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COO Says Tarpon Hospital Financially Healthy

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: February 20, 2009

Updated:

TARPON SPRINGS - Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital is positioning itself to remain in good financial health in these stressful economic times, according to one of its administrators.

Don Evans, Helen Ellis Memorial's chief operating officer, told city commissioners Tuesday night the 168-bed hospital is moving ahead with plans to gain certification to conduct open-heart surgery in about two years.

Last month the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration gave the hospital, part of the Tampa-based University Community Hospital system, approval to conduct elective angioplasty procedures. The hospital has been conducting emergency angioplasties since 2005.

Angioplasty is a procedure used to open clogged arteries that can cause heart attacks or strokes.

Achieving Level One cardiology certification, a prerequisite to receiving authorization to perform elective angioplasties, will pave the way for the hospital to be certified to conduct open-heart surgery by 2011, Evans said.

As part of qualifying to conduct open-heart surgery, the hospital has to perform 11 cardiac surgery procedures and 400 angioplasties. The hospital recently opened a $1.5 million state-of-the-art cardiac catherization lab.

The addition of these cardiac care services will help improve the hospital's financial position and provide an important service to the community, Evans said.

Evans, giving the City Commission one of his regular updates on the state of Helen Ellis Memorial, said hospitals all over the country are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Patients are putting off elective procedure and nonprofit hospitals have to write off more of the cost of providing health care, he said.

"More patients do not have the means to pay" and are becoming charity cases, he added.

Even in a financially challenging year, however, the hospital has been able to greatly reduce financial losses, he said.

Evans and other Helen Ellis Memorial administrators are pinning the hospital's long-term hopes on a multistory complex to be built adjacent to the hospital. It is intended to attract more medical professionals and their patients to the hospital.

A developer plans to construct the Meres Crossing Shopping Plaza, which will include a Sweetbay Supermarket and other retailers, on land near the hospital and then build the medical office complex.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815 1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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