Midtown Medical Center merges with Doctors Specialty Hospital
Midtown Medical Center and Doctors Specialty Hospital are now one entity, Columbus Regional Health, their parent company, said Thursday.
The merger of the two hospitals won’t change any of their services, although the Doctors name is going away, the health-care system said. The two facilities will take the name of Midtown Medical Center, with the former Doctors Specialty Hospital having a “west” designation.
“With only 500 feet separating the two facilities, they effectively have been operating as one for some time,” Scott Hill, Columbus Regional Health president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We have consolidated a number of services over the past few years because it was not efficient to operate duplicate services in adjacent facilities.”
State approval to collapse the two hospital licenses into one was obtained from the Georgia Department of Community Health and corporate documentation was filed with the Georgia Secretary of State, said Columbus Regional spokeswoman Marion Scott. A new "Midtown Medical Center" was placed on the Doctors facility Wednesday, she said.
Doctors Specialty Hospital, formerly known as Doctors Hospital, was constructed in 1975 at 616 19th St. Midtown Medical Center is virtually next door at 710 Center St.
Columbus Regional Health purchased Doctors from Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporation of American in 2008, paying $89.3 million. Though he wasn’t with Columbus Regional at the time, Hill said the effort to consolidate the operating licenses of Doctors and Midtown Medical Center (then known as The Medical Center) began once the acquisition was made.
Several major changes have been made in recent years at Doctors, which for much of its history was an acute-care facility competing with The Medical Center. Services included general surgery and baby deliveries (since 1996), the latter of which was discontinued a year ago. Midtown Medical Center has long delivered babies and operated high-risk and special care nurseries.
Midtown Medical Center, built in 1982, also absorbed Doctors’ emergency services in 2012, with Columbus Regional opening a MyCare Urgent Care Center inside Doctors, along with a MyCare Pharmacy.
Doctors also is home to a long-term acute-care facility called Columbus Specialty Hospital, with plans for Columbus Hospice to open an inpatient unit there. Doctors, according to the Columbus Regional website, also offers other services, including critical care, endoscopy, imaging, laboratory, orthopedics, pastoral care, rehabilitation and respiratory care.
Columbus Regional also owns and operates Northside Medical Center (formerly Hughston Hospital) at 100 Frist Court, off Veterans Parkway in north Columbus. It bought that property in 2008 from HCA for $59 million. A longtime orthopedic facility, Columbus Regional is transitioning Northside to an acute-care hospital with an emergency department and an expanded intensive care unit.
"We have an outstanding team of physicians, nurses and staff at our Midtown Medical Center West location," Hill said. "They have consistently been recognized by patients for quality care with a personal touch. That dedication does not change with the change of a name."
Columbus Regional employs about 2,800 at all of its hospitals and facilities, which includes John B. Amos Cancer Center.
This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 12:20 PM.