Spokane7
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February 27, 2010 in City
Sacred Heart boots Rockwood
Hospital gives clinic notice to vacate campus space
The Rockwood Clinic will have to vacate 48,000 square feet of offices, patient exam rooms and surgery suites on the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center campus after failing to rework lease agreements.
The changes are the latest fallout from Rockwood’s surprise $50 million sale last year to Community Health Systems Inc. to form an integrated health care system with Deaconess Medical Center.
Rockwood, which had strong ties with Sacred Heart until the sale was announced, has drawn the ire of Sacred Heart administrators. While rhetoric may have softened, tough decisions continue to be made, such as insisting Rockwood vacate its premises by June 30.
The move affects five leases covering about 38,000 square feet in the Sacred Heart Doctors Building, including Rockwood’s ambulatory surgery center on the seventh floor. Another lease covers 10,000 square feet in the Providence Heart & Vascular Institute.
“Unfortunately, allowing physicians employed by CHS – our primary competitor – to occupy prime space on the Sacred Heart campus for years to come is not in the best interest of Providence,” wrote Sacred Heart administrators in an open letter to staff.
Rockwood is the region’s largest medical clinic, with 133 physicians and about 900 staff working at 32 clinics. With 160,000 patients each year and a wide variety of services, it is a key player in hospital admission numbers and economics.
Rockwood administrators have said they intend to refer 90 percent of their patients needing hospitalization to Deaconess within five years. The clinic has historically sent 90 percent of patients to Sacred Heart.
Rockwood physician and executive Dr. Craig Whiting said the decisions would not disrupt patient care. The clinic is considering a range of options, he said, declining to reveal where Rockwood might relocate.
Sharon Fairchild, vice president of communications for Sacred Heart, said canceling the leases will ensure that the hospital can accommodate other doctors’ practices and programs.
She noted that Sacred Heart wishes to maintain its long relationships with Rockwood doctors. They will retain medical privileges at the hospital and Sacred Heart will continue to provide time in its own ambulatory surgery center and operating rooms.
Rockwood had attempted to keep its leases – ranging from three to nine years – by seeking Sacred Heart’s consent to allow the clinic to assign its leases to Community Health Systems.
Sacred Heart officials pondered the request for two months before rejecting it.
Neither Whiting nor Fairchild disclosed the value of the leases.
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deacon46 on February 27 at 9:49 a.m.
Doesn’t matter where we as Rockwood patients want to get our hospitilization. We are nothing in this fight. Time to wake up and get our politicians involved.
tomday on February 27 at 10:04 a.m.
So glad to hear they got the boot! Rockwood has been scamming the student of EWU to a tune of $70/quarter regardless if you have insurance or not. They have to pay them and thats it! Many don’t use nor will ever use their clinic yet they all have to pay. What do you get for this fee? If you have a cold you can go see them. Anything else comes out of the students pockets. This is not insurance it’s a scam to help make rockwood DR’s rich. They are scamming people and I love to hear when business like this get nailed!
crader72 on February 27 at 10:06 a.m.
Yes William, because as we all know everything gets better when politicians/lawyers get involved.
PlanB on February 27 at 11:45 a.m.
tomday, that is a very good point. If you read what services Rockwood offers to EWU students, it’s pretty much nothing other than telling you something is wrong. However, it’s EWU that’s allowing the scam to continue. I had to pay it even though I had my own health care insurance and never utilized the Rockwood service (which would have provided nothing anyway.)
deacon46 on February 27 at 1:21 p.m.
CR,
Any better suggestions other than just criticizing and sitting on your rear end.
dexterhc on February 27 at 1:21 p.m.
tomday,
It never ceases to amaze me how much people complain. As an alum of both EWU and WWU there are mandatory “fees” for everything, whether we use the services or not. WWU also charges a mandatory $70 per a quarter for their Student Health Services. They also charge a Renewable Energy fee, Tech fee, Transportation fee, Recreation fee, etc. All is mandatory, regardless if you agree and/or use the service which is 2.5 times the health fee (about $190). Would you complain about all those fees also? I will disagree with both you and PlanB; looking at the brochure, there are a number of services that are covered (lab, xray, minor surgery, std testing) beyond just “a cold” that would be expensive to pay out of pocket without insurance…not bad for $23 per month. But you are right about one thing; this is not insurance it is pre-paid services that you have the right take advantage of or not.
Diana on February 27 at 4:06 p.m.
Why would politicians get involved in a business deal by two for-profit entities?
Spokane_Guy on February 28 at 1:02 p.m.
I have had issues with the way Rockwood Clinics handles it’s referrals, keeping them in house despite the patient’s wishes. In my case I had Group Health NW Health Insurance at the time. I chose my primary physician who was a Rockwood Clinic MD. No where in my policy did it say that I had to stay in the Rockwood system for referrals/services and I confirmed this fact w/ Group Health Customer Service.
I needed a procedure done and this required a referral from my primary MD for authorization. I told my physician that I wanted to go to a “Spokane Group” that specialized in this procedure because I had seen an MD from this group in the past when I had a different insurance policy. The “Spokane Group” was not part of Rockwood Clinic. A call to Group Health Customer Service confirmed that this procedure and the “Spokane Group” would be covered by my Group Health policy as they were a preferred network provider for Group Health. For authorization I just needed a referral from my Rockwood Primary Physician. When I asked my Rockwood Primary Physician for the referral he adamantly refused several occasions, providing only “they are out of the Rockwood Network” as a reason, despite me confirming and informing my MD that Group Health confirmed the “Spokane Group” and the procedure were covered by my policy.
The Patient Bill of rights states that the patient has a right to choose providers. Rockwood Clinic didn’t see it this way. No where in my Group Health policy did it state I had to stay in the Rockwood system. this was a Rockwood Clinic “policy”. However, I didn’t purchase Health Insurance or enter into an agreement with Rockwood clinic, rather it was Group Health NW.
I ended up having to “fire” my Rockwood Clinic physician (who by his own rights was an excellent practitioner) and switched to a Group Health Primary Physician who had no problem referring me to the “Spokane Group” for my procedure.
This whole event left a bad taste in my mouth for the way The Rockwood Clinic conducts business. In my case it seemed highly unethical and I’m sure this wasn’t an isolated incident.
I am a health care provider myself and have witnessed time after time Rockwood refusing to refer out of it’s system. This appears to be a financial decision on Rockwood’s part. I think it’s clearly unethical and poor business practices by Rockwood Clinic. To be clear this was 6 years ago, long before CHS buyout of Rockwood clinic.
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