OLD NEWS:
Curry Health Network - Recent News
August 27, 2013You've got questions, We've got answers!
By Andrew Bair, CEO, Curry Health NetworkWhat is this about a new hospital in Gold Beach?
Curry Health Network is looking to replace the Gold Beach, Curry General Hospital and improve the Port Orford Clinic by placing a tax of $10M on the November ballot. This $10M will allow for low interest matching loans to complete a new modern facility. Learn more about Ballot Measure 8-74 to replace Curry General Hospital and improve the Port Orford clinic.
What's changed in Gold Beach?
Over the last few years Curry General Hospital has improved our Emergency Care model. We currently have Board Certified physicians on our campus 24 hours a day for our Emergency room. This differs from the previous method of calling physicians from off campus to cover the emergency department. We feel our community gets the same high quality of care here as they would anywhere.
What's this about a Brookings Hospital?
Curry Health Network has agreed to complete a Certificate of Need to determine if Brookings can qualify for a new hospital. The Certificate of Need process takes about one year. If the Certificate of Need is approved by the Federal Government, Curry Health Network will ask the people of South Curry County how they will fund a Brookings hospital on the Curry Medical Center campus. We feel the Curry Medical Center (5th Street Clinic) already has much of the components of a hospital, so the project is half completed already.
Does Brookings really need a hospital?
On average, 2 to 4 ambulances a day are called to Curry Medical Center on 5th Street to transport a patient to an emergency room. In 2012, 79 people presented to the Curry Medical Center Urgent Care with chest pain. These citizens required transportation to the nearest ER - either Gold Beach or Crescent City - via ambulance. Numbers for 2013 are on track to eclipse last year's numbers. It is clear that emergency services are needed in Brookings. Current Oregon law requires a hospital status to support an emergency room. This means there must be inpatient beds.
When would we have these hospitals?
The Gold Beach hospital cannot be started until we receive money from the bond ballot measure. Without passing a bond measure, it would not be possible to access a low interest loan to fund the Gold Beach hospital project. We are ready as soon as we get that funding to start the 2 ½ to 4 year project of the new Curry General Hospital. The funding efforts for the Brookings hospital won't be explored until we know we have federal approval through the Certificate of Need process. This creates a longer timeline for any Brookings facility, if approved.
Can Curry County support two hospitals?
We believe two separate traditionally run hospitals would dilute the market, making it difficult to financially sustain either facility. However, a single entity running two campuses would be sustainable. One idea is to reduce the 22 bed hospital in Gold Beach to a 10-15 bed hospital. We believe reducing our bed capacity in Gold Beach would improve a case for a Brookings facility. Cost savings could be achieved through having one administration, one billing department, one IT department and so on. As a part of the Certificate of Need, a business model must be developed to demonstrate the need for such a venture.
What does Port Orford get out of any of this?
We feel the Southern Oregon coast would be attractive to many qualified physicians; however our Gold Beach facility is a barrier to recruitment. With a new hospital comes opportunity to recruit more specialty physicians. Port Orford would be put on a schedule for some of these specialists to rotate through the Curry Family Medical Clinic.
As we get an Orthopedic Surgeon and other specialists, the expectation would be that they rotate through Port Orford on a monthly basis. Learn more about other planned improvements.
What's happening with OB?
This spring Curry General Hospital made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend our OB service. One of the reasons was that our method of care at Curry was to use a small group of specialized nurses to provide care. When those nurse left through retirement or other reasons, they were difficult to replace. All of our nurses will now be going through a rural nurse certification course as well as OB nurses training, so when we bring our OB service back we will never have to close. In addition to the Nursing changes, after the beginning of 2014, we will welcome Dr. John Jackson who will play an integral part of the re-opening of the Labor and Delivery Service at Curry General Hospital. Dr. Jackson's specialties include Family Practice and Obstetrics.
How's the new hospitalist program going?
In early September hospitalists started seeing patients in Curry General Hospital. These physicians only practice medicine in the hospital, and our patients now have access to physicians 24-hours per day, seven days a week. While most hospitalists work 12-hour shifts, our hospitalists work seven to ten day shifts and live on our campus the entire time.
