CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  Thomas Memorial and Saint Francis hospitals may be consolidating some of their duplicate services, which could lead to closures of some facilities on either campus.

The Wound Care Center at Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston could be one of the units closing its doors, but Bob Gray, the hospital's senior vice president, said nothing is certain and the hospital is only considering the idea of consolidating services at this point.

"Nothing is certain," he said.  "We are talking about closing the center, but I can't confirm anything. ... We're looking at a lot of services."

The Wound Care Center at Thomas Memorial received an award in April for its success in treating and curing chronic or non-healing wounds and providing excellent care to over 2,400 patients since the center's opening in 2002, according to the hospital.

Gray said any changes would be directly related to the economic downturn: "We wouldn't take an award-winning service and close it for no reason."

Thomas Memorial bought Saint Francis Hospital a few years ago and the two facilities have "a lot of duplicate services. We're looking at places where we can consolidate."

Gray said nothing is certain and the hospital could end up keeping every unit open, however he said looking into operation efficiency is something "every business is doing right now. We've concluded on some services it does not make sense and on some, it does."

One prime example where consolidation did work is the sleep lab, which is now one facility on Thomas' campus.

Now, "we are the largest sleep center in West Virginia now and we're doing more sleep studies than anyone else," Gray said. "We had two facilities that worked well, but they work even better as one."

If the Wound Care Center were to close at Thomas, it would likely be consolidated with the center at Saint Francis. Gray said he does not envision layoffs. "The goal is that everyone has a job."

However, Gray said, "when you put two factories together that are operating at 60 percent capacity, you don't need all staff at both places."

Service consolidation is just another option Thomas may be employing to stay afloat in the ever-crumbling economy.  

Earlier this month, Thomas cut back on some employees' work hours, administrators' salaries, curbed overtime and eliminated merit pay increases citing a decrease in patient numbers and Medicare reimbursements, and a significant increase in charity care and bad debt as the reasons for the cost cutting measures.

Those cuts came just months after Thomas Memorial, West Virginia's eight largest hospital, completed a $70 million Clinical Pavilion that made Thomas the only all-private-room hospital in the Kanawha Valley.

 Consolidating duplicate services could be the next temporary fix in cost cutting, but nothing is certain for the fate of the Wound Care Center or any other facility at either hospital.

Any changes "should not affect patient care. If we decide to close at Thomas, we're not going to abandon our patients."

Even so, Gray said nothing is set in stone. "We're looking at a number of different possibilities," he said.

Reach Kathryn Gregory at kathr...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5119.