President and CEO Jim Gardner told the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Thursday the hospital is about ready to file a zoning application and announce the site chosen for the South Hall complex.
Gardner said it will not be at Friendship Road and Atlanta Highway where an outpatient facility is planned, but he declined at this time to say where it will be located. The outpatient facility will be constructed on 10 of the 52 acres the medical center owns at that intersection, with groundbreaking expected later this year. He said the remaining 42 acres will be sold.
Gardner said it's "very central" that the hospital be built so that "we don't lose South Hall to Atlanta interests," adding, "they covet the opportunity to be here."
"If we are going to continue to provide the safety net and the care that we do in this community, it's absolutely critical that we not lose what is becoming the well-insured south end of our county."
Gardner said "We all have way too much at risk to let this opportunity pass us by."
INDIGENT COSTS
Gardner also warned that the medical center "may not be able to keep up with its indigent care costs."
He said the "real cost" of indigent care was $31 million in 2004, compared to $17 million in 1998 - and there has been a 40 percent increase in such care since October. Three cases alone in December, he said, accounted for nearly a million dollars in cost.
While no local government dollars are used to supplement indigent care cost at the medical center, Gardner said the time may come when the hospital has to seek such funds, but, he was quick to add "I like the independence of not relying on tax dollars."
Gardner also said that the $100 million in Medicaid payment cuts Gov. Perdue has proposed for the fiscal year beginning July 1 will have a $5 million impact on the medical center.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/1/142186