Health Options Digest
June 27, 2004
Coalition for Health Options In Central Eugene-Springfield (CHOICES)
In This Issue
From the Editor
Your Perspectives
Before you hear what we think, we'd like to hear what you think.
Where should PeaceHealth and McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center expand their facilities? Are the RiverBend and EWEB sites appropriate for hospitals? Are there better sites? Should health care issues take precedence over land use issues? Are there problems with a not-for-profit hospital? with a for-profit hospital? Is Lane County better off with two hospitals? What are the larger issues surrounding hospital siting? Ideally, what should be done? Practically, given the current realities, what should be done? What should CHOICES be doing?
Send your thoughts to the CHOICES list or to me. Unless you indicate your comments are private or you want your name withheld, we will distribute all thoughts receive in a digest with credit to the writer.
If you want to reach a wider audience, write a letter to the editor of one of our fine local newspapers:
Springfield News, 1887 Laura St., Springfield, OR 97477, 746-1671, Fax: 746-0633, news@springfieldnews.com
The Register-Guard, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188, 485-1234 x2351, Fax: 338-2828, RGLetters@guardnet.com
Eugene Weekly, 1251 Lincoln St., Eugene 97401, 484-0519, Fax: 484-4044, editor@eugeneweekly.com
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Other Perspectives
Over a week ago, we published perspectives on the recent Court of Appeals ruling from CHOICES, The Register Guard, the Springfield News, and the attorney for the Jaquas. It is our policy to search for news and views related to hospital siting issues and to reprint everything we find without censorship. Noting that we hadn't heard from either hospital, we invited both to submit their views.
Alan Yordy gave us permission to reprint his recent "Jottings" to employees of PeaceHealth.
We are also reprinting McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center's press release on the EWEB site (which appeared as an insert in some local newspapers).
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Looking Ahead
Two important public processes start this week.
On Monday, the Springfield City Council will consider a request by PeaceHealth to initiate Metro Plan and Gateway Refinement Plan amendments to allow a hospital and other commercial development on 99 of the RiverBend site. As Springfield already adopted similar amendments in April 2003 and then were appealed to LUBA and the Court of Appeals, which ultimately rejected the amendments, this process feels like déjà vu all over again. Apparently, PeaceHealth intends to move forward with their plans despite the recent setback ion court. Apparently, at leats the Jaquas intend to contest these plans. Their attorney worte: "If PeaceHealth is not willing to consider alternatives that meaningfully address issues of concern, then the Jaquas will continue the fight with every resource available to them."
On Tuesday, a work group of the state legislature will begin reviewing the Transportation Planning Rule with an eye to possible legislation during the 2005 session. Translation: Even before the Court of Appeals ruled, attorneys for PeaceHealth lobbied the legislature to "fix" the Transportation Planning Rule, which implements Statewide Planning Goal 12 (Transportation), claiming that the rule is hurting economic development -- for example, the economic development that results from moving a hospital from Eugene to Springfield.
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Is the condor an endangered species?
According to a recent AP story, a California condor egg laid at the Oregon Zoo has been taken to the Los Angeles Zoo, where experts think the endangered chick inside has the best chance of hatching safely.
The conventional wisdom now is that PeaceHealth will beat the courts and move to Springfield and that McKenzie-Willamette will cut a deal with Eugene and EWEB and move there. Musical hospitals swapping cities. But the condor warns that several more plots twists are likely. Maybe everyone should switch games and lay their cards on the table and talk about what is best for the community.
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Rob Zako, Editor
343-5201
rzako@efn.org
Calendar
Monday, June 28 -- Springfield City Council
Springfield City Hall, 225 Fifth St., Springfield
Contact: Amy Sowa, City Manager's Office, 726-3700
6:00 p.m., Work Session, Jesse Maine Room
1. Springfield Tomorrow Status Report and Annual TEAM Springfield Meeting Preparation.
6:30 p.m., Executive Session, Jesse Maine Room
1. Consultation with Legal Counsel Concerning Legal Rights and Duties Regarding Current Litigation or Litigation Likely to be Filed.
