Healthcare authority continues focus on retirees, new hospital
Bill Caypless, chairman of the Randolph County Healthcare Authority, told its members they are faced with challenges no other board has faced, with the possible closure of Wedowee Hospital and payment of retirees retirement.
Following a Christmas dinner at Sunny’s Home Cooking restaurant last week board members held a meeting. Caypless said their attorney, Chad Lee, had not heard anything on a lawsuit before the court of criminal appeals dealing with retirees’ pay. The court could rule tomorrow or could rule next year, he said.
Caypless thanked the board members for their service, admitting the work to provide healthcare in Randolph County could be a pain in the neck.
He updated them on meeting with the Roanoke City Council where he answered questions like why not build a hospital in Roanoke or why not have a stand-alone emergency room. Further meetings are planned with various organizations ahead of next summer’s likely vote on a one-cent sales tax to build a hospital. Tanner Health Systems wants to help with this project.
In the next couple of weeks Tanner wants to meet with a small group to decide on a name for the proposed hospital. Tanner Medical Center has been mentioned but it is not going to be what you would expect a medical center to be, Caypless said. Loy Howard, Tanner’s CEO and administrator, is going to get a marketing consultant.
Caypless said a well-written USA Today article on small hospital closings says to make it a small hospital has to be attached to a large hospital.
He said he needed members to sign up for committees to find a hospital name, for the hospital campaign, and for the negotiating stage, which will begin almost immediately.
Attorneys Chad Lee, John Tinney, and someone from Tanner will be included in the negotiations. He thought everyone should be on the campaign committee and the negotiations committee. There should be movement in the next couple of weeks.
Dr. Jeff Stewart expressed interest in being on a committee. He said first and foremost they should be recruiting physicians. That would be better for public relations than anything else.
Caypless said shortly there will be a meeting with the bond attorneys. The word is out and banks are interested.
“Everyone wants to give us $20 million,” Caypless said. Tanner’s own bond attorney is saving the board up to $50,000. Whoever gives the best price is who they want to go with, he said.
Woodland is pledging $300,000 towards keeping Wedowee Hospital.
They discussed on whether they needed to take some funds out of the escrow account to pay a lump sum to the retirement system for retired employees, keeping some of it in there for emergencies. They could withdraw roughly $250,000 from the Roanoke account. Randolph Medical Center in Roanoke closed several years ago and is no longer providing medical services to residents, which is required in order to get the hospital tax.
Caypless said they are charged with storage and maintenance of RMC’s patient records by the state health department and have a $16,000 bill for that. He thought that should come from Roanoke’s escrow account. They have to maintain the records for another four years.
“Wedowee owes roughly $85,000 in rent,” which he asked their attorney about. It seems silly to collect it then give them $200,000, he said. Legally, they should look into it.
Wedowee Administrator Mike Alexander said they could approve it, pending approval by Attorney Lee, which they unanimously approved.
“Wedowee Hospital is going to close, probably within a year or so. We’ve got enough to get to October,” Caypless said. Without the sales tax it will close. Tanner will be there financially if the sales tax goes through. Wedowee needs a new facility. It is only allowed to operate under a grandfather clause, and the building has asbestos.
Caypless said once the vote goes through they need to look at the bylaws page by page and submit the result to the county commission. Stewart said as soon as the tax passes they should put a for sale sign on the hospital.
Alexander gave his report on the hospital and thanked them for all they have done to keep the hospital running. On the Tanner end they are doing all they can to engage consultants to get them moving fast but it is more important to do it right than do it fast.
To get the amended certificate of need for the new hospital, under the auspices of Wedowee, it should only be filed once. They are diligently working on it.
One thing they have accomplished is bringing in a portable x-ray machine from another Tanner location. While used, it is a definite improvement over what they had.
They are doing Ebola training to prepare for that. About 35 hospitals in the nation treat Ebola, of which only one is in the Southeast, Emory in Atlanta. But a patient can walk in anywhere, so they are training staff to prepare for that.
Once again they are doing a canned food drive and expect to beat last year’s record.
People say a planned 15-bed hospital is small but for October 75 percent of the Wedowee Hospital’s business was outpatient. They do not typically have 15 beds occupied in the hospital anyway.