Because we're able to provide constant medical surveillance and care in the hospital, fewer people will leave our county for care.
Community physicians appreciate this program because it assures them that their clinic time will not be interrupted, which is also a value to their patients. It will also be a major recruiting tool as we seek new physicians to serve our community.
Do the Tax Payers in Gold Beach and Port Orford pay for Curry Medical Center in Brookings?
No. We received funding for the Curry Medical Center project by going to the public market through private investors. After all expenses were paid, the clinic added more than $700,000 to the District's bottom line last year. This has been of benefit to Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach.
What about a dialysis center?
We have felt there is a real need for a local Dialysis Center. We have been in contact with the two major national Dialysis companies, Fresenius and DaVita. Fresenius has indicated they are not currently interested in this area. We are yet awaiting DaVita. In addition we will be looking at hospital based models. We feel strongly that if this vital service is feasible, then it is in our charge to provide dialysis.
August 27, 2013
Letter From Curry Health Network CEO Andrew P. Bair to James Auborn, Mayor; City of Port Orford
Dear Mayor Auborn,
Thank you for your time spent sharing your views regarding healthcare services in North Curry County and the upcoming ballot. I very much appreciated the cordial tone of the meeting.
I understand that the District Board's decision to move forward with the bond levy on the November ballot must be very disappointing to you and the Port Orford City Council, but I know you understand the complexity of the issue and must also be aware that this decision was not taken without thorough and comprehensive consideration of all factors.
One of those factors was our conversation last week. There was extensive discussion on the very points you made in the letter addressed to me in last week's newspaper.
There are myriad additional aspects to this decision. Curry General Hospital has improved its services by adding Emergency Room physicians that are on campus 24 hours a day. In September we will be adding hospitalist services that will provide for the immediate needs of our inpatients. Even with these improvements of service, we are at risk because it is becoming increasingly more difficult to comply with modern state structural codes for hospitals. We feel it is time to move to a new facility without delay. Hesitation will only serve to increase cost of maintaining our aged facility while postponing our ability to recruit the services we need to provide for the community.
When interviewing to bring new specialty physicians to the community, we are not taken seriously. In competition with hospitals throughout the nation for limited qualified medical staff - even though some are intrigued by the natural beauty of the area, they are repelled by our older hospital.
I have been confronted with several myths regarding Curry Health Network since my arrival in November. One prevalent myth is that Curry Medical Center in Brookings is operated by tax funds of the Healthcare District taxpayers in Gold beach and Port Orford. Curry Medical Center in Brookings was funded through the public market rather than tax dollars. After all expenses were paid, the clinic in Brookings contributed over $700,000 to the District last year. It is also not well known that taxes collected from Port Orford taxpayers just about cover the operational expenses of Curry Family Medical in Port Orford - yet we plan on improving our services with the addition of specialty care.
When we receive the new tax revenue from the District voters of Port Orford and Gold Beach, all of those dollars will be put to use within the District, with the sole purpose of serving Port Orford and Gold Beach. We will be in position to access a low interest loan to, at a minimum, match our $10M bond. None of this money will go to Brookings.
We have agreed to go through a year-long process of Certificate of Need for Brookings to determine if the federal government will allow a hospital facility in Brookings. We should have a conclusion to that process in about 12 months. We see this as an entirely unrelated issue.
Our Board believes there is good reason to allow the voters to make this decision. After considerable thought and discussion, the Board felt we had no choice but to move forward. There are several tax measures on the ballot; each has valid reasons. Curry Health District supports whatever creates a revitalized community. This must not become an open debate whether we need healthcare or law enforcement. It is clear we need both, and there is a cost.
Most Sincerely,
Andrew P. Bair, CEO
Curry Health Network
August 23, 2013
Hospital Hears Plans For Replacement
The Neenan Achistructure Co. will present next week its plans to help Curry Health Network - from start to finish - with its hoped-for Gold Beach Hospital replacement and determine the need for an emergency room in its Brookings clinic.The health district plans to put on the Nov. 5 ballot a measure asking for a $10 million general obligation bond to replace the new [Correction: existing] hospital in Gold Beach. If approved, voters would see a property tax increase of 76 cents [Correction: 74 cents] per $1,000 assessed valuation over a period of 30 years. And the $10 million would assist to secure federal funds to replace the aged building, said health district CEO Andrew Bair.
