COMMERCE, Ga. (AP) - A second rural hospital in Georgia has announced that it will close, and an industry representative says still more hospitals could go out of business in coming months.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the 90-bed Northridge Medical Center in Commerce plans to shut down at the end of October. Commerce is about 70 miles (113 km) northeast of Atlanta.
The closure announcement last week came about a month after another rural hospital, Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert, said it will also shut down in October.
Southwest CEO Kim Gilman said the hospital was under financial stress before the coronavirus hit. The pandemic made it impossible to keep operating.
“We’re in unprecedented times, and it’s putting a lot of stress on our hospitals,” Monty Veazey, president of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals, told the newspaper. “We could have as many as a dozen (hospitals) close in the next few months.”
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