Sutter, county at odds over new facility

<p>Sutter Health and Sonoma County health department officials remain at odds over whether there will be enough hospital bed capacity if Sutter is allowed to build a new facility about half the size of its Chanate Road building.</p><p>Differing estimates of bed capacity in 2013 was one of the few areas of serious disagreement between officials for Sutter and the county health department, who spent about two hours Monday updating county supervisors on the proposed facility on Mark West Springs Road at Highway 101.</p><p>Supervisors indicated that other issues such as access to care and Sutter’s commitment to indigent care and to its long-term contract with the county were less troublesome than the bed capacity issue.</p><p>County health services director Rita Scardaci said about a third of the 400 official comments received on the Sutter proposal questioned whether the new facility would have enough beds for surgery and intensive-care patients. Public comments had been culled during meetings with medical community leaders and during public workshops, as well as letters on the proposed transaction.</p><p>“Some comments expressed concerned that Sutter’s analysis did not take into account peak demand and seasonal surges or that the size of the facility was insufficient given the population growth and the aging population,” Scardaci said. </p><p>Although Sutter is licensed for 135 beds, it has over the past two years staffed for fewer than 70 beds because its average daily census of patients has dropped steadily. During the first six months of the year, the average was 61.</p><p>Sutter is proposing a 70-bed facility next to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, but the county health department analysis predicted that Sutter also will need a 28-bed physician-owned hospital and a 29-bed expansion to the main hospital in order to cope with demand.</p><p>But Sutter CEO Mike Cohill disagreed, saying “clearly, the demand trend is doing down, not up.”</p><p>Cohill said the county’s estimates fail to account for Sutter’s decreased market share of patients, medical technology advancements and the move to an HMO-style system for Medi-Cal patients, all of which would reduce hospitalizations.</p><p>But supervisors such as Shirlee Zane said they did not want patients to arrive at a new Sutter hospital emergency room only to be told that they’d have to wait to be transferred to another facility with more bed space.</p><p>Zane said a situation in which “they end up flipping the patient to another hospital” would not be considered compliance with the Health Care Access Agreement that the county has with Sutter to operate the former Community Hospital.</p><p>Cohill noted that Sutter does not operate a public hospital under the health care agreement. He cited statistics that show 42 percent of Sutter’s acute patients days were for care of Medi-Cal, underinsured and indigent patients while it was 20 percent at Memorial Hospital and 4 percent at Kaiser.</p><p>“All of Sonoma County’s non-profit hospitals, not just Sutter, have an obligation to provide access to care,” Cohill said.</p><p>Scardaci said “we will circle around and look at the Sutter data” when officials update hospitalization use information for inclusion in the county environmental impact review. County planners hope to release a draft environmental review by late November.</p><p>Meanwhile, supervisors indicated they did not have major objections to other parts of Sutter’s proposal, including commitments to jail inmate services, AIDS programs, the doctors residency program, women’s health services or emergency medical services. </p><p>A total of 18 people testified Monday on different aspects of Sutter proposal, with all but a few indicating support. Many in the audience of about 100 wore green stickers that support the Sutter plan.</p><p>Several health professionals, Sutter employees and construction contractors on the Sutter project spoke in support of Sutter’s proposal.</p><p>“At $176 million for the hospital, these are dollars that will create local jobs and the ripple effect will be huge,” said Richard Ghilotti, president of his family’s construction company.</p><p>Although a couple of critics objected that the new hospital site would be more difficult for public transportation than the Chanate Road location, Supervisor Valerie Brown said she is confident bus routes would change to accommodate passengers.</p><p>“I can’t see a better location than being on Highway 101,” Brown said. “Of course, what the neighbors have to say during the planning review process will be a huge reality check.”</p>