Health Options Digest
May 30, 2004
Coalition for Health Options In Central Eugene-Springfield (CHOICES)
In This Issue
From the Editor
Week in Review
Last Monday in Eugene and Friday in Portland, people testified about the Certificate of Need rules that determine how easy it will be for McKenzie-Willamette to move out of Springfield and from under the shadow of PeaceHealth.
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Looking Ahead
We haven't heard of any important events this week. With Memorial Day comes the traditional start of summer and a slowing down of public meetings. But don't be fooled by the lazy days of summer.
In the 1975 thriller movie, "Three Days of the Condor," Robert Redford plays a bookish researcher code named "Condor" in a quiet section of the CIA. His job is to read Arabic-language publications. One day, he returns to his office to find all his colleagues shot dead. Redford spends the rest of the movie running, trying to stay alive, and searching for who is trying to kill him and why. Near the end of the movie, the assassin (Max von Sydow) sent to kill him turns around and befriends him. He offers Redford the following warning: "It will happen like this. One day someone you know will pull up in a car and ask you to get in. Don't trust them. Just keep on walking..." And that is exactly how the movie ends.
What does "Three Days of the Condor" have to do with hospital siting? It will happen like this: Sometime during the lazy days of summer, perhaps in August, three justices dressed in black robes will issue a decision. They will rule that Springfield failed to adequately analyze the impacts of a new PeaceHealth hospital on the surrounding roads and whether additional commericial land is needed in Springfield. They might also rule that a regional hospital is, indeed, regional significant and that it must be approved by all three regional partners: Springfield, Eugene and Lane County. Lastly, they might rule that a regional hospital isn't an "auxiliary use" to the surrounding residences, like a neighborhood grocery store, grade school or park, but is actually an independent commercial use.
In any case, the three justices in black robes won't rule "yes" or "no" but more like "maybe." The effect will be turn the clock back to the Spring of 2003. Springfield will need to redo their plan amendments to allow a new hospital. PeaceHealth won't begin construction of their new hospital until next year at the earliest, if ever.
Of course, this is no way to make important decisions about the health of the community. Of course, CHOICES met with PeaceHealth CEO Alan Yordy almost two years ago and tried to find a way to avoid the legal battles. Of course, the real issues are about market share and money. Of course, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new facilities will provide better health care -- but only for those who can afford the increasingly expensive costs.
Postscript: In the end, Redford discovers that it is all about oil and the price of gasoline and the threat of instability in the Middle East. Clearly, nothing like that could happen in real life. "Three Days of the Condor" is purely fiction...
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Rob Zako, Editor
343-5201
rzako@efn.org
McKenzie-Willamette/Triad
Rules governing hospital relocation debated at hearing
By Tim Christie
The Register-Guard | May 25, 2004 |
Supporters of McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center urged state regulators Monday to scrap proposed changes to hospital siting rules, arguing that they would do nothing to ease a planned move from Springfield to Eugene.
Instead, they said, the rules should be changed to treat Eugene-Springfield as a single service area, just as Portland is, and to allow hospitals to move within that area without state regulatory review.
Meanwhile, PeaceHealth, McKenzie-Willamette's larger rival, urged state regulators to adopt the proposed rule changes as written. Neither the current nor proposed rules apply to PeaceHealth's plan to move Sacred Heart Medical Center from Eugene to Springfield.
The comments came at a two-hour public hearing at the Lane County Public Service Building. At issue is a proposed change to the state's Certificate of Need rules that govern where hospitals can locate. (more...)
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McKenzie-Willamette fights rule changes
By Amber Fossen
The Springfield News | May 26, 2004 |
McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center's planned move from Springfield to Eugene has been anything but a paved road and supporters of the hospital argue that proposed changes to hospital siting rules will not ease the relocation process as intended.
A public hearing, to discuss proposed amendments to the state's Certificate of Need rules that govern where a hospital can locate, was held Monday bringing state legislators, community members, city leaders, hospital volunteers and doctors together to air opinions on the issue.
Supporters of McKenzie-Willamette urged state regulators to forgo proposed changes, saying the Eugene-Springfield area should be treated as a single-service area similar to the Portland metro area, which would allow hospitals to move within the area without the Certificate of Need review process.
Arguing against that position, PeaceHealth officials and supporters of the review process said amendments to the Certificate of Need process allow for an expedited review while still preserving the public process and protection of critical access hospitals. (more...)
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Letter -- We don't need two hospitals
| By Douglas Newton, Eugene | May 24, 2004 |
In 1986, local voters approved a $25 million dollar bond measure for improvements at Eugene Water & Electric Board's Ferry Street Bridge location. Now, 16 years after the completion of this project, the city and EWEB want to sell the entire site for far less than the cost (inflation adjusted) of the improvements (Register-Guard, May 20). This is an example of why the public can't trust government agencies to spend our money in a fiscally responsible manner.
