Saturday, March 3, 2007

Hospital committee talks about feasibility issues

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

County commission concerns about the three proposed sites for a hospital were reviewed by the County Hospital Advisory Committee Tuesday.

During his report, Committee Chair Bob Davey said he, along with board member Kathy Chavez and consultant Robin Hunn of Robin Hunn, LLC, spoke with the county commissioners who had expressed concerns during the Feb. 21 commission meeting.

Davey said there seemed to be two primary concerns expressed by the commissioners. They were the financial viability of the hospital and how other providers already in the county, such as Presbyterian, would interface with the hospital.

"The intention all along was to have Pres involved," he said. "The system we want to set up, the health commons, would involve all the existing local providers."

Davey went on to say that the current site of the Presbyterian facility had not been considered because there had not been any interest on Presbyterian's part to sell the site to the county and the site is already crowded and would not lend itself to the health commons.

"I think the overall plan for economic development satisfied them," he said. "At the end of the discussion, I think they felt better about where this is going." Davey commented that thinking back on how the board felt in December, it wasn't surprising that some commissioners felt overwhelmed.

"We also told them we would meet anywhere, any time either as a board or an individual committee to relay information to them during the process," Davey said. Commissioner Lynette Pinkston urged the board members who were appointed by individual commissioners to contact their commissioners and give them frequent updates. Pinkston is the county representative on the hospital board. Hunn said she would also supply the entire commission with weekly updates.

Despite not having a site selected for the hospital, the board is continuing to concentrate on accomplishing the tasks needed for the development of the hospital. Hunn presented the board with a timeline for the development of the hospital over the next four months. The board has reorganized into three subcommittees: the facility development, services and finance committees.

Hunn said they have started getting completed surveys back indicating the types of services the public would like to see at the new hospital. "The preliminary data is showing that everyone wants everything at the hospital," she said.

The service committee will work on the overall system development of the hospital. "They will be looking at what kinds of clinics we need and where they should be; how the hospital will tie into EMS," Hunn said. "It's not only the services at the hospital, but the entire county-wide system."

The facility committee will move forward with meetings with architects and engineers. That committee will review preliminary floor plans and hospital models as well as floor plans of existing Covenant hospitals in New Mexico.

The facility committee will hold a meeting from 9 a.m. to noon in Albuquerque on Saturday, March 10, to look at those floor plans and models. An exact location has not been determined for the meeting.

Chair for the facility development committee Bill Johnson said they would work closely with the county to ensure that they adhere to the proper procurement procedure.

Hunn said as the development process continues, the services and facility committees will work very closely together.

The finance committee will continue working with the New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA) on the financial analysis of the hospital. The timeline presented by Hunn has the final analysis and application to NMFA done by March 19. Hunn said by then a site should be chosen and the results of the county's $11.2 million capital outlay request from the legislature will be known.

"This is a very ambitious timeline, but it can be done," Hunn said. The timeline calls for a groundbreaking for the new facility in late June of this year.

Davey asked when contracts with other providers and insurers would be in place. Hunn said Covenant is engaged with ongoing talks with all the local providers. "Right now, those are informal," she said. "It is in Covenant's contract with the county that they will negotiate with all the insurance providers."

The meeting had begun with an apology from board chairman Bob Davey. "Rita, I said something to you after the last commission meeting that I shouldn't have," Davey said, addressing fellow board member Rita Padilla-Gutierrez. "I was wrong."

Davey went on to say that the board should be proud of all it has accomplished. "In the rest of this process, we will be under a lot of pressure," he said. "We have to perform with grace and good will."

Padilla-Gutierrez accepted his apology and thanked him for starting the meeting on a positive note. She asked for and was given a few minutes later in the meeting to address the board.

Padilla-Gutierrez then addressed the board. "I'm glad you prefaced the meeting with words of encouragement and moving forward," she said. She went on to express some concerns.

