Patti Dozier
THOMASVILLE — Thomasville-area officials wasted no time in beginning an effort to keep Southwestern State Hospital in Thomasville from being shuttered.
District 173 state Rep. Mike Keown announced Tuesday that the facility is to close by 2012.
Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR) personnel confirmed Wednesday the hospital, which employs 800 to 900 people, will close.
Citing the economic impact, the provision of important health-care services and the cost of transporting local patients elsewhere, Thomasville Mayor David Lewis’ letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue DHR’s alludes to DHR’s “lame duck” status.
“The timing of such considerations seems particularly inappropriate, given the proposed reorganization of the Department of Human Resources and the creation of a new Department of Behavioral Health,” Lewis wrote. “To allow what may well be a ‘lame duck’ DHR to begin the process of dismantling the state’s mental health infrastructure would seem at best odd.”
Keown, a Coolidge Republican, will meet with Thomasville and Thomas County officials to establish a game plan.
“We’re calling on the community to pull together and show the governor we need this facility in Thomasville, in Southwest Georgia,” the lawmaker said.
Changes might be in order, Keown said, but the facility needs to remain here.
He said state officials are discussing closing the hospital, but not releasing the South Pine Tree Boulevard land on which the facility is located.
The Loftiss Regional Youth Detention Center (RYDC) is adjacent to the hospital.
Stephen Westberry, RYDC director, said it is his understanding the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice purchased the RYDC property.
“With them closing, it shouldn’t have any effect on us,” Westberry said. “We’re two totally different departments.”
Capt. John Richards, chief of operations in the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office, said his agency has been notified that Southwestern will no longer accept local people for mental evaluations.
The sheriff’s office transports a minimum of 10 people a week to Southwestern for evaluation. Most are picked up at the Archbold Memorial Hospital emergency room and transported to Southwestern.
Those individuals will now be taken to the state mental hospital at Milledgeville.
“It will definitely be a cost issue,” Richards said. “It ties a deputy up for a whole day. The officer’s salary, the cost of fuel and vehicle maintenance also are considerations.
Richards pointed out that the change will affect not only the sheriff’s office here, but those in other counties in the region that transport people to Southwestern for evaluation.
Southwestern’s use of city utilities amounts to about $1 million annually. Assuming 40 percent of the hospital’s employees are city utilities customers, the agency would lose another $1 million in annual revenue.
Southwestern utilities revenue alone accounts for 2.5 percent of the agency’s annual budget.
Steve Sykes, city manager, said that if the revenue is lost, utilities customers would see slight rate increases.
“We have fixed costs to pay,” Sykes said.
Don Sims, Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce president, is trying to find out “who’s pushing it.”
A look to privatization is a look to decreasing costs, Sims said, but a reduction in expenses will not result in treatment of mental illnesses. “It certainly is not the way to go,” he said.
The chamber will contact the governor.
“Privatization is for profit, and the bill would come back to the state,” the chamber president said.
Sims said that closing Southwestern is a blow to a part of the state that can least withstand more economic downturns.