Nobody has demonstrated an urgent need for two large new hospitals in the Eugene-Springfield metro area. It seems that the main objective of the McKenzie-Willamette/Triad project is healing our city councilors' wounded egos.
For-profit hospitals aren't philanthropic organizations. The costs of these facilities are invariably passed on to consumers. In this era of skyrocketing health care costs, hospitals should only be built when there is a legitimate need. Civic pride hardly constitutes a legitimate need.
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Cost of Health Care
Federal Court Upholds Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law
| By Adam Liptak and Sarah Kershaw | May 26, 2004 |
A federal appeals court today rejected an effort by the Justice Department to block the only law in the nation authorizing doctors to help their patients commit suicide.
The decision, by a divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, upheld Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.
The majority used unusually pointed language to rebuke Attorney General John Ashcroft for overstepping his authority. (more...)
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Oregon's assisted suicide law upheld
By David Steves and Tim Christie
The Register-Guard | May 27, 2004 |
A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law, rejecting the Bush administration's attempt to overturn the only state law of its kind in the nation.
The 2-1 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco represents the second setback for U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who had issued a directive to doctors in Oregon, warning they would be sanctioned or face criminal charges if they prescribed lethal doses of medication to dying patients. (more...)
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State finds insurance company broke rules
By Tim Christie
The Register-Guard | May 27, 2004 |
The insurance company that administers the Oregon Health Plan in Lane County treated clients, providers and medical vendors so poorly at times that it violated state and federal regulations, state investigators have concluded in a preliminary report.
State and federal officials began investigating the Lane Individual Practice Association, known as LIPA, last year in response to a series of complaints compiled by Eugene lawyer Tim Baxter, who advocates for poor and disabled clients at the Lane County Law and Advocacy Center.
Patients, providers and vendors had complained that LIPA treated them rudely, delayed approval for medical equipment, refused to explain why service was delayed or denied, and retaliated against patients who complained.
Officials in the state Office of Medical Assistance Programs, which administers the Oregon Health Plan and contracts with LIPA, concluded that three of those allegations had merit and identified two other areas of concern. The state will require the company to draw up a plan to correct the problems. (more...)
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Nearby Developments
Construction costs keep building up
By Diane Dietz
The Register-Guard | May 25, 2004 |
Rapidly rising prices for construction commodities -- steel, plywood, oil -- are clipping projects across Eugene-Springfield.
The run-up added a half-million dollars to the price of the temporary bridge for Interstate 5; about $2 million to the new Madison Middle School in Eugene; and $4 million to PeaceHealth's proposed RiverBend hospital.
The federal government plans to begin work next month on Eugene's stainless steel federal courthouse, but rising steel costs may force big design revisions.
And the price increases -- due in part to demand for construction materials in booming China -- are having myriad other effects. (more...)
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Council narrowly rejects motion to explore ban on big box stores
By Edward Russo
The Register-Guard | May 25, 2004 |
The Eugene City Council on Monday night decided that it isn't ready to move toward temporarily banning new big box stores, but it still wants to see how the giant retailers affect the city.
A motion to develop a moratorium on stores larger than 50,000 square feet failed on a 5-4 vote, with Mayor Jim Torrey breaking the tie. Councilors then asked the Mayor's Economic Development Committee to identify how stores more than 50,000 square feet affect the city's land use decisions, transportation network and other businesses.
On another matter, councilors decided that they want to consider implementing enforceable city housing standards to supplement state housing codes. (more...)
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UO considers new arena financing plan
By Greg Bolt
The Register-Guard | May 26, 2004 |
The University of Oregon is considering a new financing plan that could revive its stalled basketball arena project and is re-examining the Williams Bakery site as the court's potential home.
The UO wants to turn construction over to a private developer and lease the building rather than own it. That would avoid saddling the athletic department with $50 million in bond debt -- the stumbling block that tripped up the previous effort -- although the university still would have to make lease payments. (more...)
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Editorial -- Chewing on Big Mac: UO officials working to revise arena project
| The Register-Guard | May 30, 2004 |
When University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer decided last February to put an indefinite hold on plans to build a new basketball arena, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth by some who believed the project was dead and the $130 million in donations gone forever.
The list of doomsayers did not include any of the principals involved in the arena project. They immediately went to work addressing Frohnmayer's concerns, including a $180 million price tag that would have required the university to issue at least $50 million in state bonds. Such borrowing would have dramatically increased the athletic department's bonded debt and potentially endangered its hard-won self-supporting status. (more...)
