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ALBANY, GA -- The Hospital Authority of Albany Dougherty County  had its first meeting of 2012.
    
As of the middle of December, the Hospital Authority became the owners and operators of Phoebe North, formerly known as Palmyra. Board members were updated Thursday on the status of the merger.

Tom Sullivan, the Chief Transition Officer, says 'we've worked very very hard to make sure that the transition is smooth and seamless to the patients and workers."

The staff at Phoebe North is constantly transitioning.

Sullivan says "we meet with the staff on a daily basis to work through the details."

Now that Phoebe Putney and Phoebe North are in the same hospital system - we wondered if doctors will work at both locations.

The transitition officer says "there are two different medical staffs here as there was before. Now some of those physicians are in the credentials process so they can work at both hospitals some already had credentials to work at both hospitals.'

We also got insight as to how the two emergency rooms are able to transition together.

Doug Patten, the Chief Medical Officer says 'the idea is to have them operating information technology platform and at that point we will have the ability to share lab data and images and things like from one facility to the next and the other will be significantly advanced."

Sullivan says Phoebe North is still the center of excellence for bariatric medicine and are looking at other things as well to bring business to this campus.

The Hospital Authority has an early August target date for both hospitals to be under the same license.