Pauls Valley Hospital Temporarily Saved Amid Financial Concerns

Pauls Valley General hospital has been saved amid major financial concerns.

With help from Pauls Valley National Bank, the hospital doors will stay open, at least for the next few months.

Before Wednesday's decision, hospital staff said they had been working without pay.

The city stayed at a council meeting Wednesday afternoon, employees will get those paycheck tomorrow. 

“Relief, ecstatic, just complete joy for our community and employees. It was something that needed to happen,” said Liz Staggs, Director of Clinical Nursing.

Many who attended the meeting say that the hospital had been poorly managed over the years. It caused distrust among previous patients.

But just about a month ago, it turned around. New management, Alliance Health Partners, entered the picture and said they identified the critical financial needs.

“We haven’t purchased the hospital yet. Our initial intention was to purchase the hospital. As we started doing our due diligence, and digging through, our financial backers were not willing to purchase, or put money into the investment until we were able to straighten it out. Found out there was no more gas in the tank,” said CEO Frank Avignone of Alliance Health Partners.

Alliance Health Partners says the hospital needs between $600 thousand and $2 million to remain open. They estimate that will keep the hospital running for close to 120 days, enough time to become a viable business. 

However, if Pauls Valley General were to close, it wouldn’t be the only operation in town that would take a hit.

“Many of the major employers in town have reached out to me personally and said, we will not stay without a hospital,” said Avignone.

The nearest hospital is about 30 miles away, and every mile and minute counts in an emergency.

“We need to have continued support for the hospital going forward. We are not out of the woods yet,” said Staggs.

Hospital management reports within a matter of weeks, the hospital went from two patients to preforming 44 surgeries. They intended on bringing services back to the facility that were previously cut, hopefully attracting new patients.