Health Authority selects Mercy as No.1 Choice for Midwest Regional Medical Center

[MWCGuy]

If MRMC were to shut down... the quality of life in Midwest City would surely tumble as emergency response for an already aging population in the city would become almost too much to handle and the city's reputation would also falter. Our only hope is that a second hospital would come in and replace MRMC to curb that. I don't believe it's no longer an "if" as it is now a "when" for the end of MRMC. Along with that also ends a lot of grants the city gives out as the interest on the trust for the hospital funds pay for most if not all of them.

It will stay open for the foreseeable future. What I am referring to is that it will close if and when another competitor comes to town.

I spoke to some folks I know that worked at Deaconess at Bethany when it closed. Community Health more or less let the place go. Saints, INTEGRIS and Mercy toured the place as possible buyers but, each passed because of there was just many improvements that were needed. In the end nothing is going to change, it just one slum lord being bought out by another. Then again this is what happens when hospital systems have the demands of stockholders standing in the way of the people in the communities they serve. I would not be surprised if the Midwest City Hospital Authority walked away feeling like the previous board members sold the city's soul. Once you sell your soul, it's hard to get it back. Now they are stuck waiting it out until the lease expires or CHS shuts it down and walks away.

[bombermwc]

Well before we start trying to blame people in the past, lets not forget to put the blame in the present as well. That little failure to mention 27Million in debt was 100% on the present and tainted the negotiations.

The citizens are screwed, but as for me, I still wouldn't take my dog there. It's sad when the staff of the place tell you not to go there too.

[mmonroe]

Help me understand the 27MM part. I know it came from the 2 story addition to the tower of the hospital. Who totes that note? The authority, the city, or HMA? Could the Hospital Authority not put up the 5% and pay off the 27MM note? I know there is a lot of money in the trust, but i'm not sure how much.

[mmonroe]

Committee asks MWC voters to say yes to Prop 5 - Eastword News - Midwest City, OK

Committee asks MWC voters to say yes to Prop 5
by Vicki Middleton


Midwest City residents who voted in the last two mayoral elections should have received a letter in the mail this week from the Citizens for a Better Midwest City committee.

The letter, supported by 15 community members, asked voters to approve five propositions the City of Midwest City has called for in the Tuesday, Oct. 8 election.

Co-chairmen former state Sen. Dave Herbert and former state Rep. Bill Case signed the letter. Other committee members listed included: Tom Blanton, Jack Fry, Pam Hall, Bobbie & Gene Howard, Jim Howell, Archie Huston Rella Johnson, Dara McGlamery, Bert Norton, Fred Quinn, Eddie Reed, Russell Smith, Pam Teply and Edea Young.

In the letter, the committee explained each of the five propositions, but went into the most detail about Proposition 5. This proposition asks permission for the Midwest City Memorial Hospital Authority to access up to $50 million from the Compounded Principal in the Authority’s account to negotiate a new hospital lease for Midwest Regional Medical Center.

The committee’s letter stated that Proposition 5’s approval will "not results in new or increased fees or taxes" and that the $50 million would be "withdrawn from the Authority’s current funds on hand."

Authority members have previously stated they only plan on using the funds to cover costs associated with the termination of the hospital’s existing lease agreement with Health Management Associates and to acquire a new lessee. In 1996, the Authority leased the hospital to HMA after operating the hospital themselves for 34 years (since 1962). That lease contract is set to expire in 2048.

Over the summer, MRMC and its parent company, HMA, came under scrutiny after concerns were expressed about the lack of quality medical care service and treatment of employees. Then a more broad development came about when HMA announced it was going to be acquired by another hospital corporation, Community Health Services.

Authority and city officials have stated that even in spite of HMA’s possible acquisition, they still wanted to press forward with the Oct. 8 election. If CHS acquires HMA, this would put MRMC with a new lessee, and stated in the two parties’ contract, the Authority must approve any new third-party, which in this case could be CHS.

On Wednesday, Midwest Regional CEO Damon Brown released the following statement in regard to the Oct. 8 election:

"Midwest Regional Medical Center will respect whatever decision voters make in the referendum.

