Home  Documents HRC News Bulletins Vince Taylor's report of the Planning Committee meeting on CAH
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Vince Taylor's report of the Planning Committee meeting on CAH |
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Tuesday, 25 April 2006 |
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Dear Friends,
The Planning Committee of the hospital voted 8-0 to support a action that will add over $1 million to the hospital's bottom line and allow the hospital to continue owning the ambulance service.
The full board will vote on the issue this Thursday night, but it seems highly unlikely that it will go against the eight to zero vote of its Planning Committee (on which two of the five board members sit). The Board meeting will be at the hospital in the Redwood Room (new wing) and will begin at 6:00 PM.
The decision under consideration is to become a "Critical Access Hospital" (CAH) which provides a variety of financial benefits to rural hospitals with a maximum of 25 beds. The primary benefit is Medicare reimbursement at cost plus 1% for both inpatient and outpatient services to Medicare patients.
CAH status would add a sorely needed $1.1 to $1.5 million per year to
our hospital's net income. The decision seems obvious, but it has been
consistently opposed by the hospital administration because it would
limit beds.
To become a CAH, MCDH would need to reduce its beds to 25. This would
not affect its ability to meet needs for acute hospitalization, because
acute care patients won't fill 25 beds (typically they fill less than
15 beds), but it would at some times require moving patients needing
long-term skilled nursing care to other facilities.
The action of the Planning Committee was remarkable on a number of counts:
1) It was directly contrary to the strong recommendations NOT to
become a Critical Access Hospital by the administration, a special "CAH
Committee," and a hired hospital consultant.
2) This meeting was the first time in which members of the public and
the medical staff were official committee members. Until this meeting,
the members of the Planning (and Finance) Committee were all of the
members of the Hospital Board.
3) Open discussion by the community and medical staff was encouraged.
4) The Hospital Resource Council was able to introduce its independent
research and evaluation to the public and committee members.
One of our members, Mike Dell'Ara, was on the committee and was able to
reinforce the main conclusions of our analysis (most importantly, that
there were no other available alternatives that could quickly begin to
bring in over $1 million per year to the hospital's bottom line).
Most physicians present strongly endorsed the CAH and explained how
they could work to minimize any problems arising from the bed
limitation. Because of the participation of the community and medical staff, the Committee was able to make a well-informed decision.
The Tuesday meeting will serve as a model for future meetings and, in
my opinion, marks the beginning of a new era of openness at the
hospital.
Our hospital has taken a second important step toward becoming the hospital that our community needs and deserves.
Sincerely,
Vince Taylor
For the Hospital Resource Council
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