Revenue generated from the tax would only be spent on the Gold Beach hospital and to make improvements to its Port Orford clinic, Bair stated. Any improvements made to the facility in Brookings - notably establishing an emergency room and obtaining licensure for hospital beds - is a separate issue that will likely take a year to obtain federal approval.
"This group is expert in taking care of this," Bair said. "They do everything from developing business models and demonstrating need, walk you through certificates of need, and from there, their architectural firm coordinates everything from beginning to end."
The Fort Collins, Colo.-based firm creates business models, develops feasibility studies and guides hospital and commercial building officials through the complexities of "budgets, brainstorming and builds," according to their website.
Any proposed idea would go out to bid.
"This would add layers to our administrative time," Bair said. "We're going to go forward with someone. But this group has done this dozens and dozens of times. They come highly recommended."
The Proposal
The Neenan Company, in conjunction with Portland Maine-based healthcare consulting firm Stroudwater Associates and the Dougherty Mortgage, proposes to lead multiple-day investigative and educational planning sessions with hospital board members, staff and community leaders to develop ways to increase market share, expand the network's medical services, identify financing methods and sources and improve long-term financial performance.According to its proposal, it will gather information regarding population, resident age, incomes, insurance status and what hospital services are needed within the community. Eventually, the firm would conceive of a conceptual site plan of a new hospital in Gold Beach, its costs and construction timelines and outline plans for improvements needed at the Port Orford clinic.
The study is estimated to cost about $100,000, and money has been put aside over the years for it, Bair said.
"It's big money," he said. "But that's the cost of full-time experts going through the application of a certificate of need."
While studies are conducted, the Neenan Company proposes to forge ahead with Brookings' certificate of need, as well, as that process is likely to take about a year.
"But we can't build a Brookings facility until the federal government says that's OK," Bair said. "We need to move forward with it even before know the outcome of the certificate of need. We feel strongly that the federal government will allow us to add beds there, but we're being cautious."
Gold Beach's Hospital
The hospital board last week reiterated its stance that, without a hospital, a community cannot fare well - particularly in an isolated region like Curry County where so many residents are older and have specific medical needs.The current facility in Gold Beach has various shortcomings, ranging from crumbling parts of the structure, a weak roof and a layout that's not conducive to patient privacy. Many of these issues Bair has tried to tackle since he was hired last spring.
"It is certain this facility is tired and cannot survive another decade; it's pretty worn," he said in June. "And when I got to town, we found the annex to be more worn out than the hospital."
His first goal was to update the hospital district's strategic plan, from which all other plans are derived. Other goals include attracting physicians to the Gold Beach facility and clinic in Port Orford, obtaining prestigious certifications, and getting sleep study, IV therapy and chemotherapy and dialysis centers operating.
Securing physicians is made more difficult when the prospective hires see the physical condition of the hospital.
"Obstetricians, an orthopedic surgeon, a pediatrician, an internal medicine specialist - these are the things you expect when you come to a community the size of Curry County," Bair said in June. "You expect to find those things and they're strangely absent. What kind of red carpet do we roll out to our physician recruits when they come to town?"
He's also walking the fine line of politics, notably involving the possibility of getting Brookings to join the hospital district. The district runs from Sixes River north of Port Orford south to Pistol River and east to the county line.
Patients from Brookings provide more than 60 percent of the district's revenue, Bair said, so they're not an unimportant group. But others who pay taxes into the district don't like that residents at the south end of the town benefit from a clinic and access to the Gold Beach hospital without being part of the network.
That debate will wait, he said, until they get the hospital replaced, the Port Orford clinic refurbished and new physicians are brought into the network.
"There's going to be a lot of activity over the next few months," Bair said. "We'll just see where it takes us."
Article courtesy of the Curry Coastal Pilot
August 20, 2013
Bond to Build New Hospital on Ballot
Please note corrections in below article, within [ ].The Curry Health Network board voted unanimously [Correction: vote was 3 aye, 1 nay, 1 abstaining] Monday afternoon to place on the November ballot a measure asking voters in the district for a $10 million bond to build a new hospital in Gold Beach and make improvements to its facilities in Port Orford.
