Menu
Council votes to mandate change in hospital
The Nevada City Council met in special session at City Hall Thursday night and passed Bill No. 2017-052 requiring a change in management at Nevada Regional Medical Center.
Council chambers were filled with more than 50 members of the public, mostly healthcare workers.
The bill was read the first time and a motion was made to accept it as read by Jayne Novak and seconded by Blake Hertzberg.
Then the floor was opened to public participation with a limit of five minutes per person.
“This is a very important decision, I’m glad people have showed up who are concerned about this,” said Mayor Bryan Leonard. “We will be taking notes of your concerns you have, and we’ll just go from there.”
“I am here as a representative of the hospital board to express our concern about the decision that the city council is looking at going to Freeman,” began Jenise Burch NRMC board member. “I would just like to express my concern that you take into consideration protection for our hospital employees and our doctors on staff. That our hospital here doesn’t just become a skeleton shift for patients to be transported south.”
Dr. Warren Lovinger began his comments by talking about how all rural hospitals are in danger.
“I have had the opportunity to see what the financial situation is everywhere else in this state,” he said. “This is a critical problem in rural healthcare.” He suggested the current hospital management has done the very best they could to deal with an extraordinarily difficult situation.
Lovinger cited disappearing funding sources, and requirements “foisted” on hospitals.
“It is the belief of all of us — that I was able to speak with — that we need to stay the course with the crew that we have,” he said. “We only have to look to what happened in Neosho to see what would be in the cards for Nevada.” Telling the council how it was “dissipated” after being acquired by Freeman and is now what he referred to as a “band-aid station.”
“We are poised to move forward,” he concluded. “You need to give the folks who are the leaders now the opportunity to do what they know how to do.”
Dr. Ted Moore expressed concern that if the Nevada hospital becomes a “way station” the city would lose 3-M.
Dr. Jennifer Conley told the council she has been serving as a hospitalist because Freeman has not been fulfilling their end of an agreement to supply doctors for that position.
“Kevin Leeper [NRMC chief executive officer] was in charge of that, not Freeman, not the people who had contracted to cover the hospitalist service,” she said. “That’s the only thing Freeman’s doing for us right now, and they’re not doing it very well.”
“I urge caution,” she finished.
Next up was Kevin Leeper who spoke of the transparency he’s brought to the job.
“I really came to serve the board, the medical staff and all the employees of Nevada’s medical center,” he said. “I also came with full knowledge that I was coming into a pretty daunting task, to turn around a hospital that had just reported losses of $8.1 million.”
He said in his first year they’d turned an $8 million loss into a $797,000 loss. He spoke of the difficulties facing hospitals such as the Affordable Care Act, getting paid less for the same services. He also reported there is currently $4 million tied up in lawsuits.
He said the hospital has seen 20 percent growth comparing September 2016 with September 2017.
“We have a strategy to … see more patients. Come see our parking lot,” he said. “We’re seeing more patients.”
He wrapped up saying: “I hope the future of Nevada Regional Hospital is on solid ground.”
Dr. Jama Bogart told the council the people of Nevada “deserve good medical care from people who care about them.” She says many of her patients ask not to be sent to Freeman because they do not get treated well there.
Marci Hardin expressed concern about the loss of partnership with Cerner the hospital would suffer if it were under the control of Freeman.
With public participation finished Leonard spoke about the reasons which forced the council to take up this issue. He spoke about the $19.6 million loss over the last five years and the $15 million in debt on bonds.
“The bond insurers have a say in how the hospital should operate,” he said. “If those bonds are called in, the citizens of Nevada are responsible.” He explained the hospital would be foreclosed and the city would be assessed a judgment to cover the remainder of the bonds.
“I’d like to say that I appreciate the voices that came tonight,” said councilperson Jayne Novak. “I think there was some very good information here tonight, some very honest words.”
“It’s important that we be here and that we make this decision, that we do what we feel is best for the hospital,” she said. “And to keep the hospital in the community.”
“What’s important to us is that it stays here,” she said. “You all may not want to work as Freeman employees, but by gosh, you’ll have jobs if that happens.”
Many folks in the audience took issue with that statement.
“What would Freeman have to gain by coming in and managing this hospital and having it be a disaster?” asked Novak.
To which Lovinger replied the only way Freeman would come in and save money would be a “massive reduction in force.”
“That was alluded to in the presentation that we heard,” he said. “If you folks choose to go against what [the hospital board recommends], you had better realize that you will then be held responsible for the future of healthcare in Nevada.”
“We have a tough decision up here tonight,” said Leonard. “It will impact many people, it will impact the hospital, it will impact this community. This is a decision I have dreaded for many many years.”
“I’ve seen the reports on how it keeps going down,” he said. “The days cash on hand. It’s very challenging and critical.”
And with that they took the vote, all council members voting yes except Ryan Watts.
They immediately moved to a second reading, motion to accept was made by Watts and seconded by Hertzberg. The vote was the same with Watts voting “no.”
After the meeting adjourned, Watts said “I’m just trying to echo the voices of the people that I represent. We all had a tough decision to make and everybody on the council had the best interest of how they felt to proceed with the hospital.”
“It’s probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make,” said Leonard. “If we didn’t make a change, I’m afraid we would lose the hospital.”