Inpatient (January 2007)

Ohio system eyes specialty hospital plan

COMMUNITY MERCY HEALTH WANTS TO NEGOTIATE WITH SURGEONS, NOT COMPETE

 

By John Mugford

 

As the debate over specialty hospitals continues throughout the country, one hospital is hoping to create a partnership with surgeons planning their own hospital in Springfield, Ohio.

Community Mercy Health Partners, which is part of Cincinnati-based Catholic Healthcare Partners, says it would like to negotiate with the surgeons. The surgeons have hired a consultant to look into creating a specialty hospital in Springfield, which is located north and east of Dayton, Ohio.

But, as of last month, officials with Community Mercy had yet to hear from the surgeons. The health system considers a potential specialty hospital as a direct threat to its future $300 million hospital in downtown Springfield. Community Mercy is concerned that a new for-profit specialty hospital would drastically reduce one of its main sources of revenue: surgeries.

Community Mercy, in fact, has offered to put the surgeons in a downtown location next to the future hospital. Community Mercy Health Partners president George Miller, in fact, has stated in local news reports that the planning and financing of the future hospital has involved a tremendous effort by local, state and federal officials. The hospital system estimates that the construction project could have a $1 billion positive impact on the local economy.

As is the case in most debates over specialty hospitals, Community Mercy officials say a for-profit specialty hospital can focus its efforts on money-generating surgeries while leaving local hospitals to provide the community with birthing services, emergency care facilities and providing care for heart patients, diabetics and others.

The debate is not being fought by the Springfield hospital alone. In recent weeks, the leaders of 14 Ohio healthcare systems signed a letter asking state legislators to put restrictions on niche hospitals. This comes in the wake the federal government’s recent lifting of a moratorium on the building of new specialty hospitals. The number of such facilities is expected to increase dramatically in states without Certificate of Need (CON) requirements.

One Ohio state senator, Steve Stivers, recently introduced a bill that would require specialty hospitals to provide 24-hour emergency care and maintain Medicare and Medicaid contracts. State Rep. Ross McGregor has introduced a companion bill in the Ohio House of Representatives.

U. of Minnesota

plans $175 million

children’s hospital
MINNEAPOLIS – A parking lot at the University of Minnesota will be transformed into a new 207-bed, $175 million freestanding children’s hospital by the year 2010. Plans for the future University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital Fairview were announced in recent weeks by Fairview Health Services, a major Minnesota health system with eight hospitals scattered throughout the state.

The future children’s hospital is considered a replacement facility as it will bring all of hospital’s pediatric services under one roof. Currently, those services are provided in several locations within the system’s University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview – a dual campus with facilities on both sides of the Mississippi River. The future building will be connected to the hospital’s maternity unit and 41-bed neonatal intensive care unit via a tunnel and skyway connection. The maternity unit will also be updated, according to Fairview officials.

The new children’s hospital will include private patient rooms with plenty of space for families to sleep. It will also entail such features as room-size “magic walls” with three LCD screens for movies, video games, Internet access and a live bedside-controlled roof-camera.

The project is part of Fairview’s long-range plan to pump about $1 billion into its facilities and operations over the next six years or so, including moving all of its adult-care services under roof on the university campus.

The project was announced just a few months after talks aimed at building a consolidated children’s hospital broke down between Fairview and two other Minnesota systems: Allina Hospitals & Clinics and Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. Fairview says it began planning its new children’s hospital several years earlier, but suspended those plans while exploring the joint venture hospital with Allina and Children’s. When those talks ended over financial issues, Fairview resumed its planning for the new freestanding facility at the university campus. Fairview, in a partnership with North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, Minn., is also building a new hospital in the northern Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove. The 80- to 120-bed facility is slated to open in 2009; it will be the state’s first new hospital with all new beds in more than 25 years.

The project manager on the future Fairview children’s hospital is the Cincinnati office of Jacobs Engineering Group; the architects are Minneapolis-based Hammel Green and Abrahamson Inc. (HGA) and Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. A groundbreaking is expected in late 2007 or early 2008; completion is scheduled for 2010.

Mountain States

receives three CONs

from Tennessee
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Mountain States Health Alliance recently received three Certificate of Need (CON) approvals from the state that will likely lead to the building of a $122 million, 80-bed replacement hospital as well as the addition of 64 beds at its flagship hospital in Johnson City, located in the far eastern part of Tennessee. The flagship hospital is the 433-bed Johnson City Medical Center.

The new hospital is slated as a replacement for the provider’s 94-bed North Side Hospital and 49-bed Johnson City Specialty Hospital. The 64 beds to be added to the Johnson City Medical Center would be transferred from the North Side facility.

The third CON approval allows Mountain States Health to transfer 13 skilled-nursing beds from Johnson City Medical Center to its 60-bed Quillen Rehabilitation Hospital.

When the replacement hospital is complete, the North Side and Johnson City Specialty facilities will be used for outpatient services, a skilled-nursing ward and administrative offices. Not-for-profit Mountain States Health Alliance operates eight hospitals in eastern Tennessee.