The measure would result in a property tax increase of 76 cents [Correction: 74 cents] per $1,000 assessed valuation over a period of 20 [correction: 30] years. The district generally extends from Pistol River north to Elk River and east to Agness.
The decision came after about an hour of discussion regarding the chances of the measure's success, as there will be competing property tax questions on this fall's ballot.
"Without a hospital, we will lose the retirement people," said finance committee member Brian [Correction: Bryan] Grummon. "We will lose the young people. The keystone function in a community is having a hospital."
The hospital board needs the money to replace a building that doesn't meet code - and hasn't for years, if not decades. Additionally, it would like to make improvements at its Port Orford clinic.
The bond would be used to secure a matching, low-interest loan from the federal government.
"Our plan is to replace the facility - period," said CEO Andrew Bair. "We got the strategic plan done in the past five months, and part of that strategic plan is to replace the facility for this campus."
He said the effort to get the measure on the ballot is not rushed as it might seem, as past boards have argued its merits for about 15 years. Additionally, he has received confirmation from county planning officials that a new building built at the same location would be safe from a tsunami.
Competition
Two other ballot measures will be competing with the hospital's question in November. And County Commissioner David Brock Smith has oft noted that the more tax questions a voter faces, the more likely they are to vote against all of them.Curry County commissioners will put on the Nov. 5 ballot a measure asking all county residents for a property tax increase of $1.35 per $1,000 assessed valuation to fund public safety. The current county tax rate is 59 cents, the second-lowest in the state. Without an increase, county officials say, the county will be out of funds next spring and likely have to rely on the state - funded by a tax on those who have a taxable income - to take over critical operations.
The City of Port Orford plans to ask its voters to renew the tax - and then some - that pays for its police services, to $1.90 per $1,000 assessed valuation. The current five-year assessment sunsets next year.
Something, the hospital board members agreed, will have to give.
"The people in Port Orford aren't going to vote for $1.90 and $1.35," said board member Marlyn Schafer during discussions on the advantages of a November or May 2014 ballot question. "I don't like to be held hostage by other taxing districts. If none pass, they'll all be back in May."
The 60-year-old hospital is crumbling and is one winter storm away from losing a roof or other major component, Bair said. Its poor condition has also deterred efforts to attract new doctors to the area.
"We cannot afford to keep throwing money into lost causes," Grummon said. "I feel bad it's turned into a confrontation between other county functions trying to raise money, but we don't have a choice. We have to have a hospital. Otherwise, we won't have a community. We won't have anything."
He encouraged the board to consider pursuing smaller loans or grants more amenable to tax-averse voters to pay for the replacement of the hospital in stages.
The board enthusiastically agreed it shouldn't be a problem to pay back the bond - possibly even earlier than expected - and turn a profit with a new facility.
"With a new hospital, we'll get more doctors - which we definitely need," Schaefer said. "To me, it's a no-brainer. We absolutely have to do this."
"There is no reason we can't make the cash to service our debt," Grummon said. "If we don't address this, we'll have catastrophic things happen (to the building)."
Port Orford
Another hurdle the health network faces is how to gain the support of residents in Port Orford who have said they don't trust the board.The last time a hospital bond went to the vote, in 1998, only 33 percent of voters Port Orford cast votes in its favor. And that was in good economic times.
"We certainly have lost a bit of relational capital with the people of Port Orford," Bair admitted. "This is the environment in which we work - an environment we, in part, created. We have made business decisions with Port Orford that have hurt our relationship."
One of those involved a woman suffering from abdominal pain. In the three days she had to wait to see a physician, her appendix burst. Patient numbers there have gone from "somewhere in the 30s to the teens," Bair said.
It's a challenge many businesses face, said Grummon, who has experience in management and employee relations.
"You talk to employees [Inaccurate: statement was regarding Port Orford residents], and they've been lied to by management in the past; they have zero trust," Grummon said. "No amount of talking is going to convince them otherwise.