7:00 p.m., Special Regular Meeting, Jesse Maine Room
1. Council Initiation of an Amendment to the Metropolitan Area General Plan (Metro Plan) Text and Diagram and Gateway Refinement Plan Text and Diagram (PeaceHealth).
See also: Hospital seeks land use rewrite
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Tuesday, June 29 -- Transportation Planning Rule Work Group
Room 350, State Capitol, Salem
Contact: Janet Adkins, Committee Administrator, (503) 986-1621, janet.k.adkins@state.or.us
1:30 p.m., Opening Remarks, Sen. Rick Metsger, Chair
1:45 p.m., TPR Overview, Lane Shetterly, LCDC
2:15 p.m., Perspectives:
Bruce Warner, ODOT
Industry Coalition
1000 Friends of Oregon
Metro
Rep. Billy Dalto
League of Oregon Cities
3:15 p.m., Open Discussion:
Effect of Court of Appeals decision in Jaqua v. City of Springfield
Purpose of the TPR
Agency plans
Other aspects of TPR
3:45 p.m., Discussion of next steps and focus for next meeting
4:00 p.m., Adjourn
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PeaceHealth
Jottings: Blame Won't Deliver Quality Healthcare
By Alan Yordy
PeaceHealth | June 17, 2004 |
From: Yordy, Alan
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004, 8:02 AM
To: DL:PHO-All Employees (Geographic)
Subject: Jottings: Blame Won't Deliver Quality Healthcare
Importance: High
On Tuesday, we were fortunate to host Dr. Roger Ulrich, an international expert on hospital design and the healing environment. We came away from our day with Dr. Ulrich more committed than ever to RiverBend as a place where the natural setting will actually help patients heal, lower costs and improve the community's overall health. Dr. Ulrich summed it up best by saying that RiverBend could set the standard nationally and even internationally for use of the natural environment and patient- and family-centered design to aid healing.
So it was interesting to read an opinion piece in yesterday's paper that reminded us, again, that while we at PeaceHealth are focused on community health, for others the issue is primarily one of land use.
Al Johnson, a Portland attorney challenging the RiverBend project, said in the Register-Guard that PeaceHealth has only itself to blame for project delays. Frankly, placing blame seems highly unproductive and is the last thing we want to do. We understand that, in a land use issue as complex as this one, people will have different opinions and that their main recourse is through the legal system. We did not expect to site a project as significant as this one without any objections. Delays, while costly, are to be expected.
PeaceHealth has been operating within the dictates of Oregon's land use laws, as has Mr. Johnson. The Metro Plan is a dynamic document that is designed to be changed and updated. Historically, both Eugene and Springfield codes allowed hospitals in residential zones. Even the new Eugene land-use code related to hospitals relies on making hospitals conditional uses in residential areas. The Court of Appeals ruling overturns a city's ability to rely on land-use regulations that for many years have been deemed to comply with Oregon's land use regulations. We believe we can rectify this with changes to Springfield's land-use plan, but it is not something PeaceHealth anticipated. (After all, parts of the current Hilyard campus and the McKenzie-Willamette campus have been developed in residential zones.)
We have met with the Jaquas in the past. We remain open and willing to meet with Mr. Johnson's clients, the Jaquas. Our understanding is that the Jaquas' position is that the hospital must be located on the new Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, with parking between the hospital and the river. According to the experts, the closer the proximity to the river, the better the patient outcomes. We are simply unwilling to compromise patient care to that extent.
There is no question that delays add cost to the project. We may need to sacrifice some features of the project, but we have no choice but to persevere: We simply have no alternative that is faster, cheaper or better. RiverBend remains the best site in the world for a hospital, and we will do our best to clear the legal hurdles and move forward with construction.
Alan
We create moments of grace in a world that does not always expect acts of kindness.