"We are extremely proud of the high quality care provided to our patients by our 1200 Associates and 300 physicians. Last year we provided $102 million in uncompensated care along with $200,000 in community sponsorships. We are dedicated to advancing our mission of providing high-quality care for the community and to continually enhancing that care. No matter the outcome, MRMC will remain a vital part of this community."

Prop 5 Details

Mayor Jack Fry told the EastWord News that he hopes the Authority does not have to access any of the $50 million, but if they need to, they will only spend what they believe is absolutely necessary.

He explained that his understanding is that the HMA and CHS acquisition is most likely going to go through. The Federal Corporation Commission has already approved the deal and each of the company’s board of directors. The final piece, he said, is the approval of stockholders, which will take place in December.

Fry said the Authority can either decide to have CHS run the hospital or to have another entity do so. Anticipated costs associated with having a new lessee includes performing any maintenance that may need to be addressed before the new lessee takes residence, legal fees, appraisal of the hospital to know its value to be able to negotiate in good faith and to operate the hospital until a new lessee is approved, the mayor said.

"The perfect scenario would be to not have to spend any of this money, but we don’t know what’s going to happen so we need to be prepared," Fry said.

Other Oct. 8 propositions include the following: Propositions 1-3 propose changes to the city’s charter to make it consistent with state law and Oklahoma County Election Board requirements. Proposition 4 asks for salary increases for the mayor ($200 to $400 monthly) and councilmembers ($200 to $300 monthly).

In order to pass, all five propositions need a majority vote, Fry said.

Look for full election results in next week’s edition on Oct. 10 and also posts on election night on our website and Facebook page.

I guess this answers one of my questions, there is at least 50MM "on hand".

[mmonroe]

http://www.sai.ok.gov/olps/uploads/c...63013_nupl.pdf

Here is a link to the financial audit filed in February of this year.

http://midwestcityok.org/Websites/MW...udget_Book.pdf

And a link to the 2013-2014 Budget.

[MWCGuy]

Well before we start trying to blame people in the past, lets not forget to put the blame in the present as well. That little failure to mention 27Million in debt was 100% on the present and tainted the negotiations.

The citizens are screwed, but as for me, I still wouldn't take my dog there. It's sad when the staff of the place tell you not to go there too.

I am not blaming anyone from the past. In fact, when you sell your soul you do not realize it until it's too late just simply because the deal just sounded so good, you just could not pass it up.

[bombermwc]

Well if we thought it was bad with HMA, just wait. CHS will show (as they have with Deaconness) how properly placed they are to kill a great facility. MRMC was already at the bottom of the pile, so at least it doesn't have far to fall.

And this is what happens when a hospital converts from non-profit to for-profit. Oh goodie.

[mmonroe]

How can we convert back to a non-profit?

[MWCGuy]

How can we convert back to a non-profit?

A non profit like Mercy, Saints or INTEGRIS would have to buy it or manage it. The city already used their nuclear option so we are just kind of stuck with the situation now. I was at Southwest Medical Center ER Waiting Room the other night with my brother. Del City Police were bringing in a prisoner for medical clearance for jail. I found it rather interesting because MRMC is much closer.

[mmonroe]

Well... since the city would not "bail out" the hospital with the Hospital Authority funds available, some 72MM from what I see in the budget, we are stuck with this option instead of paying off the loan, taking back the hospital under city control ( I understand there may be some added cost not budgeted for and maybe some minor upgrade costs, and that the Authority's funds are "restricted" but if we as a city can vote to make up to 50MM available in a special election, i'm sure we could have voted on this too ) to then have all the time the city would need to then find a proper group to lease the hospital to and recover those funds over a period of time. But.. most of the council won't be around to see the end of this lease in 2048 (that's 34 years from now, i'll be 61) and I know i'll be close to the end to at that time.

[bombermwc]

The city wanted out of the hospital business in the first place, so don't count of them coming to the rescue, They sold our soul to the devil in the first place.

Mercy isn't technically non-profit now that it's owned by a third-party. It wasn't well advertised (for obvious reasons), but they changed the logo at the time of the sale.

Integris is a foundation, so they're a bit odd in the local arena. Saints is really the only true independent group in the traditional model. Their local in midtown is really what's allowed them to stay at the top. They had cheap land for so long and they stuck it out as the neighborhood around them collapsed. But they stayed long enough for MidTown to come back, and the city to incentivize their staying there. Had they been, say on the NW side, I'm not sure they would have had the same success.