You have to start walking the walk. You don't say anything you can't follow up on or intend to do. No lying, cheating or stealing. Listen to them, understand them. You can't make a plan down here (Gold Beach) and go up there. They have to have an active role in any decisions."
The district, under Bair's leadership, has provided the city with a nurse practitioner who is on call 24 hours a day and an emergency room staff. [Inaccurate: the Board discussed this as a service for possible future implementation.]
"In every small town, every mistake you make and every mistake they think you make, you're accountable," said board chair John Spicer.
Brookings' Part
Another bone of contention is that the hospital district does not include Brookings - whose residents therefore don't pay taxes toward the district - but the hospital network has built on Fifth Street an urgent care facility to accommodate patients who provide 60 percent of the district's revenue, Bair said.Based on assessed values of properties, if Brookings were to join the district, the proposed hospital district tax could be lowered to 24 cents per $1,000 over a 20-year period, noted Chief Operations Officer Ken Landau. [Inaccurate - this unverified number was on a document provided by Commissioner Smith and was erroneously attributed to CFO/COO Landau.]
Talks regarding splitting the Gold Beach hospital's 25-bed license [CHD is licensed for 24 beds] to provide for two campuses are separate issues - and a needs assessment for an emergency room and hospital beds in Brookings will take about a year, Bair said.
"What I'm hearing (in the community) is that people don't want to spend a dime in Brookings until we deal with the hospital here," Bair said.
"They're motivated to have a hospital," said board member Gary Anderson. "We need to make an offer to Brookings to join our district, form one of their own or have a bake sale. In Port Orford, they don't like supporting a district they don't use that much when Brookings has one that is used, but they don't pay into the tax base."
The group said they realize educating the public is going to be key in the months leading to the ballot.
"We could lose," said board member Deb Wilson, via conference call. "But it puts the word out to people; it educates people. We're going to upset people no matter where we're at, what we do."
Yet the board seemed to think their measure might stand a better chance than others the voters will face in November.
"We're trying to revitalize the whole community," Landau said. "Throughout the country, health care and jobs trump everything. That's what we're offering."
Article courtesy of the Curry Coastal Pilot
July 27, 2013
Building a Hospital, ER Possible in Brookings
Brookings could soon be home to an emergency room and hospital, due to a loophole found in Oregon law prohibiting two hospitals from being within 30 miles of one another.Mayor Ron Hedenskog announced the news to county commissioners during their work session Tuesday. It comes after discussions he had with Curry Health Network executive director Andrew Bair, who has been working on health care access concerns of residents in the south end of the county.
"I said years ago we need a hospital in Brookings, and I got chided by the city leaders when I brought this up," Hedenskog said. "I said I'd never bring it up again. Well, those leaders are gone, so I'm bringing it up again."
State law says two hospitals cannot operate within a 30-mile radius of each other. But the sentence continues to read, "or 15 miles in mountainous regions."
Hospital officials believe Curry Health Network just might meet that criteria.
Brookings is halfway - about 25 miles - between Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach to the north and Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City to the south.
And if that doesn't pass muster, health district officials have learned that Curry General Hospital can divide its 24-bed hospital and ER into two campuses under the terms of its state certification.
Hedenskog assured county commissioners that the needs of residents at the northern end of the county would not be abandoned just because Brookings has the largest population base in the county. Also, the proposed $10 million general obligation bond Curry Health Network officials is pursuing will only go toward construction of a new hospital in Gold Beach, he said.
"Andrew Bair said Curry Health Network is ready to (elevate the status of) this facility (Curry Medical Center) to an emergency room and some hospital beds," Hedenskog said. "He said the state will allow splitting the facility, making two campuses out of it. That's good news for us."
Incentives
Monday, the Brookings City Council voted to reduce the percentage rate - from 9 percent to 6 percent - on a loan the health district has with the city when it built the Fifth Street urgent care facility. The health district owes about $500,000 in System Development Charges, fees charged for sewer and water infrastructure to new development."Hospitals don't discharge ordinary household waste," Hedenskog said, adding that SDC numbers are calculated using national standards. "We don't just pluck these numbers out of the air."
The original percentage rate was so high because city officials try to discourage developers from borrowing from the city, and instead urge them to pursue loans from the private sector, which offers lower borrowing rates.
