Providence Everett Medical Center needs to build a new medical tower to have enough space to care for this rapidly growing community. To do so, Providence Everett is required to get approval to increase the number of beds it’s licensed to operate. Providence Everett recently received approval for 106 additional beds from the Department of Health, through their “Certificate of Need” process, which is the state’s process for approving hospital expansion. The Challenge
A coalition led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) initiated actions that could significantly delay this vital expansion. SEIU filed a Request for Reconsideration, asking the Department of Health to reconsider—and effectively revoke—its approval of Providence Everett’s Certificate of Need. The Department of Health denied this request to reconsider, but SEIU also filed a lawsuit against the DOH, challenging the actual Certificate of Need process. This lawsuit has the potential to significantly delay the construction of the medical tower—possibly for several years. SEIU is wrong to try to delay or derail Providence Everett’s expansion project for several reasons:
Providence Everett needs to expand now Providence Everett is a regional referral center housed in buildings designed as local community hospitals. Many of the facilities are antiquated, placing an ever-increasing burden on PEMC to maintain quality care. Providence has set up 100% of its currently licensed beds and is operating at capacity. When every bed is full, as is the case on many days, surgery patients are held in recovery waiting for a bed to become available, backing up or forcing the cancellation of other surgeries. Other patients are forced to wait to be admitted. If a pandemic or wide-spread disaster were to occur, the issue becomes catastrophic. The Emergency Department is full. On recent days as many as 15 people have had to wait up to 10 hours on gurneys in emergency room hallways for hospital beds to become available. The ED becomes bottlenecked as patients wait for an ED room to open up so they can be seen and treated.
The new medical tower will enhance the availability and quality of care Patients will have timely access to emergency care and other essential services such as the critical care unit. When they need to be admitted, a bed will be available. The single-occupancy rooms in the new tower will help prevent the spread of infection and improve patient and family privacy. The new tower will be able to accommodate today’s latest medical equipment and technology, something not possible in aging, outdated buildings.
Contrary to SEIU’s claims, the new medical tower and addition of 106 beds will actually decrease the cost of healthcare. A comparison of total costs per patient day with and without the expansion makes clear that costs increase only minimally in the early years of the project, and are much lower as the hospital begins to realize all the efficiencies of the new tower. By 2014 total costs will be lower with the new tower. SEIU’s argument is based on the false premise that an increase in capital costs results in a dollar for dollar increase in the total expenses of operating the hospital. Instead, increased capital investment leads to a reduction of costs in other areas due to increased efficiencies. Capital expenses account for only nine percent of the total expenses associated with operating the hospital, and accordingly have a very small impact on any fluctuation in the cost to the patient.
Delaying the Providence Everett expansion project is the wrong way to change the state’s Certificate of Need process. A delay of even one month could increase construction costs by millions of dollars, which would be the exact opposite result of SEIU’s professed goal of containing health care costs. A project this vital to the community should not be held hostage to SEIU’s political agenda to change the state’s certificate of need process. The need for any changes should be addressed by the Legislature, which governs the Certificate of Need process, not through the courts.
This community has the right to expect ready access to quality healthcare. The PEMC expansion project has the support of virtually everyone in this community. People understand that having to wait for care can be aggravating, and more importantly, it’s not optimal for the best quality care. Access to quality healthcare is essential, and the improvements in healthcare quality that will occur as a result of this expansion project should not be put at risk because SEIU is disputing how bureaucratic policies are implemented by a government agency.
The Lawsuit
The lawsuit states that the DOH should have based its decision as to how many beds were needed in our community by using a target date of 2012—one year after the new hospital tower is projected to open—not 2015, the date used for the decision. If SEIU’s arguments were to prevail the new hospital would once again be full only a year after it opened. Basing its decision on 2015 —four years after the new hospital tower opens—is essential for a major project like PEMC's, especially given the challenges of constructing the facility in a constrained urban setting. It represents the most cost effective way to expand the medical center in line with the City Council’s approval and the needs of our community.
How you can help
We urge you to let your legislators know with an email, phone call or letter that you believe SEIU is wrong to continue its effort to delay this important project with its lawsuit. While legislators can't keep SEIU from pursuing it, they can let SEIU and its coalition know that their efforts are wasting taxpayer dollars, hurting the people of Snohomish County and making a mockery of the SEIU/Coalition claims that they are concerned about health care costs. Go to an in-depth look at why SEIU is wrong to challenge Providence Everett's Expansion Plan.
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