Potential Buyer Looks at Physicians Hospital
Posted on: Friday, 31 March 2006, 21:00 CST
By Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
Mar. 31--The owners of Physicians Hospital, the latest incarnation of the beleaguered Woodland Park Hospital in Northeast Portland, are negotiating a sale to an out-of-state company.
The hospital has been under a cloud since the death last year of a patient who suffered cardiac arrest while no doctors were available to respond. Hospital staff had to call an ambulance.
In a March 23 letter of intent, Regency Hospital Co. of Alpharetta, Ga., outlined plans to buy and convert Physicians Hospital into a long-term acute-care facility. It would provide complex services for extended periods at a level of care intensity between that offered by hospitals and nursing homes.
The plan calls for suspending operations of the 39-bed hospital at the time of sale, renovating and re-opening in September with 60 beds that would eventually be converted from general hospital to long-term acute care beds.
"Negotiations are in process," said Diane Danowski Smith, a spokeswoman for Physicians Hospital.
The current owners, a group of doctors and other investors, re-opened the facility as Physicians Hospital at the end of 2004, hoping to bring stability after years of financial turmoil and ownership changes. Supporters included the Portland Development Commission, which extended a $500,000 low-interest loan.
While operating as Woodland Park Hospital, the facility endured two bankruptcy proceedings in the four years before its abrupt closure in January 2004 left 245 nurses, technicians and other employees out of work. The hospital had been operating with more empty beds than the state average for about three years.
The hospital remains under scrutiny for deficiencies that state and federal investigators identified after the death of Helen Wilson, 88, who underwent elective back surgery.
While in recovery, she went into cardiac arrest. No physician was in the hospital at the time of the incident, according to the investigation by the Oregon Department of Human Services. Following hospital procedure at the time, nurses called 9-1-1 for emergency help. Wilson was taken to another hospital and died four days later.
Federal authorities in February suspended the hospital from serving Medicare and Medicaid patients, citing deficiencies that put patients' health and safety in jeopardy. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services lifted that restriction on March 17. But the federal agency has given the hospital 90 days to resolve five remaining deficiencies. State inspectors are checking progress at the hospital once a week.
"That will continue until either the certification is withdrawn by Medicare or until they come back into full compliance," said Ron Prinslow, health care licensure and certification section manager for the Department of Human Services.
Physicians Hospital ceased all inpatient and outpatient surgeries and procedures during the restriction period while managers responded to regulators' concerns and instituted new procedures. Danowski Smith said the hospital will resume offering those services within a week.
What the future holds for the hospital depends on the outcome of the talks with Regency, the Georgia company. Danowski Smith said the parties are considering re-opening inpatient mental health beds that used to be provided by Woodland Park Hospital.
"With long-term acute care and mental health, those are two services that are drastically needed," she said.
Regency is a privately held company that was founded in 2001 by Rod Laughlin, the president and chief executive. The company Web site lists 15 locations, most in the South and Midwest.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
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Source: The Oregonian
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