(reprinted by permission)
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Slant -- After the Court of Appeals?
| Eugene Weekly | June 24, 2004 |
For years we've been drumming out the tedious message that PeaceHealth's hospital development plans were ill-conceived, overly ambitious and legally flawed. Meanwhile, those plans had to be taken seriously since they were backed with many millions of dollars, eager Springfield city officials and a team of hot-shot lawyers. Rival McKenzie-Willamette/Triad had little choice but to react to the threat of a mega-hospital next door and advance a plan to move its hospital to Eugene. Now that the Oregon Court of Appeals has set back indefinitely PeaceHealth's plans, we're stuck with the absurd prospect of Eugene having two major hospitals, and Springfield none. Call us dreamers, but this would be an excellent time for the executive committees of the two hospital boards to sit down together, set aside all their pretty drawings, re-read their mission statements and ask some basic questions: What can we do together to best meet the short-term and long-term medical needs of our metropolitan area? How can we work together to make sure both cities have excellent facilities strategically located to serve their respective populations? At last resort, the two CEOs can flip a coin. The winner gets to build a big regional medical center in Glenwood, and each hospital maintains ER and basic care facilities in the two city centers. If PeaceHealth wins the toss, it can partner up with UO and OHSU to dedicate part of its Hilyard campus to medical training programs.
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Hospital seeks land use rewrite
By Joe Harwood
The Register-Guard | June 26, 2004 |
SPRINGFIELD -- Rebounding quickly from a late-round knockdown by the Oregon Court of Appeals, the city of Springfield and PeaceHealth will jump back into the land use ring Monday night using new tactics to clear the way for a $350 million Gateway-area hospital.
At PeaceHealth's request, the City Council will vote on whether to push a series of major land use changes that would redesignate more than half of the RiverBend site for commercial development. It likely would be complex, time-consuming and legally tricky for the city to make those changes. But without them, PeaceHealth's plan for the sprawling medical center may be doomed.
PeaceHealth is seeking approval for a nine-story hospital, medical office buildings and an array of commercial and residential buildings on 180 acres east of Game Farm Road in Springfield. All of that land is designated for medium-residential uses, a zoning that allows homes, apartments and small-scale retail businesses.
The redesignation process that could begin Monday night with a green light from the council opens the door to all manner of legal and planning problems for the city. (more...)
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McKenzie-Willamette/Triad
Replacement Hospital Can Fit on EWEB Site in Eugene
| McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center | June 19, 2004 |
SPRINGFIELD -- The verdict is in: a replacement McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center would fit on the Eugene Water and Electric Board property in downtown Eugene.
Architect's renderings verify the site is sufficient to accommodate a hospital even larger than McKenzie-Willamette plans to build, according to Rosie Pryor, Director of Marketing and Planning.
Hospital officials released the drawings, including a front elevation showing a five-story hospital building adjacent to existing EWEB buildings, to give community members a look at what a hospital might look like on the site. Pryor said the hospital McKenzie-Willamette will ultimately build has not been planned as yet, so the drawing is a concept only.
McKenzie-Willamette announced plans to rebuild from the ground up in a new location when it signed a letter of intent in January 2003 to form a partnership with Triad Hospitals, Inc. The partnership took effect October 1 and McKenzie-Willamette began its site search in earnest.
Roy J. Orr, CEO, has been meeting with Eugene City Manager Dennis Taylor and EWEB General Manager Randy Berggren since the idea of locating on the EWEB property first emerged in late February. He said the three are discussing issues ranging from EWEB's progress at finding an alternative location and its timetable for moving off the property, to the range of ways to improve access to and traffic around the site.
Orr said McKenzie-Willamette is not yet ready to take other sites out of consideration. Both EWEB and the hospital must complete their own evaluations, including financial analyses. But Orr said, "We're very excited about the EWEB site. We're interested in making it work not only for the hospital, but for EWEB and the community as well."
Orr said it will likely be late summer before a decision can be made.
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Hospital vs. Riverfront
Should we pay Triad $25 million to pave over riverfront, or build a park?
