As hearing is held, hospital group sees hope
by Jennifer Heldt Powell, Boston Herald
Monday, February 11, 2002

Deaconess-Waltham Hospital doctors, staff and Waltham community leaders are hopeful they can come up with a plan to save the hospital despite a public hearing tonight on closing the 163-bed facility.

The group banded together within days of the announcement that the hospital would be closed in April and say they expect to soon unveil their proposal to keep it open.

The state Department of Public Health will have a public hearing tonight at Waltham High School on the plans of the hospital's parent company, CareGroup Inc., to close the facility.

The hearing is to determine what services at the hospital should be deemed essential. CareGroup officials must then develop a plan to provide for those services.

But the coalition dedicated to saving the hospital hopes to find a way to keep it going at least long enough to find another partner.
Raising hopes, Essent Healthcare Inc. briefly looked at a deal to buy Deaconess-Waltham. But on Friday, the Tennessee-based for-profit, in a joint announcement with CareGroup, said it had terminated its discussions.

Nevertheless, the group won a victory last week when Waltham Mayor David Gately said he would look at using $2 million in city money to help the ailing hospital, subject to the state pitching in a matching amount.

"Behind the scenes, we're making considerable progress," said Dr. Richard Lyons, co-chairman of the coalition. "We're trying to cobble together city, state and private money to put a cogent proposal in front of CareGroup that will allow them to make a decision to suspend the closing process and allow us to bring in turnaround management." He said there is money available.

"The question is how committed CareGroup is to working with us to save this hospital," he said. "This is not pie in the sky. There is real money, and we're close to finalizing a plan."
CareGroup officials are open to any viable options to keeping the hospital open, said Patricia McGovern, executive vice president of the hospital system.

But saving the hospital is difficult given its financial troubles. It has lost money in eight of the last 10 years. Last year's loss topped $9 million and the hospital is projected to lose that much this year. Patient volume has dropped by 25 percent over the last decade.

"The hemorrhaging was too great for anybody to withstand," McGovern said. In addition, it has $23.7 million worth of debt, and capital improvements are needed.

But the hospital offers services that the community can ill afford to lose, including emergency room and psychiatric beds, say those fighting to save it.

"It's very evident that emergency room waits (at other hospitals) will increase," Lyons said. "And there is no guarantee that you'll be able to get in."

State officials, including Dr. Howard Koh, public health commissioner, say they are looking at all options to save the facility. Koh said last week he is very concerned about the potential loss of services, especially emergency room capacity.

At the hospital, business continues as usual for now, say doctors and nurses. Only a few have left. Most are hanging on, hoping for some solution that will preserve the facility.

"It's still a vibrant facility, but people are scared and looking at all their options," Lyons said. Attorney General Tom Reilly's staff has met with lawmakers to discuss what can be done to slow or stop the closing process, but so far few options have been found, said Dean Richlin, first assistant attorney general.

"We're trying to do what we can, we're trying to be creative and looking for solutions," he said. "But we're not overly optimistic that we can do anything that would stop the clock on the closing." Richlin said Reilly's staff stands ready to do what it can if proposals to save the facility are made.