Doctor Voices Concerns Over Loss Of Hospital
Feb. 25, 2015
The lack of a hospital that admits patients for overnight care will make life different for the Greater Orange community. Dr. Calvin Parker, chief of staff at Baptist Hospital Orange, talked Wednesday about the announcement Tuesday that the only hospital in Orange County will stop admitting patients on June 1. The hospital will keep several out-patient services and a full emergency room open. Parker said people need to use those services to prevent them from being lost. He pointed out that ambulances will take people only to emergency rooms affiliated with a hospital. Without the Baptist Orange emergency room, a person having a heart attack or stroke will be taken to a hospital in Beaumont or Port Arthur. The patient could be stuck in traffic in an ambulance with an EMT rather than being minutes away from a medical doctor with full equipment. In addition, Orange County will have a hard time getting new doctors without a hospital. Doctors want to be affiliated with an admitting hospital. Parker said hospitals recruit doctors with incentive offers like free office rent for a period and an income guarantee. Without a hospital, the community will need to do the recruiting. He said the hospital recruited him 16 years ago and he is now the youngest doctor who has stayed. Orange now could support another two or three general practitioners, especially after the recent death of long-time physician Dr. Howard Williams. Yet, Parker is optimistic for the future. He said county and city leaders are now addressing the problem “behind the scenes” and working for alternative solutions. One way may be getting another company to open a smaller hospital.
The non-profit Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas in Beaumont has overseen the Orange hospital for more than 25 years. The chief of staff at Baptist Orange has a seat on the board of directors. Parker said Orange previously had a local citizen on the board but has not been represented by a citizen for several years. He said a board in Orange has served mainly as an advisory group and has not had access to financial records or been involved in operations.
The hospital was built in 1957 and additions and improvements before Baptist acquired it in 1988. Baptist continued improvements, including updated equipment, new patient rooms, a new emergency room, and the construction of a three-story medical office building adjacent to the hospital. Dr. Parker said it was handy for doctors to have their offices there so they could walk to make their patient rounds.
In a letter to the community Tuesday, the hospital reported losing an average of $1.8 million a year for the past 11 years. “These decisions are never easy,” said Baptist CEO David Parmer in a written statement. “We made a significant investment in quality personnel, physicians and equipment at our Orange facility. But, ultimately, this was not a sustainable situation because it drains critically needed financial resources from our hospital system.” The hospital closed the obstetrics unit in May 2013 and stopped delivering babies. Parker said the county now doesn’t have a gynecologist. In addition, the lack of business has driven surgeons to other cities. The letter contributed the loss of income partly because of no patients because of the loss of the specialists. Dr. Parker said that is a cycle that doesn’t end. Specialists leave because of a lack of patients and then the hospital doesn’t isn’t occupied because of the lack of the specialists.
The letter cited a number of financial problems, including the lack of patients with insurance and the loss of Medicaid and Medicare payments after Texas refused to expand the federal programs. Also, federal subsidies to the hospital decreased after the national Affordable Health Care Act. The subsidies were supposed to be off-set by people getting insurance, but people did not acquire the insurance in the numbers expected.
The letter did not cite one of the main local problems. People have complained about the hospital for many years and criticized it. Dr. Parker said people who stayed there were impressed by the care the staff provided. “They complained about it being a ‘Band-Aid station,” he said. “Now it’s gone. “
Orange County has a large percentage of low-income families and senior citizens on fixed incomes. Dr. Parker said when the community loses doctors and medical facilities, they will suffer the most. He said some senior citizens don’t have cars or can’t afford the gas to get to Beaumont or Port Arthur. Two private emergency clinics are preparing to open in Orange, but they won’t serve the needs of all citizens. He said those facilities have good doctors and services, but they accept only people who have insurance. And even with insurance, people will pay a premium price for the care, he said.
The hospital had been one of the largest non-industrial employers in the county. The number of employees has decreased as the patient count went down. Even in 2011, the hospital administrator said the number of employees had gone down from more than 300 to about 200. Dr. Parker said Baptist Hospital in Beaumont is working to get jobs for the employees. But losing the local workers will hurt the Orange economy, he said. When the employees drive to Beaumont, they will be buying gas and groceries in Beaumont and going shopping there. “There won’t be any more big take-out orders from local restaurants,” he said. Doctors in Orange will also have to drive to Beaumont to see their patients in the hospital. Doctors and nurses who drive every day to Beaumont may decide it’s more convenient to move there, he said.
The doctor does not foresee a vacant, decaying building at the hospital. “You’ll see lights on,” he said. The Baptist system is a non-profit group and does not pay property taxes. If the building is abandoned, it would be taxable. He doesn’t think the building is viable for another company to purchase for use as a hospital in the 21st Century.
Another problem Baptist Orange had for getting patients lies with the geography of Orange County. The population of the county is about 85,000 and on paper that looks like plenty of people to support a hospital. However the Vidor area uses medical facilities in Beaumont because it’s closer than Orange. Dr. Parker said people in Bridge City usually go to Port Arthur for medical care, even though Orange is closer. He said Baptist officials tried for years to get Bridge City physicians to use the Orange hospital. He is puzzled why people in Bridge City would rather risk the traffic problems of traveling on the Rainbow Bridge to get to a Port Arthur hospital. That diversity in the communities throughout the county makes wide support difficult. Dr. Parker said a number of counties set up special hospital districts with taxing power. The owner of a $100,000 house might pay $60 a year to the hospital district to guarantee a local hospital. But voters must approve that kind of entity and a majority of Orange County voters would likely reject a new tax for a hospital in Orange.
Dr. Parker said people in Orange County need to support things they want to keep. “I would urge the community to pull together in this time and whatever the alternative, whether it will be Baptist offering out-patient services or a new facility coming to Orange, use it or lose it,” he said. “That goes not for just medicine and the hospital, but for whatever we have in Orange, shopping, and restaurants. We have to use what we have in Orange or we’re going to keep losing it.”
Social Media