Thursday, May 07, 2009
Carilion's effort to move ORs advances
Health planners voted to recommend approval before turning to address their own hurdles.
The latest from The Ticker blog
Carilion Clinic's request to move two operating rooms from an outpatient facility on Brambleton Avenue to Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital earned the support of the regional health planning agency Wednesday, even as the agency discussed if it could continue to perform its duties.
The board of the Health Planning Agency of Southwest Virginia voted unanimously to recommend approval of the relocation of the two operating rooms. The decision followed an earlier recommendation to approve from the agency's executive director, Kevin Meyer.
Carilion touted the $485,000 plan as a way to improve outpatient surgical services, address increased volumes at Roanoke Memorial Hospital and provide easier access for surgeons. In addition to plans for the two operating rooms, Carilion is also planning to add five procedure rooms at Community Hospital, said Larry Creech, a senior vice president at Carilion. Carilion does not need state permission to open the procedure rooms.
An uptick in outpatient orthopedic, gynecologic and general surgery over the past few years has helped fuel the need, Creech said. With a larger waiting room and more parking availability, Community Hospital is better equipped to handle an increase in surgeries than the Brambleton center, he added.
In addition to voting in favor of Carilion's application, the board also recommended approval to establish a cardiac catheterization at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon.
The agency's actions Wednesday could prove to be among its last. After the votes, the board turned its attention to the dire financial situation facing the agency.
With about $84,000 in reserves, and no source of future income, the agency has about enough money to last until November, board Chairman Joseph Fuller said. With an annual budget of about $220,000, the agency will likely have to stop operations if new revenues aren't made available.
"We are going to continue our role and function as long as possible, but we also want to be good stewards of what we have," Fuller said of the agency's dire financial situation.
The decision on whether to continue operating will be made in June, before the new fiscal year begins in July. If a solution is not available, Fuller said they will begin taking steps for "an orderly shutdown" of the agency including discussing severance packages for Meyer and the administrative manager.
The regional agency is one of five in the state charged with offering local insight into health care delivery proposals that go through the state's certificate of public need process. All the agencies are facing financial hardship as the amount of state dollars they receive each year has dwindled.
The situation follows a political battle during the General Assembly over two proposals. One would have increased funding to the agencies; the other would have removed the agencies from the process. Neither proposal was approved.
Fuller and other board members continued to maintain there is a need for the regional agencies in offering a local voice to the statewide process.
While the final decision to approve a certificate of public need application rests with the state health commissioner, the recommendations of the agency staff report and board vote are taken under consideration.
If the agency ceases to exist the responsibilities for holding a public hearing and getting local input would fall to the certificate of public need program in Richmond, Meyer said.
