Mercy Surgical Plan Approved By Tennessee State Agency
By Tom Humphrey, The Knoxville News Sentinel, Tenn.
Jul. 24–NASHVILLE — A state agency voted Wednesday to authorize open-heart surgeries at Knoxville’s Baptist Hospital West over protests from representatives of competing hospitals, who contended that the move could jeopardize their financial stability.
The Health Services Development Agency voted 6-2 in favor of the plan submitted by Mercy Health Partners, created earlier this year by the merger of the Baptist and St. Mary’s hospital systems. The hearing lasted more than three hours.
The agency also approved, unanimously and quickly, another part of the Mercy merger plans: moving 36 acute-care patient beds to St. Mary’s North from Baptist’s flagship hospital on Blount Avenue that is slated for closing. There was no opposition to that change.
Mercy’s plan calls for ending open-heart procedures at Baptist’s downtown facility, moving some operations to St. Mary’s Medical Center off of Woodland Avenue and some to Baptist West. The upshot, Mercy attorney Warren Gooch contended, is a shifting of existing services with no impact on other hospitals.
Mercy CEO Debra London said the relocation is “absolutely critical” to successfully implementing overall merger plans. A $220 million investment would be at risk if the proposal was rejected, she said.
But the plan was opposed by attorneys and officials representing the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Parkwest Medical Center, Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, and Covenant Health.
Dan Elrod, attorney for Covenant, said approval would amount to “a gun pointed at Methodist Medical Center and Parkwest” and lead to “a very expensive cardiac arms race in Knoxville.”
Elrod and others argued that the change amounts to Mercy expanding its open-heart-surgery service into a new area, drawing patients from West Knoxville, Anderson, Roane and Loudon counties who otherwise would rely on other hospitals.
Jerry Taylor, attorney for the University of Tennessee Medical Center, and other opponents of the plan also contended that there already is an oversupply of open-heart facilities in the area and that demand is shrinking as alternatives to surgery and new medications are developed.
Mercy advocates countered that demand for such services will likely increase as the area population ages.
Taylor said UT Medical Center would not object if Mercy simply moved all of its open-heart-surgery practice to St. Mary’s. But London said that was impractical because the facility is “landlocked and aging,” with long-range plans calling for closing St. Mary’s and building a new hospital on the site of the current downtown Baptist facility.
State Rep. Joe Armstrong, D-Knoxville, who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee and also serves on the Mercy Health Partners board of directors, spoke at the hearing in support of the Mercy plan, and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, once a patient at Baptist, sent a letter of support.
Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Parker Hardy, Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce president, both testified against the proposal. Both expressed concern that approval of the plan would have a negative impact on Methodist Medical Center, which could have a ripple effect on the entire Oak Ridge-area economy.
Carl Koella, chairman of the Health Services Development Agency, cited Baker’s support in urging his approval of the Mercy proposal at the conclusion of debate.
Koella said that Baptist has been “No. 1 in the market for heart surgery” and “I don’t think it would be very orderly to let that die.” He said St. Mary’s and its parent, Catholic Health Partners, had made “a $220 million gamble to preserve jobs and programs” in the Knoxville area.
“If we deny this, I just think we would put their whole good faith in jeopardy,” Koella said.
Gene Caldwell, a retired Oak Ridge physician and former state representative who serves on the agency panel, abstained from voting.
The agency’s approval of the plans can be appealed. Attorneys for Covenant and UT Medical Center said after the vote they do not know whether an appeal will be launched but will consult with their clients.
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Knoxville News Sentinel, Tenn.
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