Former CEO Bill McMillan asked the Brookings City Council years ago for a break in those interest rates and was flatly denied.
The decreased loan rate, Hedenskog said, is a "goodwill gesture," and hopefully will encourage hospital officials to continue with their plans for Brookings.
Another incentive city councilors might consider is using Urban Renewal Agency funds to pay for future SCDs if hospital officials pursue the idea by, say, obtaining a building permit for an emergency room.
Additionally, the city could work with the county to extend the Brookings Airport runway to accommodate Medivac planes. New commercial development there could not only help out the health district's bottom line, but help pay for the runway extension.
"The city and county need to come to an agreement about the management of the airport," Hedenskog said later this week. "We need to secure a cooperative agreement to make improvements to the airport."
Commissioner David Itzen said Cal-Ore Life Flight owner Dan Brattain can fly his medical airplane out of Brookings Airport 66 percent of the time. But a longer runway - Brookings' is 2,880 feet long and needs to be at least 3,000 feet long - could accommodate larger planes in adverse weather.
That improved situation would also make the county - the airport's owner - eligible for Federal Aviation Administration grants for further improvements.
Patients aren't flying anywhere, however, without either a hospital or emergency room, as they can only be transported to a larger medical facility after a doctor ensures they are stable enough to fly and then releases them to the care of the aircraft's medical personnel.
Controversy
The idea doesn't come without a few complications, however."What about (Brookings) being in the (health) district," Commissioner Susan Brown queried.
"We have not been invited," Hedenskog replied. "It probably wouldn't happen without an invitation - and it probably wouldn't happen without controversy."
Brookings is not in the Curry Health Network district, which extends from the north end of the county to just south of Pistol River. Brookings was never included.
"Gold Beach was a big city back then," Hedenskog said. "Brookings was a one-dog town. And Harbor didn't even exist."
Animosities still simmer, he added.
"There were probably some reasons why Curry Health Network doesn't want us in, and there are probably some reasons why the south end wouldn't want to be in," Hedenskog said.
Commissioner David Brock Smith pointed out that north county residents sometimes resent that Brookings residents don't pay taxes toward the district, yet benefit from having the clinic in town.
Hedenskog said that Brookings' leaders have no intention of "taking away" health facility access from Gold Beach area, and any contract negotiated to build an ER and hospital campus in Brookings would reflect that.
As it is, Curry Health Network receives the bulk of its revenue from Brookings residents - and a good portion of those also travel to Crescent City for health care. A hospital in town could give the district and city an added economic boost.
Hedenskog joked that he is encouraged, however, because he asked his wife if she'd be willing to pay, say 35 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation to be included in the health district and she replied in the affirmative. "There's my sounding board right there," he said.
Actual tax costs are currently 74 cents per $1,000 valuation, but it's possible that with a larger population in the pool, that rate could be decreased.
The timing couldn't be better, either, Itzen noted.
Sutter Coast Hospital is in the midst of contentious reorganization plans and could end up reducing its scope to comprise 24 hospital beds and limited emergency room hours as a critical care facility - a designation usually reserved for smaller hospitals in rural areas. That hospital is required to maintain six hospital beds for Pelican Bay Prison inmates and two for obstetrics.
Doctors and hospital officials are aggressively fighting the reorganization and redesignation.
"That's a tremendous decrease for that area," Hedenskog said. "If you're in Brookings or Harbor and in dire need of a hospital at 2, 3 in the morning, good luck. It's 30 miles to the north, 30 miles to the south. There's nothing in Brookings."
Hedenskog hopes to hold a medical "summit" involving all involved, including officials from the cities, county, health district and Cal-Ore Life Flight in upcoming months.
Article courtesy of the Curry Coastal Pilot
July 9, 2013
District Sends $10 Million Hospital Bond to the Voters
Curry Health Network will ask voters in its district this November to approve a $10 million general obligation bond to pay for a new hospital.The exact location of a new facility has yet to be determined, officials said. [Omission:, although it will be on the Gold Beach campus.]
If the bond question is approved, the district will be eligible for a matching, low-interest USDA loan - and hopes to open the doors to a new facility in four to five years.
