Cooper Green Mercy Health Services
Cooper Green Mercy Health Services (formerly Mercy Hospital, Cooper Green Hospital and Cooper Green Mercy Hospital) is a medical clinic, formerly an inpatient general care hospital, which is owned by Jefferson County and operated by Jefferson Health System. It first opened as Mercy Hospital in 1972 and was renamed for former Birmingham mayor Cooper Green three years later.
The ospital was scaled back to an urgent care facility without overnight beds on January 1, 2013 as part of the fallout from the Jefferson County debt crisis. The facility is located at 1515 6th Avenue South, adjacent to UAB Hospital on Birmingham's Southside.
Funding for indigent care was established by the Alabama legislature in 1965, using revenues collected from county sales and liquor taxes. As a county hospital, Cooper Green Mercy provides health-care services to all Jefferson County residents with fees based on family size and income. In addition to staff physicians, the hospital coordinated with UAB Hospital as a training site for medical residents and to provide patients with diagnostic tests, trauma care, and other procedures outside of Cooper Green Mercy's capabilities. Though once licensed for 319 beds, by the mid 2000s, less than half that number were staffed, and the hospital served an average of 60 inpatients per day. Its emergency room handled as many as 35,000 patients per year.
Max Michael served as administrator until 2000. He resigned after his recommendation to stop providing hospital services and serve entirely as an outpatient clinic was rejected by Commissioner Jeff Germany. The hospital's executive director from 2001 to 2012, was Sandral Hullett. She was laid off along with 210 employees in the cost-cutting plan implemented that year.
In February 2004 the hospital was placed under the aegis of the Jefferson Metropolitan Health Care Authority, created by Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford to allow for more flexible management and increased Medicaid claims. The authority became inactive in 2007 and management reverted to the existing health system. In May 2009 Birmingham mayor Larry Langford suggested that the city of Birmingham take over operation of the hospital, predicting that the county would try to shut it down amid cost-cutting measures in the wake of its massive debt crisis.
From October 2005 to March 2008 the hospital underwent a $28 million program of extensive renovations and modernization of systems, focusing on patient care rooms and public areas of the hospital. Brasfield & Gorrie was general contractor for the project.
Special programs housed at Cooper Green Mercy include St George's Clinic, an outpatient care clinic for HIV infected clients, an Adult Sickle Cell Clinic, a Women's Health Center, the Balm of Gilead Palliative Care Unit, which focuses on comfort care for persons nearing the end of life. Cooper Green Mercy also operates the Jefferson Metrocare Health Center in Forestdale and the South Town Clinic in the South Town Housing Community.
In June 2010, with the Commission proposing to sell the Jefferson Rehabilitation and Health Center, several candidates in the 2010 election indicated that privatizing Cooper Green could be necessary. In 2011 Commissioner of Finance Jimmie Stephens recommended that the hospital be prevented from drawing from the county's general fund to meet month-to-month expenses.
In late 2012, despite objections from community activists, the Jefferson County Commission voted to end inpatient care at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, reducing staff and operating as a primary and urgent care clinic.
References
- Velasco, Anna (July 15, 2007) "Renovation transforming look of county hospital." The Birmingham News
- Bryant, Joseph (May 19, 2009) "Mayor Larry Langford: Birmingham should consider operating Cooper Green Mercy Hospital." The Birmingham News
- Wright, Barnett (June 5, 2010) "Fate of Cooper Green hospital in hands of future Jefferson County Commission." The Birmingham News
- Leech, Marie (June 12, 2011) "Jefferson County takes hard look at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital funding." The Birmingham News
- Faulk, Kent (January 1, 2013) "Cooper Green Mercy Hospital urgent care center opens." The Birmingham News
External links
- Cooper Green Mercy Hospital website