Talks about a lease extension for Stormont Vail’s Cotton O’Neil Clinic inside Newman Regional Health appear to be nearing the end.
This week, Stormont Vail said it had reached an agreement on an amendment to continue its lease at Newman Regional Health past the current expiration of February 2027 if needed. Newman Regional now says the two hospital systems are finalizing extension terms in general.
The lease extension was discussed at length during the KVOE Candidate Forum involving Doug Peck and Ron McCoy, the two candidates for Lyon County Commission Second District, and the separate statements from the hospital systems follow KVOE News’ requests for an update. During the forum, McCoy first discussed a one-year lease extension, which he says is not beneficial to the county.
Peck says he hasn’t been made aware of any specific time length for an extension.
Pimple has not clarified whether the one-year time length was indeed part of conversations between either candidate or the County Commission as a whole.
Another concern brought up during the forum was transparency, given Newman Regional Health’s status as a county hospital. In a statement to KVOE News, Newman Regional Health CEO Cathy Pimple said Kansas law allows for some exceptions to the Kansas Open Meetings Act and Kansas Open Records Act when it comes to county hospitals, saying county hospitals cannot publicly disclose patient information and they cannot disclose information about a private hospital, like Stormont Vail, without that other entity’s permission, especially if a non-disclosure agreement is in place — as is the case between Newman Regional and Stormont Vail.
Neither statement indicates how this agreement would connect to Stormont’s ongoing work to build a $44 million facility near Roads 180 and G, although the Stormont document says its leaders have had a chance to speak individually with Lyon County commissioners about its better than 30 years of service to the Emporia area and its plans for a new location — while Pimple says hospital administrators and its Board of Trustees “consistently engage” with county commissioners with varying discussion topics. Stormont also hasn’t said whether its Emporia facilities, which Stormont said were too small and outdated when its plans for a standalone medical facility went public almost a year ago, will be upgraded as part of any lease extension.
Stormont continues working towards a new facility and has already said surgery would not be included — a major concern for Newman Regional, which was anticipating a $4 million annual loss if Stormont decided to duplicate or expand those services. The Stormont proposal includes other services currently at its Cotton O’Neil Clinic, including family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, behavioral health, a range of medical specialty clinics and diagnostic services. Newman Regional Health is still bracing for losses of up to $2 million per year with imaging alone if Stormont builds a standalone medical center.
The conversation has been in the public eye for almost a year. Newman Regional has proposed a list of zoning changes, officially to give city leaders more oversight into proposed facilities from other hospital systems but also as a way to protect its revenue streams. The Metropolitan Area Planning Commission passed the package on to Emporia city commissioners with no recommendation on how to proceed. City commissioners have not taken up the proposal and City Manager Trey Cocking has urged both sides to work towards an agreement benefiting local and area patients.
Emporia city leaders have said an expected annexation request from Stormont would be considered on its own merits if the two hospital systems could not reach an agreement or demonstrate progress towards an accord. So far, that annexation request has not been filed and there is no word on when that may happen.
