Spokane7
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February 6, 2012 in Business, City
Sacred Heart gets go-ahead to expand
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center will be allowed to add 75 new patient beds under a legal settlement reached today.
The beds will come at the expense of Holy Family Hospital, Sacred Heart’s affiliated hospital in North Spokane.
Sacred Heart’s expansion was initially conceived 3 ½ years ago as a $175 million-plus project that would have added 173 beds and made Sacred Heart the largest medical center in Washington State. Those long-range plans were denied by the state Department of Health, however – with the exception of adding 21 hospital beds for babies. The Department Health staff are charged with regulating how many patient beds a community needs.
Community Health Systems, the for-profit hospital operator that runs rival Deaconess Hospital and Valley Hospital, has objected to Sacred Heart’s expansion plans.
A settlement announced Monday also would allow Community Health to relocate 75 beds of its own between Deaconess and Valley.
This story is developing and will be updated.
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gmorton on February 06 at 4:07 p.m.
Article:
“Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center will be allowed to add 75 new patient beds under a legal settlement reached today.”
How generous of the omniscient, benevolent State.
“The Department Health staff are charged with regulating how many patient beds a community needs.”
And of course those apparatchiks know better how many beds a hospital needs than the hospital staff.
The_Seer on February 06 at 5:09 p.m.
gmorton: As soon as Providence is ready to give up their non-profit status then they can be shot callers all they want.
I find it more than interesting that one of the only area concerns that is looking to expand their community footprint is a non-profit medical care provider.
gmorton on February 06 at 5:24 p.m.
The_Seer wrote,
“As soon as Providence is ready to give up their non-profit status then they can be shot callers all they want.”
Non-profit status has nothing to do with it. The State dictates whether a hospital can be built or expanded, profit or non-profit.
RedCedar on February 06 at 6:33 p.m.
This is just one more of the many little-known facets of the whole health care mess — intricate regulations that could arguably be making health care cheaper and more available, or could equally arguably be making it more expensive and less available.
greenlibertarian on February 06 at 8:54 p.m.
Some kind of shell game going on here.