BUSINESSOhio hospital one step ahead of specialistsIf you can't beat 'em, take their land -- or at least what you think might become their land.By Katherine Vogt, amednews staff. June 16, 2003. A nonprofit community hospital in Ohio is using a novel tactic, more likely to be employed by big businesses, to prevent a specialty hospital from cropping up nearby. Licking Community Hospital in Newark, about 35 miles east of Columbus, leased 13 acres of land that executives feared would become home to a for-profit specialty hospital capable of, in the hospital's mind, siphoning off the most profitable cases in the area. "We've taken some action to prevent what folks in the industry are referring to as a boutique hospital from coming into our local community," said Pamela Watkins, vice president of human resources for Licking Memorial Health Systems, which owns the 221-bed hospital. The group that would be building this hospital has not announced, at least through local media, its intentions to build one, much less where it would be built. But Watkins said her hospital's chief executive officer had heard from other health care executives that an expansion to the Newark Surgery Center was being considered. She said it was believed that the outpatient surgery center, owned by local physicians, was planning to buy land behind it to add inpatient beds, essentially creating a specialty hospital. On May 8, Licking Memorial leased the land, just a couple of miles away, with an option to buy it in the future. Watkins declined to say how much the hospital paid. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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