[StBernard] At St. Bernard Hospital tax forum, hospital board members and doctors discuss its merits

[Westley Annis]

At St. Bernard Hospital tax forum, hospital board members and doctors
discuss its merits

At a forum on Thursday evening to discuss the proposed St. Bernard Parish
Hospital tax on the Saturday ballot, hospital board members and doctors
pitched its merits. The about 50-person audience in the Nunez Community
College auditorium appeared to be a partisan crowd, almost entirely in favor
of the tax, applauding whenever the speakers praised the hospital.

The 30-mill tax would last just one year and would bring in about $9 million
to the hospital.

It would cost a homestead-exempt owner of a $150,000 home about $225 more in
2014. It would cost a homestead-exempt owner of a $200,000 home about $375
more.

After the meeting, Wayne Landry, the hospital's interim chief executive and
board secretary, said that about 1,300 residents had cast ballots already
during the early voting period and that he expected about 3,000 to 4,000
more voters on Saturday.

"I think we did well," Landry said of those early votes. "An enormous amount
of people have come to me, and said that I voted for the tax."

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune covered the St. Bernard Parish Hospital tax
forum live from the meeting. Below is the that coverage:

9:05 p.m.: After the meeting concluded about 9 p.m. Thursday, a NOLA.com |
Times-Picayune reporter asked Jim DiFatta, the chairman of the hospital's
board, whether he thought the millage would pass on Saturday.

"We obviously are concerned that there was such a concerted effort by
certain elected officials to combat and work so hard against the people from
getting a full-service hospital. It was amazing," DiFatta responded. "...I'm
sure it will have negative impact. There is no question in my mind."

He also that "a couple of former disgruntled employees who are against it"
have "gone out and put up 200 signs across the parish that say, 'No,'"
urging residents to vote against the new tax.

"You just have a handful of people out there hammering away and that is
unfortunate for our community. Our community deserves better."

8:50 p.m.: "I support the hospital, I support the millage, because I think
it is the right thing to do for our community," Landry said. "...I believe
this is worth fighting for. I believe this is good for the parish. I know it
is good for the hospital. And I know it is good for the economics of this
parish. It is such a good economic driver for this parish, and I think that
is often overlooked."

8:45 p.m.: Landry took the stage again to conclude the presentation.

"These guys are super guys, but they are not supermen," Landry said of the
need to hire more specialists. "So when you have one surgeon, they can't be
here 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. We have to have a second row of
people so that we have a tag team. You're on, I'm off."

In terms of the new computer hardware and software that also would be paid
for with the millage, Landry said it "is astronomically expensive." He said
at the Thursday evening meeting that it would cost $3 million to $4 million.
But, he said that "it will help us generate bills faster, it will help us
generate charges. ...There is a lot more to it then just billing, it is also
about keeping track of patients' care. "

8:35 p.m.: Dr. Paul Verrette, who works as internal medicine physician at
the hospital, said that after Katrina "the most important things for them
(St. Bernard residents) at the time were the levees, the schools and the
hospital. I think in that order. And they wanted to know why was it taking
healthcare so long" to come back.

Verrette said a hospital took longer to return after the storm because the
previous hospital "was owned by a private business. ...It took a lot of time
to convert healthcare from a private to public entity. ...And, you own the
hospital now."

"The hospital right now is the crowning jewel of post-Katrina recovery,"
Verrette said. "The hospital can function as it is, but the citizens need
more. We need to have the services here to be able to give the community
here and the residents here what they deserve."

8:25 p.m.: Bertucci also brought up Hurricane Katrina and how it decimated
St. Bernard Parish - "nothing was left in your life unscathed. ...The one
thing I can tell you is this, besides death and taxes, you can be assured of
change in your life."

But Bertucci said that despite the changes that will inevitably come, that
he wants "the people who are here now to be able to say here. ...If we don't
take of it, then one day God might take it away from us."

He said that to keep keep residents healthy and happy, the hospital needs
the millage to hire specialists, a new computer financing system, and
eventually, he said that the hospital also needs more beds, and a
rehabilitation and nursing facility. "We need to make it (the hospital) to
be not just what we deserve but what you all deserve," he said.

8:15 p.m.: Dr. Bryan Bertucci, a family medicine physician at the hospital,
said "this parish will grow in time. ...Do we need all that millage money
right? Probably not all right now. But we need it for the services that we
will need to expand this hospital."

8 p.m.: Dr. Mace Scott, the hospital's director of emergency medicine, took
the stage and said "we need to make this hospital bigger than it is and able
to support the community."

"We are too often having to shift people out of the hospital to other
hospitals that have specialists that we don't have. ... And we can fix that
by passing this millage."

7:55 p.m.: Dr. Kevin Contreary, the only general surgeon at the hospital,
next said, "Generally, we just have one of everything. One doctor for each
specialty. We don't have a second string, a back-up bench, if you will."

