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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > SUTTER'S PLANS GET MIXED RECEPTION
Article published - December 23, 2008
Credit: PRESS DEMOCRAT
Sutter's plans get mixed reception at hearing
New hospital proposal revives past issues, faces months of review
By BLEYS W. ROSE
Sutter Health's resuscitation of plans for a new hospital north of Santa Rosa met with measures of praise, skepticism and puzzlement during a two-hour public hearing Monday held by Sonoma County supervisors.
The session, which revived many issues dealt with four years ago when supervisors first approved Sutter's plans for a 118-bed facility, starts a review process expected to last several months. Faced with a constricted market of insured patients, Sutter officials now propose a scaled-back, 70-bed hospital alongside an independently operated 28-bed surgery center.
At the end of the hearing, Supervisor Tim Smith reminded the audience of about 50 medical community leaders that the panel previously indicated support for the hospital adjacent to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts at Highway 101 and Mark West Springs Road.
"The challenge is to make this (new plan) fit," Smith said. "Everybody should take a breath and let this thing work its way through the system."
Smith, who is retiring and completed his last meeting as supervisor, was the only sitting member of the panel to sign the 1996 contract that turned over the publicly operated Community Hospital to Sacramento-based Sutter.
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| Nancy Oswald said: "We have a moment where Sutter will reinvest in our community." JOHN BURGESS / The Press Democrat |
Nancy Oswald, executive director of the Redwood Community Health Coalition of clinics, said thecounty's fragmented system of health care delivery had reached another turning point.
"This is as important as the decision taken in 1996," Oswald said. "We have a moment where Sutter will reinvest in our community."
After initially proposing a 118-bed facility, Sutter Health decided its 2004 business plan was no longer financially feasible. However, an attempt in 2007 to turn over the county contract for inpatient services to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital met with opposition from supervisors as well as many in the medical community.
Sutter CEO Mike Cohill told supervisors that the new plan calls for only a change in location and no changes in terms of the Health Care Access Agreement. That agreement enabled Sutter to lease Community Hospital while it provided indigent patient care, women's reproductive services, jail inmate care and neonatal intensive care.
"Sonoma County simply has too many unused hospital beds to serve unmet and future demands," Cohill said. "It would be irresponsible to build a hospital above patient demand."
But critics, such as leaders of the district hospitals, warned supervisors that a hospital with too little capacity would allow Sutter to pick off insured patients while leaving such facilities as Palm Drive, Healdsburg and Sonoma Valley to take more uninsured patients.
"If Sutter goes through with this, it will be the death knell of at least two district hospitals," said Arnie Riebli, a farmer on the Sonoma Valley Hospital board. "If we blow it, we will blow it forever."
County health service director Rita Scardaci said her department will collect public comment on Sutter's plan for a couple of months before returning to supervisors in the spring with a recommendation. Her agency is scheduling meetings Jan. 13 and 14 that will focus on how Sutter's plans affect specific provisions of the county contract.
Sutter's plans involving construction of a surgery center and a medical office building for Sutter-affiliated physicians will be handled by the county Permit and Resources Management Department, with hearings before the Planning Commission and, later, county supervisors.
"That will be a separate process," said County Administrator Bob Deis. "This is not a land-use decision. This is an amendment to Sutter's business plan and a proposed amendment to the contract."
Some, however, said that after hearing a presentation of Sutter's plans that they are skeptical Sutter will end up building anything next to the Wells Fargo Center.
"It is a grand performance of Kabuki theater to pretend like they'll build a hospital they know won't get completed," said longtime health care consultant Bob Shirrell. "If you'll notice, Sutter can back out if it can't get the surgery center, which is supposed to make the whole package financially feasible."
Because it isn't covered by the county contract, Sutter officials offered few details on their proposed Physicians Medical Center. It is to be next to the hospital and to be connected by a skyway to a medical office building for 60 doctors in the Sutter Medical Foundation North Bay.
Cohill said the 28-bed annex would be for cardiology, specialized surgery and outpatient procedures and would be operated by Sutter Health and by doctors who invest in it. It also will provide physicians incentives to continue practicing in the county, an issue that doctors have been concerned about for some time.
"It allows them to become investors in their own future," Cohill said.
Supervisor Paul Kelley said the panel will need to balance Sutter's new view of project financial feasibility with the current state of county medical services.
Sutter's plans "have a bit of a tortured history," he said.
You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.
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