Referendum to Target County Hospital Project

After spending $1.6 million to defeat one county hospital project, Community Memorial Hospital representatives announced Wednesday they are launching another referendum drive to halt a new county building plan and made clear their desire to turn the rival public hospital into an outpatient-only facility.

If successful, the referendum drive could stall the county’s $28.7-million project for nearly two years, since Community Memorial would put the measure on the next countywide ballot in June 1998. The private, nonprofit hospital has 30 days to collect the 24,065 signatures needed.

“This is the same project that voters rejected last March,” said Laura Dahlgren, spokeswoman for the Community Memorial-sponsored group Taxpayers for Quality Health Care.

Asked if Community Memorial is willing to spend as much as it did in last spring’s election to stop the county, Dahlgren said, “We’re going to do what we need to do to make the county supervisors accountable to what the taxpayers have to say.”

Supervisors defended their decision Tuesday to approve the structure to replace the 75-year-old county hospital’s kitchen and laboratory facilities, which they say are structurally unsound and if not replaced could result in the hospital’s license being revoked.

Officials said the new, two-story structure would be vastly different from the $56-million, five-story project voted down last spring because it does not include walk-in clinics. They also dismissed accusations that the project is the first of a two-phase development to ultimately include an outpatient center that would be used to lure away Community Memorial patients.

“Those guys are not telling the truth,” board Chairman Frank Schillo said. “We’re not out to get anybody. We have an accreditation problem and we’ve got to solve it. If they want to fight it, that’s up to them.”

Schillo acknowledged the county is negotiating for other rental space to consolidate numerous specialty clinics now housed in different leased buildings along Loma Vista Road.

“We’re renting space right now,” he said. “If we can consolidate our clinics and get a better deal that saves taxpayer money, then that’s what we should do.”

But Community Memorial representatives argued that the new project is unnecessary and financially risky. They said the $17 million in state and federal grants the county is relying on for construction could be lost because of tightening budgets.

“They have the right to fix up the kitchen and the lab,” said Doug Dowie, a Community Memorial spokesman. “All of those things may be justified. But what we’re saying is is it justified at a rate of nearly $30 million?”

Schillo said if the county does not get the grant money it will go to another county.

“Those taxes have already been paid by Ventura County taxpayers,” he said. “Now we’re just trying to recapture those taxes so they can be used to fill a desperate need. The public is smart. They understand that.”

In a newspaper ad that appeared Wednesday, Community Memorial Hospital stated its offer to take over all inpatient services for indigent patients, relieving the county of about $5 million worth of annual costs.

As part of the proposal, the county would continue to provide outpatient services and operate its current health-care plan, which includes more than 2,000 government employees. The county would contract with Community Memorial to provide hospital services.

“The offer reflects our ongoing, good-faith effort to resolve earlier differences between the county and Community Memorial Hospital,” wrote Phillip Drescher, president of hospital’s board of directors and author of the newspaper ad.

But county officials said the offer was deceiving because it made no accommodation for another $15 million in care that the county provides to the working poor and uninsured.

“What they’re saying is close your hospital, and give us all your business; run your health plan, and give us all your business,” said County Counsel James McBride, who participated in negotiations with Community Memorial officials over the past six months.

“Basically what their idea is is to use our system as feeder to Community Memorial at the exclusion of all other hospitals,” he said. “They would have a monopoly given to it by the county.”

Meanwhile, Supervisor John Flynn said he and Schillo will propose next week convening a countywide health-care forum that would include all hospitals and insurance providers around the county.

He said he would like to see all public and private health-care providers work together to meet the financial challenges they face as a result of managed care and other changes in the industry.

He said he would even support turning the county’s health-care plan, which provides insurance to more than 2,000 employees, into a public-private partnership.

“We need to form a county public and private health-care system that can carry us into the next century,” he said.

Dowie, a spokesman for Community Memorial, said the hospital wants more time to examine Flynn’s proposal before committing to its participation. But Dowie said he was disturbed that the county waited until now to make such an offer.

“They’ve already voted unanimously to go ahead with the hospital project, and now Mr. Flynn wants to sit down and talk about the future of health care,” he said. “The horse has already left the corral and is heading over the hill.”