Floyd Cherokee Medical Center
It’s official. Floyd Healthcare Management takes over the hospital in Centre, Alabama. An FMC executive says it is in good condition.
Residents of the Centre, Alabama, area woke up Friday to new signs outside their hospital proclaiming a new name — Floyd Cherokee Medical Center — as the hospital becomes the newest subsidiary of Floyd Healthcare Management.
Floyd Cherokee Medical Center LLC, a subsidiary of Floyd Healthcare Management Inc., is the new lease-owner and manager of daily operations of the 60-bed Centre, Alabama, hospital.
David Early, vice president of support services and operations at FMC, will have oversight of the hospital in Centre.
“Cherokee County is part of our market, it’s part of a community we already serve,” Early said. Floyd Primary Care and Urgent Care in Centre records nearly 10,000 patient visits annually.
Early said the hospital is in very good physical condition, but there are some things that can be updated.
“We certainly want to invest in anything that would help support any services that are needed, but there is nothing that we can see that we’re going to have to drop a lot of capital on immediately. Now if we need to add some equipment for growth that would be fantastic,” Early said. “We do see that the physicians who are here have a full case load of patients and I think that Floyd coming in will help with the volume they can’t see.”
Floyd Cherokee Medical Center offers an array of health care services including diagnostic imaging, drug and alcohol treatment, emergency care, laboratory ser- vices, nutritional services, pharmacy, respiratory care, rehabilitation services, surgical services, and sub-acute rehabilitation care.
The Cherokee County Health Care Authority completed the acquisition of the virtually all of the assets of the hospital from NNZ LLC, a Florida-based healthcare provider, and agreed to lease the hospital property to Floyd. Other assets of the hospital were transferred directly to the new company, Floyd Cherokee Medical Center LLC.
Brandon Reece will serve as hospital administrator. He previ- ously served as Financial Operations Director of Floyd Medical Center’s Emergency Care Center.
Floyd Cherokee Medical Center will be governed by a board of directors. Directors include, George A. Bosworth, M.D., chairman of Floyd Healthcare Management Inc.; Kay Y. Chumbler, vice chairman of Floyd Healthcare Management Inc.; David Early, Floyd vice president of support services and operations; Chad A. Hopper, an attorney with Buttram, Hawkins, Hopper in Centre; Jay Howell, a retired Alabama Department of Public Safety employee and Centre native; Johna M. Lindsey, community education specialist at Gadsden State Community College in Centre; and Kurt Stuenkel, Floyd president and CEO.
The board of directors of the former Cherokee Medical Center Inc. will serve as the Patient Family Advisory Committee, which provides guidance and insight into hospital operations from the viewpoint of the patients and families who use the hospital.
Early said that the news had been greeted warmly by hospital staff in Centre during extensive meetings that took place Friday.
Early said Floyd leadership would like to see some tangible growth at the hospital in Centre within three years but would not specifically say if the management agreement has any timeline attached to it.
Floyd also operates Polk Medical Center, a new 25-bed critical access hospital between Cedartown and Rockmart.