By Alan Pittman
Eugene Weekly | June 24, 2004 |
McKenzie-Willamette/Triad hospital's proposed relocation to the riverfront EWEB property appears headed for stiff opposition as the relocation has linked itself to one of the most controversial development plans in the city's history.
Plans for the new hospital include a new highway along the riverfront through the UO's controversial Riverfront Research Park. The UO's and city's plans to develop the riverfront natural area have been stymied for decades by strong community opposition. In 1998 about 650 members of the university community signed a petition opposing the riverside development and 250 students and community members marched to the river to protest the project. (more...)
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Commentary: Plan for hospital site could use more vision
| By Jerry Diethelm | June 22, 2004 |
I'll be honest. I haven't thought the Eugene Water & Electric Board riverfront site was particularly well suited for a new hospital.
The railroad right-of-way makes adequate hospital access difficult and expensive to achieve, as the recent $25 million City Council commitment to riverfront roads and infrastructure makes quite plain.
No doctor I know prescribes train whistles in the night for promoting rest. Traffic around the Ferry Street Bridge is already a problem, and the present transportation improvement plan calls for development of a new controversial riverfront road north of the tracks all the way from the existing Agate Street underpass on the east to the new hospital site at the present EWEB headquarters on the west. The hospital would like to be able to get westbound emergency vehicles off of Franklin Boulevard at Agate and race along the riverfront. EE-AH-EE-AH-EE-AH!
Like many in the community, I've had other hopes for our downtown riverfront -- I'm referring to the area between the present EWEB headquarters and the steam plant. I envisioned it more along the lines of what's happened in downtown Portland. I'm still visualizing an active, exciting downtown riverfront to come to when we're happy and in good health, not just when we're ailing, a place that says to visitors that Eugene -- where it touches its river -- is vibrant, alive and well, not geriatric. (more...)
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Health Care, etc.
Summer health clinic options expand
By Anne Williams
The Register-Guard | June 21, 2004 |
SPRINGFIELD -- When 16-year-old Amanda Broadhurst got walloped by a wild pitch during a softball game in late April, her mother was terrified that her swollen, bruised left arm was broken.
"We don't have medical insurance," explained Joy Broadhurst of Springfield, whose truck-driver husband's coverage plan is too expensive for the whole family.
To her great relief, a visit to the Springfield High School health center found only muscle and tissue damage, and -- with subsequent physical therapy by nurse practitioner Mary Beedle -- Amanda's arm is almost pain-free.
On Friday, Amanda and her brother, 14-year-old Matt Broadhurst, made a return visit -- Amanda for a tetanus shot and more physical therapy and Matt for a blood pressure check.
This is the first year the school health center will be open all summer, and families such as the Broadhursts are exactly who Beedle wants to see walk through the door. (more...)
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Lawsuits Challenge Hospitals on Care for Uninsured
| The Wall Street Journal | June 17, 2004, Page B1 |
Richard Scruggs, the Mississippi lawyer whose legal attacks on the tobacco industry hlped bring about historic changes -- and mutlibillion-dollar settlements -- is setting his sights on not-for-profit hospitals which he alleges are overcharging uninsured patients and subjecting some to harsh bill collection tactics.
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High court undercuts state patient rights laws
By Anne Gearan
The Associated Press | June 22, 2004 |
WASHINGTON -- Patients can't seek fat damage awards in court if their HMOs refuse to pay for physician-recommended medical care, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting arguments that the threat of multimillion-dollar lawsuits keeps insurance companies honest.
The unanimous decision invalidated an important part of patient rights laws in several states and tossed a political hot potato back to Congress. Lawmakers have tried repeatedly and failed to pass national patient protections. The last and most promising effort foundered on a wronged patient's right to sue. (more...)
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Editorial -- Ensuring accountability: Congress needs to get moving on patients' rights
| The Register-Guard | June 24, 2004 |
The worst thing about the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that patients can't sue in state courts when their managed care plans refuse to pay for doctor-ordered treatments is that it clearly makes Congress responsible for resolving the issue.
