DOCTORS SAY MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDINGS WOULD BE DIVISIVE

The possibility of competing medical office buildings on the grounds of Cape Girardeau's two hospitals worries physicians like Mark Kasten and Kent Griffith.

Competing office buildings would result in costly and unnecessary duplication of services and could divide the physician community, with doctors becoming aligned with one hospital or the other, they say.

Currently, doctors -- other than the hospital-based physicians like those in the emergency rooms -- treat patients at both hospitals.

"I think the thing we want to avoid is the example that we have seen in Poplar Bluff, where you have a complete splitting of hospital staffs and alignment with one or another," said Griffith, president of the Cape Girardeau County Medical Society.

Poplar Bluff, he pointed out, has some of the highest health care costs in the region.

"In general, if you have excessive duplication of services, those costs generally raise the cost of health care in an area," he said.

Griffith said that locating a medical office building on a hospital campus wouldn't make it easier to recruit primary-care physicians as some have argued.

Kasten, a family practice doctor who also serves as head of Southeast Hospital's medical staff, agreed.

"There are places to put them right now and there are places that can be made into office space," he said. The old Central Hardware building, he offered, "would be a great place for doctors' offices."

He said that if there is a need for a new medical office building, then both hospitals should work together and the facility constructed at a neutral site.

Kasten said officials of St. Francis Medical Center have talked of constructing a facility that would have offices for 50 doctors.

If that occurs, Southeast Hospital might end up building a facility for 20 or 30 doctors, he said.

"I don't think there is any question that when you put a doctors' building on a hospital campus...the doctors (there) are going use that hospital," said Kasten.

Both Kasten and Griffith said that a majority of the physicians at a medical society meeting in January indicated that the medical buildings weren't needed.

Griffith said that about 40 to 50 doctors attended the meeting. Also on hand were the two hospitals' administrators and their board chairmen.

The meeting was held to discuss the status of collaborative efforts of the two hospitals, he said.

"Statistically, I am not certain whether or not we need a new building, but I am concerned about the hospitals pursuing things on their own without working together," he said.

Griffith said it's in the best interest of the community that both hospitals remain viable and aren't "bought out by a large corporation from St. Louis or Memphis."