RGH CEO presents master plan

By Alisa Boswell

Managing editor

[email protected]

Roosevelt General Hospital CEO Larry Leaming asked county commissioners Tuesday to change a clause in a bond resolution, so the hospital can expand its resources.

Leaming told commissioners hospital officials and board members have spent the last 18 months putting together a master plan for the hospital, which highlights plans to expand various departments and sections of RGH, such as storage space, emergency room services, the RGH Clinic, business offices, surgical services and in-patient rooms.

“Looking at where the organization is and where it needs to go, trying to anticipate what the future needs are for Roosevelt County and for your health care needs,” Leaming told commissioners of the goal of the master plan.

Leaming told commissioners that what most hospitals are working towards eventually in the future is all private hospital rooms.

“It’s a logistical nightmare when it comes to male (patients), female, infectious, non-infectious,” he said. “We play musical chairs all the time trying to get people in the right places.”

Leaming also told commissioners that hospital officials would like to recruit more surgical specialties for the hospital.

“We’re talking podiatry; we’re looking at orthopedics; we’re looking at other surgical specialties and sub-specialties that can keep more services locally,” Leaming said, adding that demand for emergency services is growing.

He said RGH’s goal is to expand the emergency services first, and the expansion will entail tying the emergency room entrance to a back entrance for the clinic, so that doctors and nurses can determine if a patient should be cared for in the ER or in the clinic then send them to whichever they need.

Leaming told commissioners that RGH had 20-year bonds issued in 1999 through the county that the hospital is within just a few years of paying off.

“One of the things we’d like to do is look at refinancing the existing debt and expanding the bond issue into the future to help accommodate some of the future expansions,” Leaming said, adding that bond interest rates are currently “extremely low.”

Leaming said in order to do so, commissioners would have to amend the original ordinance by removing the Sunset Clause, which states that the debt has to be paid off by July 1, 2020.

“It would not increase the current debt load at all, but it would allow us to continue to receive the gross receipts tax and help pay for future expansions,” he said.

Commissioners Shane Lee asked if the clause could be amended rather than removed.

“The question is, ‘How was the question posed to the voters?’ Because if it was posed a certain way, then we would have to go back to the voters to amend that ordinance versus making a simple amendment,” said County Manager Amber Hamilton.

“The (state) statute and the question posed to voters does not have a sunset (clause),” replied Erik Haragan with RBC Capital, who is helping RGH with the bond issue. “The sunset was put in place by the ordinance that was approved by the county commission at the time ... the commission would have the option to do both, either remove it or extend it.”

Haragan said the problem lies in the fact that the question presented to voters didn’t necessarily include “language relating to operational expenditures,” which is what the new bond funds would be used for, so that may mean the question has to be taken back to voters if the clause were to be amended rather than just removed.

Commissioners did not take any action, as the item was not an action item on the agenda.