So-called "patients' rights" legislation has gone nowhere in Congress since the Clinton administration, and people shouldn't be holding their breath for that to change anytime soon.
What's needed is leadership from the White House, and that should stoke voters' outrage enough to demand that the topic become part of the presidential debate. Sen. John Kerry has obliged by saying a patients' rights bill co-authored by Sen. John Edwards "has bipartisan support, and it could become law tomorrow if the Bush administration was not standing in the way."
President Bush has proved something of a chameleon on the patients' rights issue, always seeming to sound supportive while opposing suits in state courts, where judgments tend to be higher. (more...)
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More doctors do without insurance
By Jill Barton
The Associated Press | June 19, 2004 |
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Dr. Rene Loyola says he has given up just about everything to keep practicing medicine.
The surgeon owns no home or land, and has no savings other than a retirement plan after 29 years in the profession. He says he frequently has to turn away patients who need his help the most.
Loyola blames all the trouble on soaring malpractice insurance rates that forced him to join the thousands of other doctors nationwide who have dropped their liability coverage. (more...)
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Doctor appointments become harder to get
| The Associated Press | June 23, 2004 |
PORTLAND -- Nearly half of Oregon doctors limit the number of Medicaid patients they see or don't accept them at all, according to a survey by the Oregon Medical Association.
Holly Card, 46, an unemployed single mother from Milwaukie, might be surprised that the percentage isn't higher.
Card qualifies for the Oregon Health Plan because of her low income. But after receiving her OHP Standard card May 1, she had problems getting an appointment.
Card told The Oregonian that she phoned about 20 doctors and clinics, with each saying they do not take new OHP Standard patients who aren't in managed care. (more...)
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Nearby Developments
Editorial -- Conference Center
| The Springfield News | June 23, 2004 |
Where in Springfield do you go if you want to have a banquet? A conference? The answer -- at least for the moment -- is nowhere.
Since the Clarion (previously known as the Red Lion and then the DoubleTree) closed, Springfield -- a town of more than 50,000 -- doesn't have a conference center.
The Springfield Chamber of Commerce has been tackling the problem, and last week it talked about it with the City Council. (more...)
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Bus station awaits offers from potential tenants
By Sherri Buri McDonald
The Register-Guard | June 22, 2004 |
The LTD bus transfer station in downtown Springfield will open in late summer with or without tenants in the prominent retail space adjoining the station, officials say.
With big windows, high ceilings and a yellow brick facade, the 3,200-square-foot building is the first brand-new retail space downtown Springfield has seen in years. It's scheduled to open Sept. 19.
So far, merchants aren't rushing to set up shop there. (more...)
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Building plan mixes retail with apartments
By Joe Harwood
The Register-Guard | June 22, 2004 |
SPRINGFIELD -- St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County is planning to redevelop two existing buildings into a $5.7 million mixed-use building at Fifth and Main streets in Springfield that the agency hopes will breathe life into redevelopment efforts.
The new building would house 4,570-square-feet of retail space on the ground floor and a total of 33 one-bedroom "affordable" apartments on the other four floors, said Terry McDonald, executive director of the nonprofit organization. (more...)
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Council considers code amendments
By Amber Fossen
The Springfield News | June 25, 2004 |
Proposed Springfield Development Code amendments could improve the ability of businesses to locate within the city's campus industrial districts.
Springfield City Councilors have reviewed a number of proposed amendments including the establishment of a 40-percent limitation on siting business parks and other permitted office and commercial uses and the establishment of warehouse, storage and distribution as a secondary use to a permitted primary use, among other amendments. (more...)
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Millrace restoration postponed for a year
By Bob Keefer
The Register-Guard | June 26, 2004 |
The Springfield Millrace restoration is on hold for at least a year.
The $6.4 million project to restore free-flowing water in the 3 1/2 -mile millrace was to have begun this month.
