Phoebe cutting ties with Fitzgerald hospital

When he announced job cuts in October, CEO Joel Wernick said Phoebe Putney Health System was “going through a period of enormous adjustment.’’

That adjustment period continues: Phoebe Putney said recently that it will no longer be managing Dorminy Medical Center in Fitzgerald.

The Albany Herald reported that Albany-based Phoebe and the Hospital Authority of Ben Hill County, where Fitzgerald is located, have been evaluating their current agreement, under which a Phoebe subsidiary has been managing Dorminy. Phoebe and the Ben Hill Authority have agreed to dissolve the three-year affiliation, officials said.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital
Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany

Control of Dorminy will return to the hospital authority.

No explanation was given for the severed relationship, the Herald reported.

Phoebe Putney, the dominant hospital system in southwest Georgia, has experienced a year of turbulence, highlighted by the end of a long-running battle with the Federal Trade Commission over Phoebe’s acquisition of its only hospital competitor in Albany.

The FTC challenged the 2011 deal in court, calling it anti-competitive. The case was settled in August, and Phoebe retained control of the former Palmyra Medical Center.

Phoebe officials in October announced the elimination of 127 jobs as part of an organizational restructuring. Those reductions came on top of the 33 “leadership’’ positions eliminated earlier that month.