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Show Health Dept. Monitoring County Hospital Problems . if :y M -. i . i "v y 4 1 'if " "T 4 ' j"" I mw I i .,r ... a km'- i 1 i - i si I I 'fi vJ,fw i (L Tv I f " - ...- 1 - - - , - " , " - I I gBX&W . - v ' 1 V .Wo-'- ,. - . . . . - V, - " . 4 Coalville's infamous Summit County Hospital. It's also likely Mike Shaw-will Shaw-will not be the man in charge. AHS continues to have problems in other Utah communities and other states according to recent news reports and Shaw told the Record he will probably not be with the hopsital through July. He wouldn't say where or when he would be leaving but he admitted, "1 like Arizona." Even though AHS has given the county its six month notice Mike Shaw still insists AHS will only leave if the county wants them to leave. So according to Shaw AHS is in a holding pattern while the three county commissioners who double as the hospital board try to come up with a solution. Commissioner Karl Ovard told the Record, "we're looking at every option we can think of. We haven't scheduled any special meetings meet-ings on it, but we're looking at it." Ovard couldn't give any estimation on when the commissioners might rc.ich a solution. "We're satisfied about the progress being made now and we feel good about the cooperation between the administrator, the commissioners commis-sioners and the state health department. We're not in business to put others out of business. We're here to make sure that the public ..health is met and that's what we're trying to do here. Not close the hospital but make sure that public health safety is met," state health department depart-ment spokesman Lee Shaw told the Record following a Tuesday inspection to gather information for a progress report on the hospital under the orders of State Health Department director Dr. James Mason. Summit County Hospital Administrator Mike Shaw met with the state officials and apparently reassured them progress was being made on correcting a lengthy list of deficiencies targeted by the state health department depart-ment during a routine health inspection four weeks ago. State health department officials surprised county commissioners last Tuesday by recommending closure ol the hospital pending correction correct-ion of "serious and significant signifi-cant deficiences." Administrator Admini-strator Shaw disagreed, however, how-ever, citing the deficiences as "common" to hospitals and being too minor to warrant hospital closure. About 48 hours after they suspended major hospital services the county commissioners commis-sioners reversed their decision. decis-ion. Following this week's hospital hos-pital "checkup" Mike Shaw said he felt the state health department "had backed down considerably from their previous stand." But state , health officials apparently don't see it that way explaining to the Record that after meeting with the commissioners county legal counsel and administrator Shaw it was determined the deficiences could be corrected correct-ed while the hospital remained remain-ed open. "Following our discussions with the administrator and seeing their willingness to cooperate with the commissioners commis-sioners we agreed to that and are working with them. We are not planning as of today (Tuesday) to close the hospital but we plan to see that corrections are made for the health and safety of everyone who comes into the hospital and that was our intent all along," explained Lee Shaw. Part of that intent according to Lee Shaw also had to do with drawing attention to deficiences at the hospital even though he says there was never any question that i he si ale health department had the authority to siiut down the hopsital if they deemed it necessary. "Many of the problems that have been in this hospital have been long-standing ones," explained Lee Shaw, "they've been noted for several years on the surveys and certification reports filed by the medicaid agency. Year after year the problems had not been corrected. It was the basic opinion of the health department that in order to get people's attention attent-ion up here we had to take some action. Our recommended recom-mended closing of the hospital got their attention and we feel good about working with them now." The hospital's health problems pro-blems are only part of the complicated Advanced Health Systems dilemma with the county. In addition to the facility deficiencies, administrator Shaw says the hospital is losing between S40 and $60,000 per month. Because of that he says AHS has initiated the six month clause in their hospital management contract with the county which would allow AHS to leave in July. Administrator Shaw explained ex-plained to the Record, "We did that so that we are not liable or responsible for 100 percent of the risk. S40 to $60,000 losses are untenable. unten-able. They are ridiculous." The Summit County Hospital Hospi-tal was a losing proposition when AHS took over its management and according to Mike Shaw they upgraded the facility in hopes of cashing in on expected growth in the area "that didn't happen." AHS is a multi-million dollar health-care corporation corporat-ion that manages hospitals and clinics in several western states. They are owned by the major independent oil company Petrolane, Inc. and according to company brochures bro-chures they have a research staff who seriously looks at where, when, and what type of health-care facilities should be built. Mike Shaw notes they are in the business of health-care but he readily admits AHS made some mistakes in Summit County. "We tried and we're still going to continue to try but our original concept has to be modified now because we can't stand to lose that kind of money and I don't think anybody can. I think it's a question that's going to have to be looked at no matter w ho assumes responsibility for the hospital. ..AHS had a concept w hich was a perfect intent which, however, was executed imperfectly and I'll be the first to admit to that. I'm human, everybody's human and we made mis- lakes along i he vvav." said Mike Shaw . |
