Fairmont, shared Sarrao’s letter with The Associated Press.

The announcement followed several other hospital closures or health care cutbacks in the region.

Pleasant Valley Hospital in Point Pleasant recently announced it was cutting 53 full-time jobs and ending obstetrics services. Hospitals in Bluefield and Richwood have closed. Williamson Memorial Hospital filed for bankruptcy in October, and a nonprofit system that operates hospitals in Charleston and South Charleston announced last month that it planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but would remain open.

WVU To Build Hospital To Replace Closing Fairmont Facility

West Virginia University Medicine will build a new hospital to replace a closing medical center in Fairmont, Gov. Jim Justice and university officials said Friday.

The new WVU hospital will be about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the shuttering Fairmont Regional Medical Center and is expected to have 100 beds and about 500 employees, Justice said. It is expected to be open within 18 to 24 months.

“You can’t stand to not have a community full-service hospital right here in Marion County,” Justice said.

Fairmont Regional Medical Center, owned by California-based Alecto Healthcare, announced last month that it was unable to find a buyer and that it would close within 60 days.

Albert L. Wright Jr., CEO and president of the WVU Health System, said health care workers will keep portions of the Fairmont Regional Medical Center open while the new facility is being built.

He said there will be roughly a month-long gap in services starting around the end of March due to administrative turnover, though the hospital should be running again by early to mid-May. They plan to have resources to transport patients to different facilities while the Fairmont hospital is temporarily closed, Wright said.

“We might have a bumpy couple months here but long term we’re going to get it right,” he said.

The WVU Health System operates 11 hospitals and is the state’s largest health system.

The announcement of the hospital was a rare bright spot as many medical facilities in the state have announced closures or drastic cutbacks in services.

In January, Pleasant Valley Hospital in Point Pleasant announced it was cutting 53 full-time jobs and ending obstetrics services. Other hospitals have closed in Bluefield and Richwood. Williamson Memorial Hospital filed for bankruptcy in October, and a nonprofit system that operates hospitals in Charleston and South Charleston announced in January that it planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but would remain open.

Officials have also announced that a hospital in Ashland, Kentucky, near Huntington, West Virginia, would shut down later this year.

Fairmont Regional Hospital Announces Closure

This is a developing story and will be updated.

In an internal memo to employees, Fairmont Regional Medical Center announced today, Feb. 18, it will be closing citing financial difficulties.

According to a copy of the memo obtained by West Virginia Public Broadcasting via Facebook, the hospital said efforts to find a buyer or other sources of financial support were unsuccessful. Hospital CEO Robert Adcock wrote the decision to close the hospital was made “only after all other reasonable options” were considered and explored.

Fairmont Regional is the fourth hospital in the region to close in recent months. Ohio Valley Medical Center and East Ohio Medical Center in the Northern Panhandle region announced closures in late summer 2019, and Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in eastern Kentucky announced it was closing last month.

Following the announcement, both Mon Health and WVU Medicine issued statements, expressing concern and pointing to local services they offer for the Fairmont/Marion County community.

In an emailed statement a West Virginia University Health System spokesperson said:

“We’re aware of the situation and are monitoring it very closely. We’re certainly concerned about the implications this could have for the residents of Marion County, as well as the hospital’s employees. Our commitment is always to ensure West Virginians have access to critical healthcare services, and as a reminder, Marion County residents have quick access to many of our services at our Fairmont Gateway Clinic and Whitehall Medical including Urgent Care.”

Mon Health’s President and CEO David Goldberg issued this statement:

“We’re saddened to hear about the probable closure of Fairmont Regional Medical Center. We have a long history of collaboration with the hospital, clinicians, and citizens of Marion County. Mon Health System will continue to provide care, treatment, and programs to residents through our already established services. We’ve recently announced expansion of Mon Health services as part of our ongoing commitment to the community, adding to our cardiology, primary care, and soon-to-be women’s health services. We will continue to monitor the community needs and meet those needs through Mon Health and other collaborations. The most important part of any solution is to ensure that citizens Greater Fairmont and its surrounding communities continue to have real choice in where they get their healthcare.”

Several House Delegates also gave remarks expressing frustration and sadness following the announcement. Marion County Del. Linda Longstretch, a Democrat, called on the governor to step in.

“We’re just disheartened by this and we know our employees are just devastated — their families what are they going to do?” she said. “In 60 days what are they going to do?”

The closure will affect about 600 employees.

Unpacking Rural Hospital Closure Trends

Over the past 15 years, 166 rural hospitals have closed in the United States, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. And in West Virginia, nearly 40 percent of rural hospitals are at risk of closure. In this article from 2019, we talk at length with several hospital CEOs about why that is.

Some of the strain has to do with federal healthcare policies. The Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration has vowed to repeal, has allowed for vital sources of income for rural hospitals. If the ACA is repealed or significantly changed, more rural hospitals might be at risk of closure.

But despite the tenuous footing that many rural hospitals are on, rural hospital ER visits are on the rise.

And while some hospitals do turn to affiliation to keep doors open, the bigger hospitals like WVU Health, Marshall Health, Mon General and Charleston Area Medical Center have to be careful with their own bottom lines. In conversations with various CEOs, they’ve indicated that they are approached regularly by smaller, struggling facilities and cannot take on everyone who wants to join their system.

Experts said the trend indicates rural hospital closures will continue to impact communities across the state, and can have major economic implications. The repercussions can be huge and can spell the beginning of the end for small rural towns for whom the hospital is the largest employer, suggesting solutions may need to be addressed not on a hospital by hospital basis but on how we approach healthcare as a system.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from Marshall Health and Charleston Area Medical Center.

Fairmont Hospital Cuts 25 Workers, Cites Drop In Patients, Revenue

A West Virginia hospital announced that it is laying off 25 employees due to a reduction in patients and revenue.

News outlets report Fairmont Regional Medical Center made the announcement Wednesday in a statement.

Alecto Healthcare Services, the hospital’s parent company, says the changes aim to make the hospital more efficient so it can “provide excellent patient care for years to come.”

The statement says the company has no plans to close the facility, though it decided to close two other hospitals recently in West Virginia and Ohio. Officials says the Fairmont hospital does not face the same “unique challenges” as those that were closed.

Administrators will continue to seek ways to “enhance quality care while improving financial performance.”

Health Officials Expect Flu Shots to be More Effective

Marion County health officials expect flu vaccines to be much more effective this year compared to a year ago.

Janet Crigler, the infection preventionist at Fairmont Regional Medical Center, tells the Times West Virginia the flu shot was not as effective last year as it was in previous years. Crigler says the flu shot was only 23 percent effective because the virus mutated and the vaccine did not cover some strains of the virus.

Crigler says she believes vaccine shots will be much more effective this year, although there is never a guarantee.

According to the newspaper, one case of the flu has been confirmed in Marion County and 61 cases of influenza-like illnesses have been reported since the start of the flu season.