But $4.1 million in funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is on hold, city maintenance manager Ed Black said, and work has essentially come to a halt. "They have been able to participate in some meetings and answer some questions, but that's about it," he said. (more...)
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ORI's downtown building OK'd
By Joe Harwood
The Register-Guard | June 24, 2004 |
CORRECTION (ran 6/25/04): The new Oregon Research Institute headquarters will be at 10th Avenue and Charnelton Street in downtown Eugene. An article on Page B1 in Thursday's Business section had the incorrect location.
A 15-year eyesore will disappear from downtown Eugene this fall when demolition crews tear down the old Sears department store to make room for a new Oregon Research Institute headquarters.
The City Council cleared the way for the project -- a six-story, 96,000-square-foot building that will house 300 workers -- on Wednesday when it approved the sale of the property to ORI for $400,000. (more...)
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Editorial -- The coming of ORI: Council clears way for new downtown project
| The Register-Guard | June 26, 2004 |
With all the speculation and fuss over the new federal courthouse district and McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center's possible move to the EWEB site, it would be easy to overlook the Eugene City Council's decision earlier this week to sell the old Sears department store to the Oregon Research Institute.
That would be a mistake. The transaction, which clears the way for construction this fall of a new six-story, 96,000-square-foot headquarters that will house 300 ORI workers, is a landmark move that will help spur development in a downtown that's definitely in need of some spurring. (more...)
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Call Center's Closing Will Hurt Downtown
| KEZI | June 24, 2004, 4:05 p.m. |
"We don't have a great deal of neighbors down here," Angus James, the owner of "The Broadway Market," said.
But one of the Market's "good" neighbors has been the Stream Call center, located just across the street.
"Great supporter of ours To have them disappear is a blow. Its another kick in the gut," James said.
The Broadway Market is a destination place, that relies heavily on regulars to stay in business. That makes Stream employees the perfect customers. "Probably 50 people a day, that'd just come through the doors for something. It that's a $5 dollar sandwich, that's significant," James said.
Downtown businesses know what happens when a major employer leaves town.
"We definitely took a hit when Symantec closed down here. We had 30 customers everyday that we relied on coming. That were no longer able to come in anymore," Adam Goldthwaite, an employee of Bene Pizza said.
Jack Roberts job is to lure new business to Lane County. From a county perspective, he sees the up-side. "The job growth has been pretty strong over the last 12-months, and we expect that to continue," Roberts said. (more...)
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Elections
Nathanson: Timing hurt campaign
By Diane Dietz
The Register-Guard | June 25, 2004 |
Nancy Nathanson said Thursday that it wasn't just a lack of money that dashed her hopes for the Eugene mayorship in last month's primary election. Timing also was a crucial issue, Nathanson said.
Victor Kitty Piercy raised $122,000, compared with Nathanson's $84,000, the post-election tally completed in mid-June showed.
In the critical weeks before the ballots were mailed to voters, Nathanson's coffers were low and she could have used more cash for mailings and television advertising. (more...)
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Other News
Watch your back, there's a new publisher in town
By Lewis Taylor
The Register-Guard | June 13, 2004 |
Bruce Anderson hasn't even moved to Eugene yet and already the firebrand newspaper publisher from California is bracing for a fight.
"A friend of mine said, 'You better watch it up there, there's a strong fascist streak in Oregon and a lot of those people, left and right, are violence-prone.' I said, 'Well, so am I. I'm an ex-Marine, I'll mix it up,' " he says.
Anderson, 64, is also an ex-Peace Corps volunteer, and so far most of his battles have been fought in print -- although, he'll tell you, he was jailed for 35 days for assaulting a school administrator.
For the past 20 years, he's served as editor and publisher of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, a 3,000-circulation weekly in Northern California with a national reputation for stirring up trouble.
By Thanksgiving, Anderson hopes to launch the tentatively titled Eugene AVA, a new version of his insurgent paper covering Lane County. What this means for Eugene-Springfield is anyone's guess, but those considered part of the local power structure might want to watch their backs. (more...)
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