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City Council to consider vision for civic street
By Edward Russo
The Register-Guard | May 26, 2004 |
East Eighth Avenue in downtown Eugene has a few big draws -- the Park Blocks that feature the Saturday Market, the Lane County Courthouse, Eugene City Hall.
But the street could be so much more, some idealists say.
With a new Eugene police station, a new City Hall, a renovated courthouse and public park, all linked to the yet-to-be-built new federal courthouse, East Eighth Avenue could become Eugene's great civic street, they figure.
That's the big picture in a conceptual plan to be reviewed by the City Council next month. Looming over the plan is the obvious question, however: Where will government find the many millions of dollars to pay for the ambitious wish list? (more...)
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Transportation
LTD files lawsuits to step up project
By Randi Bjornstad
The Register-Guard | May 24, 2004 |
SPRINGFIELD -- Sometimes filing a lawsuit can speed things up, not slow them down, which may prove true in the case of Lane Transit District's bus rapid transit project, said LTD spokesman Andy Vobora.
The transit district has filed suit against four property owners in the downtown Springfield area to gain small amounts of right of way the agency needs to begin construction on the first phase of its bus rapid transit system, which will link downtown Springfield and downtown Eugene. (more...)
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LTD seeks eminent domain
By Christopher Stollar
The Springfield News | May 26, 2004 |
The bus rapid transit project remains on schedule, but property owners still stand in the way. (more...)
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Editorial -- I-5 access study welcome: Bridge replacement offers opportunity
| The Register-Guard | May 25, 2004 |
The unexpected urgency of the need to replace the Interstate 5 bridge over the Willamette River brings an unexpected opportunity. It may be possible to improve the awkward interchange between Franklin Boulevard and the freeway at the same time a new bridge is installed.
The possibility is at a minimum worth studying; there may never be a better chance to create a smoother connection between Franklin and I-5. The Oregon Department of Transportation, with the encouragement of local officials, has agreed to study the idea. (more...)
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Elections
Editorial -- People Power
| Eugene Weekly | May 27, 2004 |
Eugene has a new mayor, Kitty Piercy. At this turning point in the city's history, it's worth considering what this means for the future of Eugene.
Piercy and council candidates Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman and Andrea Ortiz won election last week because the majority of people in Eugene want a more progressive government. They want government that serves the people, that strives to do the most good for the most people by protecting the local environment, quality of life and human rights.
Piercy and the elected council candidates were backed by more than 700 volunteers and small donors working for what they believed in: a better city. Nathanson and council candidates Maurie Denner, Tom Slocum and Scott Meisner were financially backed by only a relative handful of big developers and businesses who profit from weak regulation, taxpayer give-aways and environmental destruction. People power won.
Eugene's new mayor is not a radical liberal as some local conservatives would claim. Piercy was the true moderate in the election. Nathanson was the conservative with a voting record out of touch with the values of Eugene. That's why she lost. (more...)
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Slant -- Nancy Nathanson
| Eugene Weekly | May 27, 2004 |
Post-election rumors are flying like crazy about Nancy Nathanson's future. She hasn't conceded her defeat to Kitty Piercy as mayor of Eugene. This has led some to speculate that Nathanson is planning a write-in campaign for mayor. If that's possible, why is her campaign phone number disconnected? Or some say she'll do a write-in bid for her old Ward 8 City Council seat. She could ask Chris Pryor to withdraw. If that happens, how about a Ward 8 write-in runoff between Nathanson and Mitzi Colbath, who lost to Paul Holvey for a State Legislature bid, but whom many wanted to run for council? Nathanson says "I have no specific plans for the future at this time. I'll be looking at that later." Meanwhile, she says she's recuperating from a "hard and busy campaign season."
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Other
Council gives Taylor high marks -- and a few gripes
By Edward Russo
The Register-Guard | May 27, 2004 |
The honeymoon couldn't last forever. But the first tiff wasn't serious.
In his first full-year job evaluation, Eugene City Manger Dennis Taylor on Wednesday got a mostly rosy review from city councilors, though some complained about a lack of communication. (more...)
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Council, public workers praise new city manager
By Edward Russo
The Register-Guard | May 30, 2004 |
City councilors -- the bosses of City Manager Dennis Taylor -- praised him as a quick study.
City executives and managers -- Taylor's employees -- also have an upbeat take on him. They portray Taylor as a hardworking administrator who leads by example.
The nine-member council last week gave Taylor relatively high marks for his first year on the job. In the survey of the city manager's performance, city employees were asked for feedback, too.
The voluntary, anonymous responses of 21 department executives, division managers and staff show that Eugene has a hard worker in Taylor, who came here last year from Billings, Mont. (more...)
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