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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Ind. Law - More on hospital competition

"Competing hospitals will be good for Porter County" is the headline to an editorial today in the NWI Times. It begins:

Memorial Health System's decision to build a hospital in Valparaiso is one of a series of seismic shifts this year in health care in Porter County.

This new hospital will compete with a new hospital to be built by the new owner of Porter Hospital.

This competition is ultimately good news for patients.

South Bend-based Memorial is planning to break ground next year on a 100-bed hospital, expandable to 250 beds, on the east side of Valparaiso. The site is near where Porter planned to build.

In fact, Porter officials had met with retired radiologist Surjit Patheja, the owner of the land Memorial is buying. Porter officials haven't announced a final decision on where to build.

The new 225,000-square-foot hospital should be in operation in 2010. It will be a general hospital, offering an emergency room, surgical services, obstetrics and critical care, said Memorial President and CEO Phil Newbold.

That's a switch from the recent practice of specialty hospitals coming to a community and taking a profitable segment of the health care market from the general hospitals obligated to serve everyone. * * *

It is also a prod to Porter Hospital officials to move quickly to build their new hospital so they can compete on an even footing with Memorial.

Porter Hospital's owner, Community Health Systems, is obligated under the terms of the purchase of the county-owned hospital to replace the 68-year-old hospital within four years.

Once both hospitals are built, competition should shape health care prices and amenities. That should be good news for patients.

Read this in conjunction with the ILB entry from earlier this week (July 1st), headed "State encouraging hospital competition."

[Updated 7/6/07] Vicki Urbanik of the Chesterton Tribune had a long report yesterday on the plans to build two new hospitals in Porter County.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 4, 2007 08:36 AM
Posted to Indiana Law