Newman Regional Health’s request for changes to Emporia’s zoning code goes back before the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission in two weeks.
As KVOE News has reported over the past month-plus, the hospital has requested the changes with a possible $30 million medical facility for Emporia in the works through Stormont-Vail Health. Newman Regional’s situation is different from the one Ascension Via Christi in Manhattan has been dealing with the past four years, but Ascension CEO Bob Copple says moves by Stormont — including a nearly 80,000 square-foot facility that started operations this past summer — have caused Ascension Via Christi to curtail or shed different services like wound care and behavioral health.
Copple says only a handful of medical services are actually profitable, so the revenue from those services covers all the other operations — unless it’s shifted to another operation, which is why Newman Regional Health administrators developed the potential text changes for consideration by the Planning Commission and City Commission. He says Emporia could need a population increase of 15,000 to 20,000 people, nearly double the current population of around 24,000, for Newman Regional Health to backfill the possible loss of up to $7 million per year if Stormont moves forward with its plan — countering a statement made on KVOE’s Morning Show last month by Stormont Regional Administrator Mary Martell, who says data indicates enough patient traffic for both operations.
Copple says the loss of inpatient services like baby deliveries or emergency room — neither of which are considered profitable — would ripple through the economy in several ways if Newman Regional Health would have to contract its line of services.
Copple says Stormont bought 49 percent ownership in Manhattan Surgical Hospital from the surgeons who owned that facility four years ago after buying a physician practice and primary health operation over a decade ago. Stormont also bought an independent gastrointestinal operation recently.
Copple says the decision to cut certain services means there will be patients who have to go elsewhere for services or won’t the care they need. He also says the recent moves by Stormont come at a time when Ascension Via Christi approved “the largest staff raise that I’ve seen in my entire 30-plus career” in order to compete, while increased supplies and disposable costs have thinned the hospital’s profit margin.
Stormont-Vail administrators say they have agreed to mediated conversations with Newman Regional Health as requested by the city of Emporia. Newman Regional Health administrators have stopped short of saying they will take that step, although CEO Cathy Pimple says both sides are interested in collaboration.