Florida denies

Nemours’ bid

in Orlando, again
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Even after another setback, the folks at Nemours, a provider of pediatric healthcare in Florida and Delaware, seem resolute in their desire to build a new children’s hospital in Orlando, Fla. Recently, Nemours learned that the state of Florida has denied its second CON request.

Nemours had submitted an application to build a $260 million, 95-bed children’s hospital in Orlando. But the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said Nemours did not build a strong enough case for such a facility. Orlando is already home to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, which is part of Orlando Regional Healthcare.

Nemours officials say they are already exploring their options, including filing an appeal of the CON denial, submitting a new application in coming months, or expanding the system’s existing Nemours Children’s Clinic-Florida at Orlando. Nemours’ officials say the new hospital is needed because its Orlando clinic treated about 114,000 patients and recorded more than 24,000 outpatient visits in 2006.

Healthcare is major

driver in New Mexico’s

construction industry

NEW MEXICO – Like much of the country, New Mexico is experiencing quite a boom when it comes to healthcare construction. The state’s largest systems have several major projects taking place, as well as plans for future hospitals and ancillary facilities.

A good example is Presbyterian Healthcare Services, New Mexico’s largest system, which recently acquired 3.6 acres in a growing area north of Albuquerque. The system plans to construction a family healthcare center there. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Presbyterian, which recently announced plans to eventually build a new $150 million hospital on 50 acres in suburban Rio Rancho, is constructing a $13 million parking structure at its main downtown hospital, and has $27 million worth of projects taking place at various locations.

Presbyterian has also begun a $14 million, 90,000 square foot addition, including medical offices, at its Presbyterian Kaseman Hospital, located in the northern part of Albuquerque.

The state’s second largest system, Albuquerque-based Lovelace Health, reports nearly $100 million worth of construction projects under way or completed in the past year or so. Included is an ongoing $63 million major renovation of the system’s 10-story, 333,000 square foot Lovelace Medical Center and a $14 million, 40,000 square foot expansion of Lovelace Women’s Hospital.
And then there’s the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, which is in the midst of a $233 million, 475,000 square foot expansion of its children’s hospital, emergency department and other facilities.

Triad faces opposition

to moving hospital

out of Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala., is facing stiff opposition in its quest to build a proposed $316 million, 454-bed replacement hospital for what was long known as Montclair Baptist Medical Center. The name was changed after Plano, Texas-based Triad Hospitals Inc. acquired a 65 percent stake in the hospital in October 2005. Baptist Health System retained a 35 percent interest, with the understanding that Triad would pay for a new replacement facility.

However, to large healthcare systems are challenging the proposal by TrinityTwo – the name of the partnership between Baptist and Triad. Trinity filed a CON with the state in November, proposing to move Trinity Medical Center from its current location in eastern Birmingham to a site near the U.S. Interstate-459 corridor, in a suburban area east of Birmingham called Irondale.

The systems opposing Trinity’s proposal are Brookwood Medical Center and Noland Health Services, which recently filed their opposition to the application. Both systems have requested a hearing before an administrative law judge. Brookwood officials say people in the area are already receiving high-quality healthcare services from their hospital.

According to local news reports, members of the Birmingham City Council are against Trinity’s plan to vacate its location in the city. They recently passed a resolution asking the hospital not to leave. Trinity officials, however, say the move would bring the hospital closer to its core group of patients.

St. Vincent’s in

Connecticut plans

$140 million project

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, Conn., recently unveiled plans for a $140 million expansion plan to handle rising demand for emergency and cancer treatment. The proposed expansion would more than double the hospital’s emergency department treatment rooms from 23 to 60 and more than triple the amount of space in the ER from 12,000 to 40,000 square feet.

In addition, St. Vincent’s, which is part of the Ascension Health Care System, would add diagnostic imaging equipment to its emergency facilities. It also plans to double the amount of radiation treatment facilities in its cancer center, which is designed to handle 50 patients per day but typically sees up to 70 patients daily.

The expansion is intended to address primary care for the uninsured and longer emergency room treatment stays as doctors determine if they can avoid admitting patients to full-care facilities. The proposal also calls for a 125,000 square foot outpatient building and a six-level garage with nearly 1,500 spaces.

The hospital will soon seek formal approvals from the Connecticut Office of Health Care Access and city officials, she said. Hospital officials hope to break ground in late spring.

Methodist Le Bonheur

receives nod for

big projects in Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare system has received the go-ahead from state regulators to expand its children’s hospital in downtown Memphis as well as its acute-care hospital in nearby Germantown. The two projects are expected to cost a total of more than $450 million.

Methodist faced opposition from rival system Saint Francis over its plans for a $124 million expansion at Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital. It did not, however, face opposition to its plan for a $327 million expansion at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center. In fact, community leaders and area doctors provided a wave of support for both of the system’s plans.

Methodist officials argued that the system needed to expand its Germantown hospital, which is located in an affluent part of the metro area, in order to offset losses from providing charity care at its four inner-city hospitals. Local elected officials endorsed the plan, as did the local chapter of the NAACP and the Black Business Association of Memphis.

However, officials with Saint Francis, which is part of for-profit Tenet Healthcare Corp., argued that the Germantown project will take paying customers away from its hospital, which in turn will make it more difficult for the system to provide charity care of its own.

