[StBernard] St. Bernard to vote on one-time hospital property tax

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard to vote on one-time hospital property tax

ONE-YEAR, 30-MILL PROPOSAL WOULD BRING IN $9 MILLION

BY RICHARD THOMPSON
RTHOMPSON at THEADVOCATE.COM
March 31, 2014
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A little more than three years after St. Bernard Parish voters approved a
10-year, 8-mill property tax to cover start-up costs of a new
community-owned hospital, they're being asked to dig deeper into their
pockets for one year to pay for expanded medical care at the Chalmette
facility.

A one-year, 30-mill tax proposal on Saturday's ballot would bring in an
estimated $9 million, much of which, hospital officials say, would be spent
on hiring health care specialists and implementing an electronic medical
records system. For a resident who owns a home valued at $200,000, with a
homestead exemption, the bill for the new tax would come to $375.

Critics of the measure say hospital administrators have poorly managed the
money they've been given thus far and voters shouldn't reward them by
coughing up more cash.

Some even question the parish's decision to go it alone instead of
partnering with a large health care system to replace the former Chalmette
Medical Center, devastated by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters in 2005. The
new 113,000-square-foot hospital opened in late 2012.

Both Ochsner Health System and the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady
Health System offered to pay for and help manage the new facility. Instead,
the parish built the $70 million hospital itself using a combination of
federal disaster money, tax credits and state capital outlay dollars.

The Franciscans were initially hired to manage the hospital, but the company
withdrew in late 2012, citing philosophical differences. Not long after
that, Wayne Landry, a former Parish Council member who serves as chairman of
the hospital board, was named interim CEO. He has remained in that post
since then while also continuing to serve on the board, even though he told
the Parish Council in March 2013 that he hoped to hire a new CEO within
three months.

Landry, who served on the council from 2008 to 2011, said this month that
money from the 30-mill tax would be used to take the facility "to the next
level, not just in terms of money but in terms of the services that we
provide to the public."

He wants to hire at least eight specialists, including a general surgeon, a
thoracic surgeon, a urologist and an ear, nose and throat doctor. Those
hires would cost $2 million in the first year but would generate additional
revenue for the hospital, Landry said.

Money from the new one-year tax also would be used to replace the hospital's
billing software, which was so plagued with problems that the hospital was
forced to hire an outside company to bill patients.

An audit released in December by the state legislative auditor warned that
the situation, "if unremediated, could significantly curtail the district's
ability to continue to provide health care at the current level to the
community it serves ... based on operating cash flow projections prepared by
management."

"There's a lot of fault and a lot of blame," Landry said about the software
problems.

The audit showed the hospital racked up more than $7.6 million in losses
during the 2012 fiscal year, taking in $6.2 million but spending nearly
$13.9 million. That was a $12.4 million jump in operating expenses from the
year before, as the hospital ramped up its services, hiring almost 150
full-time employees as it began serving patients.

Touting the need for expanded health care offerings, Landry contends that
the hospital is "already running at capacity" and that the specialists he
hopes to hire would give patients a broader range of services they could
access without leaving the parish.

The 40-bed hospital - which has an intensive care unit, four operating rooms
and a 10-bed emergency room - saw about 24,000 patient visits last year.

"I don't want anybody in St. Bernard Parish to have to come to this hospital
and delay their treatment because we don't have a specialist," Landry said.
"To me, that's the biggest concern that I have on the emergency medicine
side."

Complicating the issue, many worry that oversight of the publicly owned
facility has been overtaken by political interests. At the forefront of that
contention is Landry himself, who has long built a reputation as a hands-on,
ambitious, outspoken leader and, in the eyes of some, a micromanager.

Both current and former parish officials say his joint roles on the hospital
board and as CEO muddy the board's oversight responsibilities. Landry said
he understands the criticism - to a point.

"What's the alternative? What's the solution?" he asked. "I have no problem
with getting off the board or not being the CEO, but I'm not going to be on
this board and have a CEO that can't make this work, and let it fail for my
parish. It has nothing to do with all the hard work I put in. The hard work
is irrelevant. That's all water under the bridge. What was relevant was that
I wanted to do something good for my community."

Some also suspect that Landry - a millionaire who owns the Ferncrest Manor
Living Center nursing home and St. Catherine Memorial Hospital, a long-term
acute care hospital, both in eastern New Orleans - plans to leverage his
work at the hospital's helm to run for parish president next year. He lost a
bruising race for parish sheriff in 2011, during which he touted his work at
the fledgling hospital.

St. Bernard Parish President David Peralta, who has declared that he will
run for re-election next year, chided Landry for not letting go of the reins
and hiring a CEO to run the hospital, as Landry pledged to do a year ago.

Landry said that's not because he hasn't tried. He has discussed the top job
with more than a dozen potential candidates, he said, but it's tough to find
an experienced hospital executive willing to leave a position to take on the
"high-risk" task of running a start-up hospital. "This thing will scare the
hell out of anybody," he said.

In the meantime, Landry said, he's up to the task. "I have, obviously, been
doing this for a long time, so I know a lot of CEOs," he said. "There aren't
many CEOs that will come here and run this place without a secretary,
without any layers of management, where they actually have to roll up their
sleeves and dive in and do the work."

He added: "Call anybody and give them the financial status of this place,
and say, 'OK, you've got $3 million to make this place work, basically,' "
he said, estimating that the job would pay about $225,000 annually, plus
benefits.

Many parish officials, including council member Ray Lauga Jr., credit Landry
with getting the hospital up and running. But Lauga said the hospital has
not been "trending for success" as of late.

"I was really under the impression that the last millage that we had, that
everybody voted for and supported, was the last millage," he said. "It was
kind of sold to the public that if we voted for this previous millage, that
would be the last piece that we needed."

That last millage, Landry said, will end up paying out for only nine years
instead of 10. Give him this extra influx of cash, he said, and the hospital
will be set up for the long haul.

"I can't imagine, I really can't even imagine, this hospital would ever need
to go for a millage ever again," he said.

Landry said criticism of his management of the hospital has been unfair,
largely steered by political interests. He takes umbrage at the flak he's
taken - even as he has accepted no pay - and at the idea he wants the job
for any reason other than to help his community.

"I don't know of anybody in this parish who has dedicated as much to help
out our parish at such great costs, both personal and financial, to get
something done for our parish," he said.

The hospital, he said, has "outperformed what the experts said" it would do
within the first couple of years.

"The facts are the facts, and they're indisputable," he said, adding: "I
don't think you can argue with success. We made it work."