A $10 million, 30-year general obligation bond would cost property owners in the district 74 cents per $1,000 in assessed valuation, said Director Andrew Bair. Additionally, each tax-paying property owner in the district would receive a $150 voucher each year for five years good for services in the network.
"We're trying to get creative and cushion the blow," Bair said. "The general obligation bond is only half of it. This is a big deal. We have a lot of work to do."
For starters, the $20 million figure is a rough estimate, Bair said. But it's comparable to costs of similar facilities built throughout the United States.
The need to replace the hospital is apparent: the 60-year-old facility is small, not patient-friendly and lacks some medical amenities a new one would feature.
Among the details to be worked out include whether a new facility can be built at the same location, as most of Ellensburg Avenue lies in the tsunami inundation zone. Curry General Hospital is located almost a block off the highway on Fourth Street.
"There's lots of people who say it can't be built (on its current site)," Bair said. "But we think we can. If the Cascadia tsunami hits, we've got more issues than the location of a hospital. There's a lot of anxiety around that, but if you take the effect of the 'Big One,' it pretty much decimates everything."
Regardless of location, officials also have to determine need - both current and future - of the services offered, and not just for patients. Bair noted that the physical state of the hospital is critical to attracting new physicians to the area, as well.
"People come here for an interview, and they come into the existing facility and are disappointed with what we have to work with," he said. "It's critical for attracting the kind of health care providers we need. We have several retiring in the next five to 10 years; we need to attract others to carry on."
Without a new facility, Bair isn't sure about the future of medical services in the area.
"Then we really have to think about what we're going to do here as far as having an emergency room and inpatient services," he said. "It's time. It's essential for the economics of this town to have a good facility."
He said he realized asking voters for a property tax increase at a time when the nation's economic outlook is creeping along at a snail's pace - and when the county itself might ask again for a property tax increase for public safety services - will be a challenge.
"You hate to put people on that spot," he said. "We have to help them prioritize, talk about what an obligation bond looks like, how not having one might be an impediment. We've got to take a look at this. We can't go forward building a new hospital without any idea of funding."
Bair said hospital officials plan to meet with county commissioners about coordinating a possible general obligation bond question and the timing of other possible ballot issues.
"Everybody's got their hand out," he said. "We're asking for people to tax themselves like they haven't before."
Bair said the community is lucky to have had the old wooden hospital last this long.
"It's a ... different kind of place. But it's lasted about as long as it can. It could last another half-decade, but after that, all bets are off. The clock's ticking on this building."
Article courtesy of the Curry Coastal Pilot
June 7, 2013
CEO Has Big Plans For Curry General Hospital
Curry Health Network CEO Andrew Bair is trying to make his dreams into reality.They include attracting physicians to its hospital in Gold Beach and clinics in Port Orford and Brookings, obtaining prestigious certifications, getting a sleep study center, IV therapy unit and chemotherapy unit - and the much-clamored-for dialysis center.
He plans to speak to a group of local dialysis patients this weekend about their frustrations in obtaining treatment, which include long drives to other counties to do so. A small but vocal group is aggravated by alleged promises by past directors at the health network to bring such services to the area, and it hopes Bair will be their savior.
In the district's new strategic plan, Bair would ideally like to have a dialysis center open somewhere in the county by June 2014.
He said the new plan was needed to guide future operations of the health network.
"It gives us direction," he said. "We're excited about having true direction. With each goal is a subset of action items and the people on the executive team are being held accountable for getting it done."
Dialysis center officials in Medford have said they need at least 25 patients to make a center financially feasible for them.
"The chatter is that we have a population of dialysis patients in Brookings, and not too far across the California border is a mirror group of people," Bair said. "It may be a community big enough to support this service."
As a registered nurse, he understands their plight.
"They live from appointment to appointment," Bair said. "They travel a treacherous, winding road of 100 miles plus - that's awful. You might expect that if you live in the middle of nowhere, and I don't know that we are. I'd be excited to bring that service here. It's going to take a group effort, but I hope and pray that something can happen."
He has no idea where a chemo or dialysis center would be located - except that it has to be closer than Medford, Coos Bay or Eureka.
Article courtesy of the Curry Coastal Pilot