Trinity Has New Owners, Plans For Move

Baptist Health System of Alabama still has a 35 percent stake in Trinity Medical Center, formerly Baptist Montclair. The majority stake was sold to Triad Hospitals two years ago. In July, Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems (CHS) completed its merger with Triad Hospitals, the majority owner in Trinity. CHS is the largest publicly traded hospital company in the country and a leading operator of general acute care hospitals in non-urban and mid-size markets throughout the country — approximately 132 in 28 states and one in Ireland. The sale has not changed plans to move the hospital from eastern Birmingham to a location off Interstate 459 at Grants Mill Road in Irondale. Hospital officials rejected the notion of taking over the half-built HealthSouth “digital hospital” building on Highway 280, as well as efforts by the city of Birmingham to keep the hospital within its limits. Brookwood Medical Center and Noland Health Services filed formal opposition to the move. During certificate of need hearings last month, Noland dropped its opposition after getting assurances that the hospital would not use its license for long-term acute care beds. (Trinity currently leases 38 beds for long-term care to one of Noland’s competitors.) According to published reports, Trinity officials said during the hearing that the 41-year-old hospital is well maintained but outdated, that it is hard to get to on winding and hilly residential roads, and that the hilly campus prohibits renovations. The hospital has lost patients — 5,000 in five years. During the hearings, Brookwood’s attorney suggested this was because of mismanagement rather than location. Among the objections are that the new location would be too far away from Birmingham’s medically underserved population and that the new location is not accessible from Birmingham by public transportation. Trinity officials said the move would take it to a part of the county that is not currently served by a hospital, and that Birmingham still would have plenty of hospitals. The administrative judge in the case is not expected to make a ruling until next year. The Certificate of Need Review Board will use his decision as an advisory opinion when it reviews the case. Rosemary Plorin, CHS spokesperson, said Community is “very committed” to Trinity. “The market is a great location for us. We’ve got 13 facilities in the state, and a number in the multi-state region right around that area.” Trinity, according to Plorin, is the most sophisticated of CHS’s facilities in the area. The $15 million spent in the last few years on capital improvements has been largely used for sophisticated new medical equipment. In fact, Plorin says, CHS sees Trinity as a resource for its other hospitals in the area. They are holding a divisional chief nursing officer conference at Trinity, rather than hosting it in the Nashville area where they’re headquartered. “We’re very pleased to have it be part of our system.” November 2007