By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–Doctors, nurses, parents, patients, hospital employees, local businessmen and community members were united–and at times emotional–in their view that the Henry County Medical Center’s OB department cannot close for the good of the community but how to achieve that goal was still an open question at the conclusion of a two-hour community forum Thursday night. Some 300 people were in attendance at the Krider Performing Arts Center in Paris.
The forum was called by Hospital CEO John Tucker, to discuss the financial challenges facing the hospital and what sustainability plans can be employed moving forward.
In a surprise announcement in late May, Tucker said Henry County Medical Center will suspend obstetric services for the foreseeable future, beginning Sept. 1. Seeking ways to keep the hospital financially viable has been the main objective the last several months for Tucker and the board, he said.
At Thursday night’s forum, doctors and nurses who work in the OB department described how devastated they felt at the announcement and agreed that the local obstetrics department cannot close for the good of women, children and the entire community.
Tucker noted that seven hospitals in West Tennessee have closed since 2010 and presented slides showing the biggest cluster of hospital closures in Tennessee are in our area. The crux of HCMC’s financial problems are caused by too-low reimbursement rates which is causing a current $4.5 M shortfall in the OB department.
At Tuesday’s county commission meeting, County Mayor John Penn Ridgeway said a total of 70 percent of local OB patients are insured by Bluecare, he said, and HCMC’s reimbursement rates have not seen an increase in ten years. With HCMC being a small rural hospital, it does not have the lobbying power as metropolitan hospitals, he said.
At the community forum, Tucker expanded on that, noting that Medicare “regionalizes its payments” to hospitals. “They are not uniform”.
Meanwhile, HCMC continues to offer a high quality of care to its patients. “I’m amazed at the breadth of care we offer here. No other rural hospital this size are like us. We’re almost like a surgical hospital with the surgical care we provide. We have the diagnostic centerr. We have orthopedic robotic surgeries” and top-notch physicians. “But we’ve lost $40M since 2015. Our services have come at an enormous cost.”
Tucker reiterated his concern that if difficult decisions are not made, “the hospital won’t survive until fall.”
HCMC needs to return to its previous delivery rates, he said. “Our births have been in decline.” Someone from the audience noted that the hospital in recent years had told its OB doctors not to accept new patients.
Those actions were taken before he came on board eight months ago, Tucker said. He, Dr. Scott Whitby and Dr. Pamela Evans met this week in Nashville with the Medicaid CFO on the issue. “It was not overly positive,” he said, “But I think he did hear us.”
During the question and answer portion, several people asked why steps have not been taken previously, such as negotiating with Medicaid and Medicare and how the situation has become so drastic.
Donna Milam of Paris asked, “Didn’t anyone see that we were in dire straits? This is one of the most important services. Why weren’t alarms sounded? You can see that in three weeks since this announcement was made, all the (community) action that has happened. You can see how passionate people are about this. You must keep this service here.”
Tucker said hospital officials did not guage how strongly the public would feel and how much the public would be willing to help.
Dr. Hadeer Karmo, a neonatologist, said instead of emphasizing the negatives that may happen for the hospital, “My approach would be, ‘How do we keep it open?’. You (Tucker) have been dealt a bad hand because of the actions of the previous administration. But you won’t see this level of care that you get here at any other rural hospital in the United States. What can we do to keep the doors open?”
Riley Schoolfield, who is opening a new pharmacy in Paris soon, said, “It seems negligent to me” to not have negotiated with Medicaid/Medicare before now.
Obstetrician Dr. Pam Evans said, “The services we offer here are wonderful. We have a robust medical staff. We should reach out to the Governor and our legislators. This disparity should not occur.”
Several people in the audience voiced their strong desire to help the hospital and OB department survive. “You can see this community wants to help”, Trish Reimold said. “But what can we do to help? Without these services, there will be a domino effect on the other services. You cannot do without OB.”
Tucker said, “That’s our dilemma. How do we salvage this hospital?”
Wendy Barnhart said people can help by utilizing the local hospital and by becoming better informed of what is happening in the community.
HCMC Board Member Bruce Reed acknowledged, “We have a lot of work to do. The OB department is very dear to me and I don’t have all the answers. We have almost 700 empoyees. If we close, we’ll lose the county’s major employer.”
Starting in January, hospital board meetings will have a public forum, he said, and invited the public to attend meetings. “No one wants to see the OB close. We have to make tough decisions, but anything we can do to keep it open, we will do. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time.”
Photo: Dr. Hadeer Karmo, left, addresses CEO John Tucker. Shannon McFarlin photo.