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Health Care Services Boom With Population

Posted on: Friday, 17 February 2006, 12:01 CST

By Esmeralda Bermudez, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Feb. 16--HILLSBORO -- In Hillsboro, health care is a booming business.

Kaiser Permanente plans to build a hospital at Tanasbourne. Pacific University's new health campus is rising near downtown. Tuality Community Hospital is expanding. And the list goes on.

Health care providers say the need is clear: As Washington County's population swells, the need for health care -- including more specialized services -- is growing.

During the next five years, $420 million in significant health care projects in the Hillsboro area are expected to offer patients a longer roster of experts in cardiology, radiology, neonatal and neurology services close to home. In addition, several new and expanding health care services will include features that cater to the county's growing Latino population.

Yet in western Washington County -- an area of rural and urban contrasts -- this health care boom could have different side effects. Observers warn that if providers overbuild first-rate specialty offerings, health care costs could creep up. They also say the disparity between the insured and uninsured may increase if providers race after the well-to-do and best insured suburbanites.

In particular, capturing the growing market of high-tech workers and their solid health benefit packages could tempt providers.

For residents such as Gayle Verboort, more health care options will mean less time on the road to Kaiser's nearest full-service hospital in Clackamas. "Now if I'm not feeling well, or if something critical happens, it's just half an hour away," said Verboort, 46, who works at Merix Corp. in Forest Grove. "It just makes sense."

The health care wave is part of a national trend playing out across suburbs in states such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In Hillsboro, health care providers see plenty of potential.

"It's a fast-growing area, and they need service," said Neal Wallace, assistant professor of health economics at Portland State University, who studies health care growth in Oregon. "It's a question of location and convenience, because time is money, and people are more likely to use services if they're close."

Proposed projects include:

--Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center: The health maintenance organization is creating a $285 million campus in the Tanasbourne area that will include a general hospital and office space. It is to open as early as 2009.

--Pacific University Health Professions Campus: The Hillsboro offshoot of the Forest Grove-based school will include programs for optometry and psychology, plus two new ones -- dental health science and pharmacy. The $75 million complex, next to Tuality Community Hospital, will be built in phases to be completed in 2006 and 2011.

--Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center: The clinic will be housed on the Pacific campus and will merge two clinics run by Virginia Garcia, a private nonprofit organization.

--Tuality Community Hospital: An estimated $28 million expansion of outpatient services, intensive care and obstetrics is scheduled to be completed by 2009.

--Providence's Tanasbourne Medical Plaza: Providence will add two buildings to the general outpatient clinic on Hillsboro's east side. The first building, which could open as early as 2008, will cost an estimated $33 million.

"Our interest in Washington County is being driven by growth," said Rick Cagen, chief executive of Providence's Portland service area. "It's got space, it's still affordable, it's relatively close to Portland . . there's the middle class, the wealthy, the poor and vulnerable. We want to serve all those folks."

Most of Kaiser's offerings will cater to its growing pool of members, who number about 75,000 in Washington County. In addition, Kaiser's new emergency room will provide another option for patients in the area -- that includes part of the underinsured and uninsured population that now leans on Tuality's emergency services.

Overall, this health care boom will enrich the community -- as long as providers don't overrun one another through competition or overestimate the need for specialty care, Wallace said.

"Everyone wants to be the top chronic cancer provider, but you still have the cost of building," he said. "That cost could get passed back into the cost of health care."

That may mean higher rates for the insured and more struggles for uninsured or minimally insured patients. Any change to existing services could leave a lasting effect on public health care providers such as Virginia Garcia and the Essential Health Clinic, a free clinic in downtown Hillsboro.

As of 2004, more than 81,000 people -- or 17 percent of the county's population -- lacked insurance.

Sophia Tareen of The Oregonian contributed to this report.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

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Source: The Oregonian

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