Hospital deal approved

PALMER -- Valley Hospital Association members voted to authorize a joint venture with Texas-based Triad Hospital Inc. at a general meeting last Thursday at Raven Hall. The deal -- which had the unanimous support of the hospital's board of directors -- passed 1,331 to 206. Roughly 87 percent of the voting members OK'd the deal.

The vote allows VHA to

finalize an agreement with

Triad, and begin planning a 75-bed hospital to replace the Palmer hospital. Triad and VHA hope to break ground in May 2003 and to open the new hospital in May 2005.

Thursday's meeting drew just over 200 people. Karen Blaney, a supply clerk at Valley Hospital and an IBEW member spoke in favor of the joint venture. But Blaney also had questions for Jeff Forshee, Triad's V.P. of development. "Does Triad tend to support the practice of centralizing practices that can be done off-site or Outside?" Blaney asked, and said that specifically she wanted to know whether transcription and coding work would be performed off-site.

"No we don't." Forshee said "We do want to help you use the new technologies when they come along."

Blaney then thanked the VHA board for their work finding a new capital partner and told them that Triad was "in the background" during last year's contract negotiations between IBEW workers and VHA. Things went well during the negotiations, Blaney said. Blaney said she had bad experiences working at another area hospital -- without naming names -- and said she was happy Triad had been chosen by the VHA board of directors.

For years, the VHA board had been angling toward a partnership with Providence Alaska Medical System. But a VHA/Providence deal never made it out of the board rooms. Prior to the election, VHA published advertisements that said part of the reason the VHA/Providence deal failed was because the Alaska courts have required VHA to allow abortions to be performed, and its hospital and Providence is a private Catholic institution.

Baptist minister Howard Bess was part of the pro-abortion rights group that successfully sued to require VHA to allow abortions. In past elections, Bess has supported VHA board candidates, some of whom are current board members. Bess has also said that he supports VHA CEO George Larson, who was hired last year to find a capital partner. Despite all of that, Bess has actively campaigned against the Triad deal.

"They got the votes," Bess said after Thursday's meeting, but added that he still doesn't support the VHA board.

"I believe the VHA boards are badly flawed, badly structured and they really don't represent the broad common good for our community."

Hospital officials still don't know exactly where the new hospital will be placed, but have previously said it will be centrally located and likely be built somewhere along the Parks Highway between the intersection of the Glenn and Parks Highways and Seward Meridian Road. After the meeting, Forshee said Triad would be working on site selection "within weeks."

Forshee has said in the past that Triad had 14 other similar deals under investigation and that Triad would take its money to the next deal had Valley's membership turned them away. Alaska's law, which required a two-thirds vote of VHA membership and a ten percent voter turnout to approve the deal, made the VHA deal different.

"This one was different. This was a campaign," Forshee said afterwards. Forshee also said he was impressed with the people that turned out for the string of meetings at which he gave presentations during the campaign.

If VHA and Triad are successful in negotiating the joint venture, then state health care regulators must decide whether there is a need for a new hospital in the area. VHA management has contended the hospital tried to move away from Palmer ten years ago and state regulators denied the hospitals certificate of need, or CON, because the hospital failed to prove there was enough community support for the deal. This time around, the hospital will use Thursday's vote as proof that the community supports a move.

"We just got 87 percent approval from the community. That should go a long way toward getting our CON," Forshee said.

Besides state health regulators, the Alaska attorney general's office could scrutinize the deal, but neither Forshee or VHA administrators know if that will happen.

It's quite clear that Triad and VHA have been optimistic about breaking ground next year and accepting patients in 2005. Forshee said Triad would start work on legal issues for the joint venture company right away, but also pointed out that Triad didn't have Alaska-specific legal expertise and that governor-elect Frank Murkowski could shake up the attorney general's office.

"We haven't got a handle on all of that yet," Forshee said.

The Valley's core area has two public sewer and water utilities, one in Palmer and the other in Wasilla. Cursory discussions have already taken place about utilities for the new hospital. When asked, Forshee said he didn't know whether the local governments could extend utilities as fast as Triad can build.

"We'll work with all the government agencies within the borough," Forshee said. "Nobody's offered anything at this point. We've all offered to sit down and work things through."

VHA had an impressive 67 percent voter turnout for the special election. 2,289 members were eligible to vote on the agreement and 1,537 people either cast a ballot or submitted a proxy. The election judge was local accountant Chuck Griffin, CPA . 202 ballots were distributed at the meeting last Thursday.