ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
About 25 staff members at Alleghany Regional Hospital in Low Moor learned Wednesday that their jobs will be eliminated when the hospital closes one of its two medical-surgical patient units Tuesday.
Registered nurses, nursing assistants and environmental services workers will be affected, chief nursing officer Debbie Clark said.
Some of the staff members should find jobs in other service areas, such as home health care, she said.
Chief Executive Officer Ward Stevens said the decision was prompted by a continuing drop in the number of people hospitalized and in the number of days patients stay in the hospital.
The average patient stay at Alleghany dropped almost a full day, from 5.23 days to 4.47 days, from February 1995 to February 1996, he said.
The merger of the units will cut the hospital's medical-surgical beds from 79 to 47.
Alleghany, which employs about 500 people, has been part of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. since last spring. Columbia, the country's fastest growing hospital company, also owns Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, Pulaski Community Hospital and Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem.
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