City considers location for new hospital.

Byline: TIM CHRISTIE The Register-Guard

With one hospital planning to leave the city and another thinking about moving in, the Eugene City Council will talk this week about where a new hospital might locate in Eugene and how the city could encourage such a development.

The council will delve back into hospital issues about a year after PeaceHealth announced it would build its new hospital not in Eugene, where it's operated Sacred Heart Medical Center since 1936, but in north Springfield.

That decision, capping a stormy summer of site negotiations last year, stunned Eugene city leaders and left many residents of south and west Eugene concerned that both of the community's hospitals would be north of the Willamette River.

And it left McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, PeaceHealth's smaller, independent competitor, unsure about its own future if a state-of-the-art regional medical center was built just down the road.

"People who are medical service professionals worry very seriously about the financial viability of the second hospital if you put the two (hospitals) close together," said Councilor David Kelly.

The council work session will be at noon Wednesday at Eugene City Hall. Kelly, along with Councilors Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor and Gary Rayor, requested the item be put on the council agenda.

Kelly said representatives of Eugene, Springfield and the two hospitals need to plan for the community's long-term health care needs, just as the cities years ago collaborated on fire protection.

PeaceHealth's decision to move to Springfield has prompted McKenzie-Willamette leaders to meet several times with Eugene officials to discuss the idea of moving to the city.

Though nothing is imminent, the idea is still under consideration, McKenzie-Willamette spokeswoman Rosie Pryor said.

"Our board talked about it as recently as its last meeting," she said. "It's not off the table. No decision has been made about it. It continues to be something the board of directors discusses."

In a move they said was not directly related to PeaceHealth's planned move, McKenzie-Willamette officials filed a federal antitrust lawsuit last January against PeaceHealth. The suit alleged PeaceHealth, the Bellevue, Wash.-based parent of Sacred Heart, has engaged in predatory business practices in negotiating insurance contracts.

If left unchecked, PeaceHealth's tactics would drive the Springfield hospital out of business or into a partnership or merger with another large health care organization, according to McKenzie-Willamette officials.

One concern shared by city officials and some residents of south and west Eugene is that both hospitals would be north of the Willamette River.

Councilor Rayor said he is concerned Eugene residents could be stuck if a major earthquake or flood blocks access across the river.

"It's almost part of emergency preparedness," he said.

PeaceHealth plans to transform the existing Sacred Heart Medical Center at 13th and Hilyard streets into administrative offices, medical clinics, outpatient services, and an expanded mental health center. It would operate a 24-hour urgent care clinic but not an emergency room that could treat major trauma cases.

A citizens group that has vowed to fight PeaceHealth's move to north Springfield wants the council to discuss its idea for creating a special commission to study the community's long-term health care needs, including where a new hospital might be built closer to downtown Eugene.

"The idea is to open up the map and look at the whole metro area," said Jan Wilson, coordinator of the Coalition for Health Options in Central Eugene-Springfield, or CHOICES.

The coalition has forwarded a draft proposal to create a hospital siting commission to city councilors and hospital representatives. The plan, which Wilson said is intended primarily to spark discussion, would be to create a nine- to 18-member commission appointed by the Eugene and Springfield councils and Lane County commissioners.

The group would meet once a week for no longer than three months and make recommendations on the availability of space for health care facilities in the region and how much space will be needed over the next 50 years.

The commission would have a budget of $45,000, provided by the cities and the county, under the draft proposal.

Representatives of both hospitals, who have met with CHOICES leaders, said they're keeping an open mind, though PeaceHealth officials said the CHOICES group was incorrect when a member talked of PeaceHealth's "enthusiasm" for the idea.

The McKenzie-Willamette board of directors has not taken a position on the idea but plans to discuss the issue at its next meeting, Pryor said.

PeaceHealth spokesman Brian Terrett said officials at the hospital are willing to look at the proposal, "but at the same time we put a lot of time and effort into the RiverBend campus.

"The one thing we did make clear during our discussion was that we were planning to move forward with our plan," he said.

Alan Yordy, chief executive for PeaceHealth in Oregon, sent an e-mail to CHOICES on Friday in response to an e-mail Wilson had sent to city leaders, in which she wrote, "Surprisingly (or maybe not?), everyone including representatives from both hospitals, has responded with enthusiasm for the idea."

Yordy wrote, "That is simply not the case."

He said that after meeting with CHOICES members, he asked to see the details in writing.

Yordy plans to review the proposal with his staff and the Oregon governing board before providing a formal response.

"Rest assured, that PeaceHealth is unlikely to reopen the siting of the dual campus as proposed, after spending almost two years reaching a decision to establish two centers in the community - one at Hilyard and one at RiverBend," Yordy wrote.

HOSPITAL DISCUSSION

The Eugene City Council will discuss options for siting a hospital in Eugene at its noon Wednesday work session in the McNutt Room, City Hall, 777 Pearl St.