Deaconness was a good example how to do things right.....but then they fell too.

I'm not sure if Norman is independent now or not....anyone?

[MWCGuy]

I believe Norman was a city hospital like Midwest City however, it is now private. They were on the verge of folding or selling out however, the tornado turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Moore Hospital was leasing everything down to the toilet paper dispensers and it was strangling Norman Regional as a whole. The tornado allowed them to break the leases and walk away with a new life.

[mmonroe]

Lets hope it doesn't have to come down to a tornado to fix MRMC.

[MWCGuy]

Something tells me the Affordable Care Act will keep this place going. After all, the cut rate insurance companies are going to need a place send their customers.

[bombermwc]

The news isn't good folks. So far CHS has done exactly what we all knew would happen, but apparently the authority was too short-sighted to acknowledge.

The Joint Commission failed its first round and is in the second. If they fail this, they will lose certification!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The staff tree has been so muddled up, it's like someone put all the employee's names in a bingo hopper and picked roles for them.
Lay-Offs are coming after the current round of the commission....guarantee it.
Patient count is EXTREMELY low. After the expansion, the place became a 200 bed facility. It's going rate of occupation is at 50%!!!!!!!!! I still say that the construction was simply a way for HMA to add capital to the building...fluff it up so it's worth more before they sold it. They knew what they were doing and they knew MRMC couldn't support it.

So like we've seen ever since MWC leased out the place, the slow death of the hospital seems inevitable. And the authority let us all down...and they knew what they were doing, which makes it even more detestable. Once again, a crappy management team is going to squander any chance of bringing the place back to life all for the sake of profit. I'm wondering if the place is going to be able to make it at all. Will we see a bankruptcy type state of the facility? So the facility itself wont go "bankrupt" but it could bleed money from CHS so hard that they sever the limb to save the body. I actually think that might be the best hope for the place. Let someone come in and buy it up so they can help bring it back....please Mercy, Norman, or Saints!!!!! If they don't do that, we'll see places like the Saint East location expand and simply absorb the patient load letting MRMC die a slow painful death.

The #1 thing they need to do is rebuild staff from the ground up with GOOD people and GOOD doctors. Not the parade of idiot doctors they have there now. I swear they can't diagnose their way out of a paper bag. #2 is acknowledge to the community that they sucked. #3 present to the community how they are going to help bring things back without making profit be the #1 driving force. A loss of some profit now can be the savior in the future.

[bombermwc]

And then CHS gets hacked and 4.5 million records are potentially stolen with absolutely no information available from CHS on determining IF they were stolen or what they are going to do about it.
Hospital network hacked, 4.5 million records stolen; Oklahoma hospitals at risk | KFOR.com

I wish the residents of MWC could vote to fire CHS. Heck, with the way things have been going since the sale, maybe they'll have to file for bankruptcy and toss some of the debt so someone that doesn't suck can take over the management of the place.

[mmonroe]

Eddie Reed said on Facebook that MRMC was not hacked even though the news has reported that MRMC is one that was in fact hacked... so my information is out there.. lol good luck with that.

[bombermwc]

Well I would think that they probably weren't the more that I think about it. Not because MRMC does such a great job of things, but because they're too new to CHS to have integrated to any degree with the HQ network. So it probably actually saved MRMC employees/patients the hassle. From what I've read, it was an exploit of the SSL Heartbleed bug. So on one hand, it something that the whole world had to deal with quickly, but on the other hand, obviously they didn't get it corrected quickly enough.

[mmonroe]

The Heartbleed bug was an exploit that happened awhile ago.

Because I do websites and webdesign I keep up to date and current with threats via email alerts when something comes out. Only 1 of our clients were affected and we took the server offline until we could install the patch for OpenSSL. If their IT guys were not capable of know this information and correcting the issue when it happened several months ago, then they all need to be fired. This was a very serious exploit and to not correct it is compromising all that data and is legally negligent.

[bombermwc]

Agreed mmonroe. I didn't read when the actually detected the leak. It could have been that they just now figured it out or they just now admitted it. CHS=HMA=CRAP