CLARKE COUNTY, Alabama (WALA) – FOX10 News continues to follow the destination of Thomasville Regional Medical Center, a rural hospital in Clarke County.

In September, TRMC closed its doors, citing staff shortages. Hospital employees say were not paid on time and they told us They may not get paid next week either.. Many employees made the difficult decision to leave.

Where once there were sounds of beeping machines and chatter of doctors and nurses, there is now an eerie silence.

“It’s almost apocalyptic in nature,” said Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Allison Day. “You walk in and wonder, ‘wow, the rapture happened and it left us behind?’”

Mayor Day says the hospital’s demise really began at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when TRMC was one of three hospitals nationwide that did not receive federal COVID relief funds.

“(Congress) established a formula to distribute those funds and when they established it, they made it the key piece to calculate their losses. We had to use historical numbers from 2019. We didn’t open in 2019, so we were a square peg in a round hole,” explained Mayor Day.

The mayor’s day says that The hospital owners borrowed money. and dug an even deeper hole.

However, he says there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Recently, a judge appointed a receiver, Kevin Smoker, to take control of TRMC’s assets.

This week, hospital employees say they received an email promising they would receive the money they were waiting for.

“They were able to raise some funds that were outstanding payments owed to the hospital from various insurance providers and others, so they were able to raise enough money to help pay employees payroll that they were not paid,” Mayor Day explained. .

One employee told FOX10 News she is relieved to see the money she has been anxiously awaiting.

“I was very impressed with the recipient’s email,” he said. “He seemed to really care about the facility and the employees…it’s about time we had someone like that.”

Mayor Day says the closure of TRMC is just one part of Alabama’s current health crisis.

“There are many hospitals that are considering closing, several more in our region that are struggling,” he added. “Because of the issues that have happened here in Thomasville, a conversation has opened up with us at the state level with everyone from the governor’s office and state legislators and others about what we can do long-term to fix the problem in Alabama . “

Currently, the receiver and his team are cleaning and organizing TRMC’s facilities and 40-acre campus to market the hospital to potential buyers.

“We have a lot of capacity here, plus it’s a 40-acre campus, so there are opportunities not only for the hospital but also for other clinical functions: long-term acute care and assisted living,” Mayor Day added.

The mayor says several health care providers from inside and outside Alabama have inquired about TRMC and some have even visited the hospital campus.

Mayor Day adds that about 70 to 75 percent of the hospital’s current employees have expressed interest in returning, while others are hesitant.

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