HMHP chief has interest in operating Northside
By Don Shilling
The parent of St. Elizabeth Health Center has a contingency plan in case Northside closes suddenly.
Humility of Mary Health Partners wants to explore creating is own medical services at Northside Medical Center, but Forum Health is telling its crosstown rival to mind its own business.
Bob Schroder, HMHP president and chief executive, said he has told his counterpart at Forum that he would like to explore using Northside for specialty services, such as behavorial health or rehabilitation. He called the talks “very, very preliminary.”
“There hasn’t been anything formal, but I’m willing to,” Schroder said.
Walter Pishkur, Forum president and chief executive, said, however, that he’s working on maintaining hospital operations at Northside, not closing it or bringing in HMHP.
“My belief right now is — and I feel better than I did a week ago — that we’re going to find a way to make Northside viable,” Pishkur said.
He said he contacted Schroder shortly after taking over at Forum last fall, but his intent was to explore ways the two systems could work together to stop people from leaving the Mahoning Valley for health care.
Schroder said Northside operations should be part of any future talks. He would like to include community leaders and other health-care professionals to discuss how the area can be best served by the facility, which has been blamed for much of Forum’s financial losses.
Without such planning, Forum may be forced to close Northside without giving the community adequate notice, Schroder said.
Even though HMHP has a contingency plan to increase staff in case Northside closes, it would benefit from extra time to prepare for an influx of patients, both insured and uninsured, he said.
Schroder said his concern about Northside is justified because Forum has filed for bankruptcy protection and its lenders have indicated that they want Northside closed. In court last month, an attorney for Forum’s bondholders said the system has been in default for three years and has lost $50 million, virtually all attributable to Northside.
Forum also operates Trumbull Memorial and Hillside Rehabilitation hospitals in Trumbull County, while HMHP operates St. Joseph Health Center in Warren and St. Elizabeth campuses in Youngstown and Boardman.
Schroder questioned whether Forum’s efforts to reorganize its operations are best for the community. He noted that Forum officials have talked about opening a facility in Boardman.
That facility would compete with St. Elizabeth’s Boardman hospital and not increase the likelihood of local residents staying in the Valley for care, he said.
“Their plan for success means that we’re going to lose a lot of business,” Schroder said.
Pishkur said that improving operations and letting customers choose is part of the constant competition between hospitals. He noted that HMHP didn’t seek Forum’s advice when it opened its hospital in Boardman.
“This is just part of doing business,” he said.
Pishkur is focusing his staff with the slogan, “Ten more in the door.”
By adding 10 more admissions a day at Northside, revenues would jump by about $20 million a year, he said.
He settled on his plan after seeing that annual admissions had dropped about 7,200 from 2005 to 2008. Northside had 18,519 admissions in 2008.
The area has lost population but not enough to justify that much of a drop in admissions, he said. Much of the loss must have come from people who were choosing other hospitals, and he is working to stop that, he said. That loss has been to both local hospitals and those outside the area, he said.
Pishkur said he thought it was reasonable to try to recapture half of those admissions, which would be 3,600 a year or 10 a day.
Despite Schroder’s concerns, Schroder said HMHP has shown that it can compete.
Its three local hospitals had 38,000 admissions last year, which was up 25 percent over three years earlier. HMHP had a positive profit margin on its operations in seven of the past 10 years, including a 3 percent margin — or $18 million — last year.
Schroder said he’s optimistic about HMHP’s future even though significant challenges remain for all health care providers.
Threats include a new for-profit surgical hospital in Boardman, which doesn’t have an obligation to take charity cases, and state budget cuts, he said. The governor’s proposed budget includes new taxes that would cost HMHP $5 million a year if enacted, he said.
Plus, charity-care costs are increasing. The cost of charity care during January and February was up 36 percent over the same time last year. HMHP spent $19.9 million on charity care in all of 2008.
HMHP is posting a 3 percent profit margin in the early stages of this year, and Schroder hopes to maintain that number even in the face of the continuing recession, which has caused thousands of local residents to lose jobs and health care insurance.
“You constantly just have to get better,” he said.
shilling@vindy.com