Palm Drive board votes financial support for JPA

The Palm Drive Health Care district board of directors voted on
Monday to add financial support to the five-hospital Joint Powers
Authority (JPA) despite continuing doubt about the mission or
efficiency of the organization.
The matter was brought before the board by president Nancy
Dobbs, who has been an ardent supporter of the JPA from its
inception in mid-2007.
Dobbs asked the board to commit $1,000 per month for a year to
pool with the other hospitals in the JPA — Sonoma Valley ,
Healdsburg, Garberville and Mendocino Coast — in order to hire an
executive director for the entity.
But the idea of spending money on a “rudderless” organization
wasn’t very popular with the board, given the JPA’s lack of
achievement over the course of its 3-year history.
“When the JPA was formed initially, it wasn’t expected to be
supported by the community hospitals. It was supposed to generate
its own funds,” said board treasurer Dan Smith. “It did get grants
but they were blown through with little result. It’s a slope I
don’t want to go down.”
Dobbs conceded that there was “no ‘there’ there” regarding the
JPA, but reasoned it needed paid employees in order to fulfill its
mission.
The JPA was originally formed to give the district hospitals
more pull in the local markets, allowing them to pool resources,
hire physicians, and one day create an “insurance product” in the
mold of the defunct Healthcare of the Redwoods that could compete
with the heavy hitters such as Kaiser, a goal still held dear by
several members of the affiliation.
Initial funding for the JPA came in the form of $145,000 in seed
money from a Smith loan and grants from the Larry Hilblom
Foundation.
But when that money was gone, the JPA came back to its district
hospitals in February 2008 to ask for an additional $10,000 each
for operating expenses.
At the time, Palm Drive was barely a year into its
recently-ended Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The district grudgingly went
along in a largely symbolic gesture given the grim financial
outlook at the time. The issue was so contentious that it led
indirectly to the resignation of former board member Irma Cordova,
and the departure of the JPA’s original attorney Geza Kadar.
Board member Linda Johnson was concerned about the vagueness of
goals and expects the cost of employees to be more than
advertised.
“How do you hire a CEO when the mission hasn’t been defined?”
she asked. “When you start talking about employees, $100,000 will
turn into $150,000 when the expenses start to pile up.”
Smith thinks that one of the goals of the organization should be
to raise its own money instead of using “tax dollars from this
community.”
When the remaining bond money was suggested as a reason to
commit financially to the JPA, Smith reminded the board that what’s
left isn’t all that much.
“We need carpets. All of those dollars are important at this
time,” he said, but left the door slightly ajar. “I’m not opposed
to do it, but not for 12 months.”
Smith suggested a six months commitment instead.
Board member Frank Mayhew agreed that until the JPA has staff,
the chances of success would be slim.
“The JPA has been rudderless. (It’s like) herding fleas or cats
or whatever. We need someone to lead,” he said adding that, “It’s
been a volunteer organization like our own foundation, but even
they bit the bullet and hired an executive director. If we don’t do
it, we may be cutting off our own noses.”
In the end, the board voted 4-0, newly-sworn board member Chris
Dawson was not in attendance, for the funding.
The board also heard a report about the finances of the
hospital, which had a dismal April that saw a $600,000 loss,
harkening back to the dark days before the bankruptcy.
Hospital use is up from a less than 10 patient Average Daily
Census (ADC) to nearly 14 in June.
The drop in use came in part from about 18 days of physician
vacations in the month of April.
Smith said the trend “waved a red flag,” and wants the district
to begin an aggressive marketing campaign to bring in patients.
“We haven’t done nearly enough to address the (hospital’s) slow
death. (We need to) drive up surgeries and put out a serious effort
to do so,” he said. “At the next meeting, we need to have a plan to
address that.”
The strategic planning process for the district is underway, and
the marketing strategy is expected to be an integral part of the
plan.