November 26, 2013
Details of new Gold Beach hospital emerge
With the success of the ballot measure now behind them, the Curry Health Network board of directors is now focusing on the next steps for Curry General Hospital, as well as expanding services in Brookings.
During its meeting Monday, the board of directors heard a presentation about what the new Curry General Hospital could look like, discussed the next steps in beginning work on the new hospital and authorized $17,000 to explore expanding services in Brookings. It also moved to issue requests for quotation [sic: qualifications] for an architecture and design firm and a feasibility study.
Michael Curtis of the Neenan Group from Colorado, presented preliminary estimations on what a new Curry General Hospital could look like.
Curtis showed how a 34,000-square-foot hospital could be built on the west side of the current hospital building. While nothing is certain, including the architecture firm Curry Health Network plans to hire, the preliminary drawings showed a hospital with 12 inpatient beds and one [sic: two] operating room[s].
Andrew Bair, CEO of Curry Health Network, said at the moment the board was in the "planning to plan" stages of the hospital, meaning that specifics are still very far from being decided.
Curry General currently has 24 inpatient beds, but averages only 5.5 occupied beds per day, with 11 beds being the maximum overnight occupancy number in the past year, Bair said.
While acknowledging a potential risk from tsunamis for any hospital being built on the General's current site, Bair said it is legal to build the hospital there because it is outside of an inundation zone from a 1995 map that dictates where buildings in Oregon can be legally built.
Bair said that besides that tsunami risk, constructing elsewhere in the town opens up the building to other risks, such as flood, landslides and erosion.
"Do you see any place in Gold Beach that is safe?" Bair asked the board when he showed the board maps of tsunami zones and potential landslide areas.
Additional funds needed
An additional $10 million also needs to be secured by the health network for the projected $20 million project. The loan would be paid back with revenue over the next 30 years. Ken Landau, chief financial officer for Curry Health Network, said there were three options for funding the additional $10 million: a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan, a loan from private investors or a Department of Housing and Urban Development loan. Landau said each loan option had its own advantages and disadvantages and he would be considering all three.
New hospital could capture market better
Curtis presented the board data about where the hospital could gain revenue by expanding services in Brookings and attempting to capture money that is currently going outside of the hospital district by potential patients seeking treatment elsewhere than network facilities.
Currently, 66 percent of network revenue comes from residents in Brookings, which is located outside of the hospital's tax district. But 84 percent of Brookings residents receive inpatient care from hospitals other than Curry General, mostly at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City.
"A preponderance of inpatient care in Brookings is going to Sutter Coast," Curtis said.
Curry General only performs about 20 percent of surgeries on residents from Sixes south to the California border. Curtis said with the new hospital, Curry General could potentially capture more of its market and improve its revenue.
Under the time line Curtis presented, construction could begin in October 2014 and the new Curry General could be occupied by January 2016. Bair said these were estimates and the hospital is still in the early planning stages.
The $17,000 will go to investigating expanding services in Brookings. Brookings is unable to have its own hospital because of current regulations preventing another one from being established within 30 [sic: 35] miles of a critical access hospital, a designation that allows rural hospitals to receive more funding from Medicare. The $17,000 would pay for an investigation whether state law allows beds from the Gold Beach facility to be transferred to Brookings, which would allow Brookings to have emergency room services.
In other business the hospital board heard about:
•Turnover at the hospital, especially among the nursing staff. The hospital has established action committees to address employee and turnover problems. Curry Health Network has a 26- percent turnover rate.
•Bair said he was looking to start advisory committees in Port Orford and Gold Beach to garner feedback and input from the community about community needs for the hospital.
by Don Iler, courtesy of Curry Coastal Pilot