Callaway Community Hospital at risk of not opening, interim CEO says

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The interim CEO of the shuttered Callaway Community Hospital said the facility is in jeopardy of not opening by a Sept. 21 deadline.

Jeffrey Stone said the deadline is tied to an extension that state regulators gave the hospital to reopen after it closed on March 25. Former owner Noble Health closed the hospital and one in Mexico, Missouri, and laid off all the workers last spring. The company laid off 113 workers in Mexico and 68 in Fulton but said it hoped the layoffs would be temporary, according to notices filed with state regulators.

Texas-based Platinum Team Management then took over the hospitals but has been unable to reopen them.

Stone said in an email that Platinum has not decided not to reopen the Callaway and Audrain County hospitals but doing so will be difficult.

"But Platinum has not stopped looking for options," Stone wrote. "We are actively speaking to investment groups and others on funding opportunities for both Callaway and Audrain hospitals. We still have a month to find a way."

Stone said he hopes the Fulton hospital will reopen with full emergency room and inpatient services but Platinum is keeping its options open.

"The community needs the hospital and needs to be able to seek care locally," Stone wrote.