Norfolk backs new Bon Secours plan for DePaul

NORFOLK

Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System has nearly doubled the size of its replacement proposal for DePaul Medical Center and removed a contentious plan to share financial ownership with physicians.

The changes have brought the city on board - and may make the plans more palatable to the state.

Bon Secours and city officials also offered a message to residents and doctors Monday on how they can help save the financially ailing facility: Start using it.

Michael Kerner, who became Bon Secours' leader earlier this month, said Monday that the 124-bed hospital proposal - up from 64 beds - came about

after meetings with the community and city officials made it clear "they would like Bon Secours to have a larger presence in the community, as in a larger hospital."

"The city is fully supportive of the proposition," said Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, adding that city officials would do everything they could to help Bon Secours gain approval from the state health commissioner.

That's a far cry from where the city and Bon Secours were just a couple of months ago when Norfolk broke with the Catholic health system, spending thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign to discredit the 64-bed proposal and advocate for a larger hospital. A consultant hired by the city said DePaul should be about 134 beds, with a larger emergency department and intensive care unit and more obstetric beds.

The new proposal calls for 88 medical/surgical beds, 20 obstetric beds and 16 intensive care beds, for a total of 124.

"Good negotiation has led to a good compromise," said Jim English, president of the Wards Corner Civic League near DePaul. "It's certainly a lot better than it was."

With the city as its ally now, Bon Secours' next big hurdle is getting permission for its plans from the state health commissioner's office, which under Virginia law must approve major health care projects.

Those plans extend beyond DePaul. Bon Secours would like to build small hospitals in southern Virginia Beach and northern Suffolk where it has outpatient facilities now. Ninety of DePaul's current 238 beds would be transferred to the Beach facility, while 48 beds would be transferred from Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth for the Suffolk facility.

The latest proposal is the third offered by Bon Secours since last year. Before the 64-bed plan, it proposed a 54-bed replacement facility for DePaul. The state health commissioner's office rejected the original plan in March, with the major sticking points being the size and scope of DePaul and a plan for Bon Secours to share ownership of the new facilities with physicians. Physician ownership of hospitals has come under attack, with critics charging that doctors would refer patients to their own facilities for financial gain.

The revised 64-bed plan never received a decision from the health commissioner's office, and Bon Secours twice obtained postponements of a public hearing on that proposal amid opposition to it. With the latest proposal, "we're meeting more of what the state's asking us to do," Kerner said, but official approval "is never a given." A decision is expected early next year.

Kerner said Bon Secours has decided to drop the physician ownership piece from the DePaul proposal - and potentially from the Virginia Beach and Suffolk plans as well. Instead, Bon Secours will focus on expanding the options physicians have to work with the health system, Kerner said. One goal is to increase the number of doctors who are directly employed by Bon Secours from about 40 to more than 110. That would enable it to better compete with Sentara Medical Group, which, at more than 360 doctors, is dominating physician employment in South Hampton Roads.

More physicians with ties to Bon Secours would likely increase the referral of patients to its facilities. DePaul has been struggling with a decreasing number of patients, particularly those who are insured or can pay their hospital bills. DePaul is projected to lose about $7 million this fiscal year, and in the past Bon Secours officials have said it was in danger of being shut down.

Fraim said that after Kerner took over on Aug. 4, "right away, the framework of the conversation changed" from one focused on DePaul's decline to its potential for growth.

Kerner said Bon Secours will invest about $5 million in renovations and new equipment in the building that dates back to the 1940s. He said it was essential to focus on improving DePaul now because the longer it continues to slide financially, the more difficult it will be to get out of it, even with a new facility.

Kerner said he has heard from people who say they were born at DePaul. He asks if they've used the hospital lately.

"Some have, some haven't," he said. "We need to provide great care so you want to come this hospital."

Nancy Young, (757) 446-2947, nancy.young@pilotonline.com