 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Hospital won't challenge rival's heart program
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE -- Saying they had listened to community concerns, Brooksville Regional Hospital leaders announced Wednesday they will drop their legal challenge to Oak Hill Hospital's open-heart surgery program. "We're really responding to our local advisory board, which urged us to take the first step," said Timothy Parry, senior vice president and general counsel of Brooksville Regional's parent corporation, Health Management Associates, or HMA. The hope, Parry said, is that Oak Hill and its parent company, HCA-The Healthcare Co., will reciprocate by dropping opposition to Brooksville Regional's proposal to build a new hospital 3 miles west of its current location. Past negotiations between the companies have failed. In recent weeks, HMA has run a series of ads painting Oak Hill as the stumbling block to 21st Century health care in Hernando County. Commissioners have adopted resolutions calling on Oak Hill and Brooksville Regional to stop fighting, and Commissioner Chris Kingsley went so far Wednesday as to urge residents to call Oak Hill and ask its leaders to react in kind to HMA's move. Oak Hill has no plans to change its course, though, despite the public pressure, CEO Jaime Wesolowski said. "To paint us as the people who don't care is wrong," Wesolowski said. Rather, he suggested, HMA's move had more to do with a state hearing starting Monday on Brooksville Regional's relocation than community goodwill. Wesolowski said Brooksville Regional's claim that it could add its own open-heart wing to the hospital -- central to its challenge of Oak Hill's program -- did not jibe with arguments that the building is decrepit and must be replaced. "If they have testified that the hospital is good enough to open a $12-million open-heart expansion, then it must not be that bad," he said. "I know it sounds like they're doing this out of the goodness of their heart for the people of Hernando County, but it's very strategic and very well planned and we expected it." Oak Hill will not alter its stance on Brooksville Regional's move, Wesolowski said, unless Health Management Associates considers a different site than the corner of State Road 50 at Wiscon Road. "It is morally wrong to move that hospital farther away from the people with the worst access to health care in the county," Wesolowski said. If Brooksville Regional heads east instead of west, "we will drop our appeal tomorrow and we will write a letter of support so they can start construction immediately." HMA officials have refused to discuss such alternatives, Wesolowski said. He predicted that Oak Hill successfully will block Brooksville Regional's move "to this incorrect location." Tom Barb, Health Management Associates local chief executive, did not expect HCA to pull out of Monday's hearing, because so much time and money has gone into preparations. He fully expected the state to support the move. "I'm hoping when we win it, that will be the end of it," Barb said. Faye Rosser, a Brooksville resident since 1967, attended Barb's news conference in front of the county courthouse. She praised Brooksville Regional for acting unilaterally, without promise of return. "I hope it works, because we gave up a lot there," Rosser said. "We do need the new hospital." Barb acknowledged the risks, but defended the move. "The county ends up with something positive, and isn't that what we're supposed to be doing? Looking out for our community?" Barb said. More than 600 people leave Hernando County each year for open-heart surgery, he said, and they deserve a local center. With HMA's concession, he said, Oak Hill "can start construction tomorrow, and I hope they do." Design and related preparations will take another six months, Wesolowski said. Construction should begin in late December or early January, with a grand opening about 18 months later. -- Jeffrey S. Solochek covers Hernando County government and can be reached at 754-6115. Send e-mail to solochek@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Hernando Times Letters |
