Ailing Riverdale hospital in financial talks

The CEO of struggling Southern Regional Medical Center said Thursday that the hospital is having discussions with possible financial partners.

Kim Ryan
Kim Ryan

“We have some companies interested in us about being a capital partner,’’ Kim Ryan told GHN on Thursday.

Ryan said these potential partners are health care companies, but she did not identify them further.

This type of external funding is Southern Regional’s “best hope” of survival, she said, adding that she is optimistic that a partner will be found. 

Recently, the Clayton County Board of Commissioners agreed to pay a consulting firm to find a partner to help the Riverdale hospital.

Clayton County, south of the city of Atlanta, has a high percentage of uninsured residents. The hospital reported $21 million in uncompensated care in fiscal 2014, and 30 percent of its ER patients last year had no insurance.

The hospital recently announced plans to cut 80 jobs.

Ryan told Atlanta radio station WABE recently that the hospital needs an infusion of $6 million by early July. “If we can’t get that funding, we can’t survive. We’ll have to close services or shut the doors,” she said.

Clayton County commissioners allocated no money for the 331-bed hospital in the proposed fiscal year 2016 budget, the AJC reported earlier this month.

Since the beginning of 2013, five hospitals in Georgia have closed, and four of those were in rural areas.