"From a community needs standpoint, we need to be able to enlarge our
medical staff, broaden our medical staff and bring other specialists in,"
Contreary said.

7:45 p.m.: Referring to opposition against the tax, "a couple of elected
officials here in St. Bernard parish who have demonstrated that they are
against this tax" and "some of this anti-movement," DiFatta told the pro-tax
crowd to applause that "I am not going to cower back. I don't think anyone
on this board will cower back. We are here to bring the best healthcare
possible."

7:40 p.m.: DiFatta said that attracting more specialists also "will keep the
present specialists that are here right now happy." He said having other
doctors at the hospital will "make sure that you are providing them (the
doctors who are presently employed at the hospital) with enough leads and
referrals."

7:35 p.m.: Landry then introduced Jim DiFatta, the chairman of the
hospital's board, who told the crowd "the millage has great importance and
significance." He said the hospital is "ahead of projections. ... And we now
have to seize the opportunity to bring this hospital full-service."

He said if the millage doesn't pass "it will make it tremendously harder to
regain the hospital's momentum financially."

7:30 p.m.: Wayne Landry, the hospital's interim chief executive and board
secretary, took the state and thanked Hunnicutt for attending the forum,
pointing out that he was the only councilman in attendance. He thanked him
"for being interested in what is going on at the hospital."

7:25 p.m.: Wayne Landry, the hospital's interim chief executive and board
secretary, took the state and thanked Hunnicutt for attending the forum,
pointing out that he was the only councilman in attendance. He thanked him
"for being interested in what is going on at the hospital."

"He is the only councilman who has asked questions about the hospital,"
Landry told the crowd of about 50 people."

7:20 p.m.: Meeting has not yet started. Councilman Casey Hunnicutt is at
meeting and says he's here "to listen to what questions the public has and
the answers given by hospital officials." He says that he "hopes the public
gets all of their concerns answered tonight." As he says this, Wanye Landy
and other hospital officials take the stage.

Below is the story that advanced the meeting:

St. Bernard Parish residents on Thursday evening (April 3) are invited to
ask St. Bernard Parish Hospital officials questions about the 30-mill tax
that is up for a vote on Saturday. 

The public forum will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in Nunez Community
College's Elaine P. Nunez Auditorium, 3710 Paris Rd., Chalmette. 

NOLA.com will be live blogging the meeting in this same post, starting at 7
p.m. 

"If available some physicians may speak, and I will also be available to
answer questions," said Wayne Landry, the hospital's interim chief executive
and board secretary. Landry is a former hospital board chairman. 

The millage would last just one year and would bring in about $9 million to
the hospital.

The tax would cost a homestead-exempt owner of a $150,000 home about $225
more in 2014. It would cost a homestead-exempt owner of a $200,000 home
about $375 more.

Landry and Jim DiFatta, the current chairman of the hospital's board, have
said the tax is needed to make it a full-service hospital where residents
could get virtually all their health-care needs fulfilled.

In November 2010, St. Bernard voters backed a 10-year, 8-mill tax to keep
the hospital afloat during its first three years of operation, a period when
Landry and others said the hospital's revenues would be less than expenses.
But the timing of that referendum prevented the assessor's office from
including the levy on 2010 tax bills, so it became a 9-year millage instead,
costing the hospital about $2.3 million.

Both Landry and DiFatta recently have cited that $2.3 million loss as one
reason for the new millage, but mainly they have said the new one-time tax's
revenue would be used to hire specialist doctors and more emergency room
personnel to provide more types of care and reduce wait times, and to
purchase and implement a new electronic medical recording system.

The parish had been without an emergency room or full-service hospital since
Hurricane Katrina swamped Chalmette Medical Center. That private hospital
never re-opened, and has since been demolished.

Landy said this week that hiring specialists would cost about $2.8 million,
that creating a hospitalist program would cost about $2 million and a new
medical recording package would cost about $4.2 million.

He said that, in terms of specialists, the hospital would look to hire an
ENT, urologist, cardiotorasic surgeons, an endocrynologist, surgeons, a
physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, a vascular surgeon, a
gastroenterologist and a neurologist.

"The hospitalist program will be physicians that will be hired to produce a
physician in the hospital 24/7," Landry wrote this week responding to a
NOLA.com | Times-Picayune reporter's questions about how the money would be
spent. "There will be some scheduler and billing employees hired for the
specialists in order to properly run those offices."

He said that he does not yet know what new billing system would be purchased
"because our intention (if the millage passes) is to put it out for bid."

"So I cannot say who will be the successful bidder," Landry continued.
"However, I can tell you that we expect it to cost approximately $4 million
for the software and a couple hundred thousand for the hardware
requirements."

Landry said that hiring the specialists would "generate approximately $4.7
million in revenue." And he said that the hospital would "generate
approximately $1.3 million of profit off of the efficiencies of the
hospitalists program."

He said it would take about a year and half "to begin reaping the profits."