County Urged to Reconsider Plans for Hospital Wing

A procession of doctors urged Ventura County leaders Tuesday to rethink their plans for a new hospital wing and end the feud between neighboring hospitals.

“How can we justify building a $30-million building that will provide service that can be provided elsewhere?” said Moustapha Abou-Samra, a neurologist who works at both Ventura County Medical Center and Community Memorial Hospital.

In a five-hour hearing before the County Board of Supervisors, Abou-Samra and other physicians said the county should consider collaborative efforts between the two underused hospitals, rather than building new space for the county.

Such a step would also relieve the suspicion that the county hospital is intent on capturing private patients, doctors said.

“I am tired of the ongoing feud between the two institutions,” added Jack Broms, a physician who has served on both staffs. “This feud is a waste of money and a waste of time.”

But county officials say they are not responsible for any conflict between the hospitals.

“I do not believe we are in a hospital war,” said Supervisor Maggie Kildee after Tuesday’s hearing. “We have not attacked other hospitals. We have not gone after other hospitals and said ‘You’re doing it wrong.’ ”

The supervisors called the hearing to address questions raised in the simmering feud, which has manifested itself in newspaper advertisements and letter-writing campaigns. The members of the county’s Public Facilities Corp., which must approve bonds for the projects, also attended the hearing.

Supervisors reiterated their support for the project after the hearing, but promised to do further analysis and examine how other communities have dealt with health care for poor residents.

Beyond the financial concerns, many doctors expressed concern about health-care reforms that could influence the county hospital.

However, Sam Edwards, the county hospital’s medical director, defended the project despite criticism from his fellow physicians.

He described a changing health-care system that has taken the decisions about patient care away from the doctors and given them to financial managers.

The reforms will also cut the number of doctors needed: from 224 doctors for every 100,000 to 120 doctors per 100,000. “What are all the doctors going to do, learn to paint houses?” Edwards asked.

Yet Edwards said he saw a continuing need for institutions like the county hospital, aimed at providing health to the poorest residents. “It’s very clear we’re going to have a demand for safety-net medicine,” he said.

But Community Memorial doctors and supporters charge that the county will have to go beyond the indigent resident and solicit private-care patients to survive the cutbacks ahead.

The county’s system of clinics, staff physicians and a new health-care plan for employees is a “medical nuclear weapon” in the war to win patients, argued Siegfried O. Storz, a cardiologist affiliated with Community Memorial.

Storz also accused the county hospital of creating a two-tier care system, giving county workers who choose the county hospital preference over poor residents with nowhere else to go. He displayed a hospital memo describing a special paging system used only when the patient is a county employee or family member.

“That will let the doctor know it is an employee or family member and that they need to respond right away,” the December, 1993, memo read.

County hospital Administrator Pierre Durand said he was not familiar with the memo and would look into it. Durand came prepared with his own salvo against Community Memorial.

He cited statistics showing that the community hospital’s nonprofit status amounted to a $20-million tax break. But the hospital provided only one-half of 1% of health care for the county’s poor in 1992, the latest state health-care figures available, he said.

Donald Benton, a spokesman for Community Memorial’s board of trustees, said the figures were misleading. “The county is tax-exempt also, but it is also tax-supported,” he said.

Benton argued that any county that cannot afford to keep its libraries and government offices open full-time cannot afford a project, which with a parking lot and interest payments, will cost $56 million over 15 years.

Supporters pointed out that 70% of the costs would come from the state, but that didn’t satisfy foes of the project.

“Even if state funds were available to spend on the project, it’s still taxpayers’ money and we should have a say on how it’s spent,” said Judy McGregor, a Ventura resident.