Yesterday, the Jefferson County Commission officially voted 3 to 2 to shutter inpatient care at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., according to a Birmingham News report.
The decision forces Cooper Green to stop admitting inpatients, and the emergency room must be closed by Dec. 1. Sandral Hullett, MD, CEO of the county-owned Cooper Green, called the vote "devastating" and said she did not know where the city's indigent patients would go for care, according to the report.
Supporters of the 40-year-old hospital have been protesting the potential closure of inpatient services for weeks and previously delayed a decision on the hospital's future.
Jefferson County also asked the judge overseeing its bankruptcy filing to halt a related lawsuit from the city of Birmingham, according to a separate Birmingham News report. Birmingham sued the county to keep inpatient services open at Cooper Green. Currently, Jefferson County has more than $4.2 billion in debt, and it was the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.
The decision forces Cooper Green to stop admitting inpatients, and the emergency room must be closed by Dec. 1. Sandral Hullett, MD, CEO of the county-owned Cooper Green, called the vote "devastating" and said she did not know where the city's indigent patients would go for care, according to the report.
Supporters of the 40-year-old hospital have been protesting the potential closure of inpatient services for weeks and previously delayed a decision on the hospital's future.
Jefferson County also asked the judge overseeing its bankruptcy filing to halt a related lawsuit from the city of Birmingham, according to a separate Birmingham News report. Birmingham sued the county to keep inpatient services open at Cooper Green. Currently, Jefferson County has more than $4.2 billion in debt, and it was the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.
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