Both of Methodist’s projects are scheduled for completion in 2011.

Kaiser, Southwest

try to keep pace

in growing Inland

TEMECULA, Calif. – Like other areas of California, the area centered on the towns of Temecula and Murrieta are growing quite rapidly. It’s no wonder that two healthcare systems are beefing up their presence in the area to keep up with the growing population. The towns are located along the U.S. Interstate-15 corridor about midway between Los Angeles and San Diego.

For starters, Southwest Healthcare System plans to spend $350 million to build a new hospital in Temecula and to upgrade its Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta and its Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar.

At the same time, Kaiser Permanente recently acquired 15 acres in northeastern Murrieta for a future medical office building and other outpatient facilities. Kaiser also plans to expand its outpatient facility in Wildomar beginning early this year.

Kaiser’s future MOB is among more than $1 billion in construction projects that the system and health insurance provider has planned for Riverside and San Bernardino counties during the next 10 years. Kaiser insures almost 650,000 area residents, according to company officials.

Local officials say Kaiser’s future complex is likely to spur the building of additional medical offices in an area that seems rife for such developments.

For the Record

Mercy Medical Center of Mason City, Iowa, recently received the go-ahead for a $90 million hospital in growing West Des Moines, Iowa. The initial project will entail a five-story building with 82 private patient rooms. In the future, the system could add two more floors with another 64 beds. Meanwhile, Mercy’s competitor, Iowa Health-Des Moines, is also proposing a new hospital in West Des Moines. The system has two potential sites, both of which are relatively closed to Mercy’s future hospital… Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte, N.C., announced that North Carolina regulators recently approved its application to build a $90 million, 50-bed hospital in Mint Hill, a suburb of Charlotte. The hospital is scheduled to open in late 2009… Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Lincoln, Ill., recently announced plans for a $25 million hospital on the city’s west side. Officials from the not-for-profit hospital say they are looking to hire an architect in coming months and plan to file documents seeking state approval in about a year. Officials have an option to acquire land in a soybean field for the planned facility, which they hope to open in 2010… Wyoming Valley Health Care System in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is set to receive $40 million from Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania to establish new operating and emergency rooms, cardiology and oncology office space and to finish up a new medical office building. The funds from Blue Cross will allow the system to move forward with its $100 million expansion plan at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. The local Blue Cross group plans to invest $175 million in locally controlled, community-based health care systems in northeast Pennsylvania… Pacer Health Corp. of Miami Lakes, Fla., recently announced that construction has begun on a 25-bed, $19 million hospital in Cameron, La., to replace an acute-care facility that was damaged beyond repair by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The hospital is scheduled for completion later in 2007, according to Pacer officials. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund is donating $2 million to the hospital’s operator, Lower Cameron Hospital Service District, to fund the recruitment of physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals. The for-profit Pacer system has contracted Lower Cameron to operate the hospital since February 2004… Jefferson County Hospital of Fairfield, Iowa, continues to move forward on plans for a $35 million replacement facility. The hospital’s board, along with architects from Minneapolis-based HGA Inc., have moved into the second phase of the design process. The hospital expects to release requests for proposals for a variety of projects in April. HGA has recommended that the hospital make efforts to qualify for the Green Design for Healthcare program… Northeast Georgia Medical Center and Health System in Gainesville, Ga., recently filed for CON approval with the state for a $209 million, 100-bed replacement hospital. The facility would be located about 20 miles from the main campus in fast-growing Gainesville and would replace an existing 100-bed satellite hospital about a mile from the main campus. The not-for-profit system composes the 318-bed main hospital, the 100-bed satellite facility, and two long-term acute-care facilities (LTACs)… Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Ga., just east of Atlanta, still needs state approval to move forward on a proposed $92 million patient tower that would add 129 beds. Officials at the not-for-profit hospital say the expansion received a boost in recent weeks when Gwinnett County commissioners approved the backing of $25 million in bonds to support the project. The expansion would bring Gwinnett’s bed total to 304… St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales, La., recently broke ground on a $14.5 million, two-phase expansion project. The first phase, slated for completion in late 2007, calls for expanding the emergency department from seven to 14 beds, privatizing all patient rooms, and expanding the cardiopulmonary department, labs and the pharmacy. The second phase would involve renovating much of the hospital’s interior. The architect on the project is Bradley-Blewster and Associates… A $198 million expansion project at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, Ariz., marked another step toward completion with the recent opening of a new 606-space parking garage. Hospital officials expect to break ground in spring 2007 on the major aspect of the project, a 200-bed patient tower, which is scheduled for completion in late 2008… Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, S.C., has started a $25 million, 63-bed expansion that’s on track for completion in spring 2008… Sierra View District Hospital in Porterville, Calif., has announced plans for an 118,000 square foot addition. The project would entail demolishing a portion of the original, 1957 hospital structure, renovating portions of that facility, and adding a new three-story tower. Included would be new imaging and laboratory facilities, an expanded emergency department, a new 16-bed critical care unit, and a 14-room labor-delivery-recovery and post-partum (LDRP) rooms. q