In reference to Davey's conjecture during the Feb. 14 county commission meeting that the board felt the Highway 314-Morris Road site was the weakest of the three sites for economic development, Padilla-Gutierrez pointed out that the board's analysis matrix indicated that site had limited potential. "There is a difference between weakest and limited," she said.

She said that while the county has made the decision to go ahead with building a hospital, the discussions about the process is appropriate. "I thought we (the board) would be able to supply recommendations for site selection," Padilla-Gutierrez said. "I felt like we were force fed the matrixes. I didn't think this board was a rubber stamp kind of board."

The fast pace of the project was also something that caused concern for Padilla-Gutierrez. "I know this was a fast track project," she said. "Not a runaway train." She pointed out that local community centers have taken up to six years to develop, plan and build.

"I think a $50 million project requires additional time and data before we burden the county," she said. "I don't think the voters were completely informed of the final costs."

Padilla-Gutierrez questioned why the possibility of refurbishing the existing 25-bed Presbyterian facility had not been explored. She also said she felt that County Manager Francisco Apodaca's comments during the board's Feb. 6 meeting showed a clear preference for one site.

Davey asked if she wanted a response, and Padilla-Gutierrez said she simply felt she needed to express her feelings on some of the issues.

Mary Jo Devine, the service committee co-chair, said she agreed with some of the things Padilla-Gutierrez said. "There was some new information about the Rancho Cielo and 314 locations," she said. "And you don't get down to three sites and then discover that there are no public/private partnerships at 314. That should have been looked at long ago."

Devine went on to say that she didn't think, as a board, the Highway 314 site was agreed upon as the weakest site. Davey said that weakest was his terminology. "While the matrix did show that site was limited for development, I think there are other avenues we can explore," he said.

Davey went on to say that as far as the county manager's comments were concerned, maybe he said more than he should have. "I thought we were going though the throes of last minute buyer's remorse," he said.

On the subject of private/public partnerships on state land, he said Hunn finally managed to corner Bill Taylor, the head of the state's property control division. Davey said Taylor said it is possible for the county to sublease property for associated services.

"It couldn't be a purely commercial enterprise, like a hotel or a restaurant," Hunn said.

Davey said the Rancho Cielo location does have the challenge of being able to meet certain deadlines, but it was still a viable site.

The Presbyterian facility is close to 30 years old, Johnson said. To refurbish the building and bring it up to modern standards might be cost prohibitive for the facility the county would end up with, he said.

Padilla-Gutierrez suggested that it would make more economic sense to spend what might amount to $20 million on refurbishing the existing facility versus $40 to build a new one. Hunn asked if Presbyterian was willing to give the building to Covenant.

Davey said the idea of having a county hospital was not to drive Presbyterian out of the county. Devine admitted that using the Presbyterian building never crossed her mind.

"Nobody thought it was a good idea to tell Presbyterian that we wanted to take over their building," Davey said. He went on to say that the board started with a dozen potential sites and started eliminating them based on the criteria established for the proposed hospital.

"We were given six weeks and we had to produce something," Davey said. "If we had a week or two more weeks, we would have the chance to pursue something.

"In 1988, the county failed a mil levy to keep the hospital open. I don't think it is fair to turn around and say in 2006 you (the citizens) passed one to reopen it. If we wanted a 25-bed box on 15 acres."

Kathy McKenzie, service committee co-chair, said the point of the 50 acres was for expansion of the hospital and the addition of other services. Padilla-Gutierrez said she had seen several pieces of land around the old hospital for sale.

Johnson said the old building's infrastructure would have to be totally redone for modern technology. "Everything from the wiring to the plumbing," he said. McKenzie pointed out that the plumbing in the new Veteran's Administration hospital in Albuquerque is already outdated.

Davey said the board has identified three sites that it and Covenant will work. "To go back now and beat ourselves up is pointless," he said. "We have done our job and given our recommendation to the commission."

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