ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270089
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
The public gets a chance today to comment on a proposed $37.4 million upgrade of Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County that likely will be partly financed by industrial revenue bonds.
A public comment session has been scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Henry County Administration Building in Collinsville by the Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency. The agency assesses the feasibility of health care projects for the state government, which must approve them before they can be done.
The project, which has a total value - including financing costs - of more than $80 million, is part of the hospital's master plan, said Kent Williams, its chief financial officer.
Memorial Hospital's trustees approved the master facilities plan, but have not yet voted on the renovation proposal, Williams said.
The board will be asked to endorse the upgrade once the project appears acceptable to the state, he said.
Williams said, however, that the hospital administration hopes things will move along fast enough so that it can sell the industrial revenue bonds for the project this year. The hospital has a letter of support from the Industrial Development Authority of the city of Martinsville, Williams said.
The cost for the project not covered by bonds, about $12 million, will be paid from cash reserves, he said.
The not-for-profit hospital wants to redesign its 30-year-old facility so that fewer workers will be needed and so it will be better suited for outpatient care than for patients who need to spend time in the hospital.
From 1992-94, the hospital's patient days - the number of admissions multiplied by their average stay - dropped 14 percent, from 42,589 to 36,577. This follows a national trend of more and more health care being delivered outside a hospital setting.
According to the application, the current service mix is about 75 percent outpatient and 25 percent inpatient. That's about the opposite of the ratio when the hospital was built in 1970.
As proposed, the project will include the razing of a small two-story addition to the current facility and renovation of the remaining structure that will reduce the number of beds from 264 to 150.
The hospital's application says that extensive renovation is the only alternative to building a new facility at an even higher cost. The application projects that net patient revenue, which was $48 million in 1994, will rise to $59.5 million by 1999.
The project has a series of steps to get through before the State Health Department makes its decision. The Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency board will review the request during an April 3 meeting in Roanoke. No public comment will be allowed at that meeting.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB