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Another Chance to Speak: Hospital rivals' bickering upstages the public at hearing
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Natalie Cash speaks in favor of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center proposal during the third round of hearings on a state certificate of need.
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Published: September 19, 2008
CLEMMONS
The war of words between two health-care rivals overshadowed a state hearing yesterday aimed at discussing two revised and competing hospital proposals.
Executives from Forsyth and Wake Forest University Baptist medical centers hurled harsh, even personal, accusations about their rival's public-relations campaigns regarding a proposed Forsyth hospital in Clemmons and a proposed Baptist hospital in Advance.
And, as expected, Baptist's second application -- for which it received conditional approval from the state on Aug. 28 -- was the main focus of attention, even though the hearing was about two separate proposals. Novant filed an appeal on Sept. 5 of the state's approval.
Paul Wiles, the president and chief executive of Novant Health Inc., said in his opening comments that "I have never seen an institution lose its moral and ethical compass the way N.C. Baptist Hospital has under the direction of board Chairman Steve Robertson and acting President Donny Lambeth."
"Never did I expect that an institution that claims to be guided by God in its tag line would stoop to use scare tactics, misrepresentations, innuendo, half-truths and outright lies in the pursuit of its business objectives," Wiles said.
Novant has criticized Baptist's direct-mail campaign, distributed to households in Lewisville and Clemmons, in which Baptist claimed that approval of a Clemmons hospital and related rezoning request could put pressure on the village to raise property taxes, as well as add air and noise pollution and create traffic problems.
In the closing comments for Baptist, Steve Snelgrove, the vice president of operations for N.C. Baptist Hospitals Inc., said that "this has transformed from a healthy discussion of the issues regarding two hospitals to a personal attack on WFUBMC and its executive team, which reaches an all-time low for Novant."
All of which left many of the 450 people who attended wondering whether the main purpose of the 4½-hour hearing was confrontation, or whether it was about debating the need for Novant's planned 50-bed hospital in Clemmons and the need for Baptist's proposed birthing center in Davie County.
The antagonistic atmosphere also left people both in blue Novant T-shirts and yellow Baptist T-shirts frustrated and exasperated with the certificate-of-need, or CON, process -- which is needed to build a new hospital -- that already has lasted more than a year with potential for more to come.
"There was a lot of finger-pointing today, more so than was warranted," said C. Robin Dean, one of the 74 speakers from the public and one of the few who didn't take a side in the hospital battle.
"We need to speed up the process. These folks need to talk to each other, reach a compromise for the betterment of all the communities involved," Dean said.
"They have got to stop playing power games with the public's health."
Rochelle Silverman, a Hillsdale resident who supports a Clemmons hospital, told state regulator Martha Frisone that "with all due respect, this CON process doesn't work."
"It has allowed neighbor to be pitted against neighbor, county against county," Silverman said.
It also has Don Martin, the superintendent of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and Lambeth, the school -board chairman, on opposite sides. Martin is negotiating with Novant for 30 acres of its 100-acre site off Harper Road for a new elementary school.
"No one is benefiting, and in the end, unless both facilities receive approval, the process will have failed me," Silverman said. "Because, as the one who will have to live by your decision, you will have deprived me of my right to choose which hospital I want to care for me and my family."
Baptist officials spoke first, focusing on Novant's methodology as being misleading for its second application.
Mike Freeman, the vice president of strategic planning at Baptist, questioned why Novant is delaying the state's conditional approval of the Davie hospital, "when every day adds to the cost of construction." Baptist doesn't expect to open a Davie County hospital until 2012 at the earliest.
Baptist officials dispute the need for a hospital in Clemmons, saying that it represents an "unnecessary duplication of health-care services, which are likely to drive up local health-care costs." Since Baptist received conditional approval for its proposal, it has been touting that it will be the one "providing a new hospital to serve the region."
Wiles reiterated that Novant has no objection to a replacement Davie County Hospital.
"However, make no mistake, we will never accept a new hospital in Bermuda Run if that requires us to turn our back on the nearly 47,000 patients in the Clemmons, Lewisville and Davie County area who we have served over many years," Wiles said.
Wiles said that the fastest way to get a Davie hospital is to return to mediation regarding the first Baptist and Forsyth applications, which is scheduled to resume next month. The initial applications were denied by the state in February. Although Forsyth is in favor of two hospitals operating in the area, analysts have said that the state is not likely to approve such a solution.
Many supporters of a Clemmons hospital encouraged Frisone to approve both hospitals because they believe that competition would help to lower health-care costs.
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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