Mercy makes case for Perry County Memorial partnership

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Officials with Mercy health care system made their case Monday night to partner with Perry County Memorial Hospital.

Dozens of area residents attended the community forum in Perryville to listen to Mercy's proposal, which focused on the hospital's size, strength and culture, and was light on specific details, other than a pledge to provide more services locally.

Four Mercy officials — Eric Ammons, president of Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Festus, Missouri; Ajay Pathak, senior vice president and chief strategic ventures officer; Ray Weick, Mercy Clinic president for St. Louis and South Community; and Alan Smith, vice president of operations for South Community — attended the forum. The group spoke for about 45 minutes before taking questions from the audience for about two hours.

Some of the questions involved Mercy's specific plans and goals, while many centered around Perry County Memorial's process of seeking a partner.

The hospital's leadership has narrowed potential partners to Mercy and SoutheastHEALTH. Ken Bateman, SoutheastHEALTH chief executive officer, led a forum a week ago to explain that organization's proposal.

Perry County Memorial leaders will host their own forum next Monday.

Mercy culture

The Mercy officials pointed to the organization's Catholic foundation and repeatedly said the organization's culture reflects a mission to serve. Ammons, Weick and Smith touched on their small-town roots, comparing them to the Perryville community. Weick recalled his early intention to work in the health care field.

"I have wanted to be a family doctor ever since I realized I wasn't going to be able to be a pitcher for the [St. Louis] Cardinals," he said.

Weick explained the organization's "integrated" approach, which involves all personnel working on one team with universal goals, instead of a system in which physicians operate separately from the hospital.

"If you don't have an integrated system, doctors and hospitals might have different goals. That integration makes all the difference in the world," he said.

To illustrate the point, he told the story of a patient, "Don," who he said would visit one of Mercy's emergency rooms a couple hundred times each year. The integrated system allowed "Don" to access telemedicine at his home and alleviate his concerns as necessary. The result was "Don" visiting an emergency room fewer than a dozen times each year.

Pathak's part of the presentation addressed concerns about moving services out of Perryville and to Mercy's larger facilities in and around St. Louis. He said the group's "sole focus" would be to "build services locally."

Smith added to the comment.

"We want to come into the community, and we want to enhance what you guys already have," he said.

Ed Robinson, left, addresses the crowd gathered Monday to hear Mercy health care system's proposal to partner with Perry County Memorial Hospital. With Robinson is Ajay Pathak, senior vice president and chief strategic ventures officer for Mercy. Mercy is one of two health care systems vying to partner with the Perry County, Missouri, hospital.Rick Fahr

Audience questions

Once the group began taking questions, Ed Robinson addressed the group and the process of Perry County Memorial seeking a partner.

"We are very, very concerned about our hospital. We are concerned because there is a lot we don't know. It is unfortunate we don't know more about it than we do," he said, a sentiment others echoed. "There is a lot of secrecy, and that is what has created all this concern."

He and others pointedly asked whether Mercy and Perry County Memorial have signed a "letter of intent" to partner. One audience member referred to the process as "shifty."

The Mercy officials said they were not aware of any such letter. Pathak noted, however, the question wasn't one for Mercy to address.

"That needs to be more directed to the hospital and the hospital board," he said.

Perry County Memorial's leadership includes two boards — a publicly elected board, which some have said will have ultimate authority over signing an agreement with a partner, and an appointed board, which reportedly will offer a recommendation for such a partnership.

Robinson contended a letter of intent would limit the hospital's ability to negotiate with other potential partners.

Joe Lupica, president of Newpoint Healthcare Advisors, retained by Perry County Memorial to negotiate a partnership, said that was the point of such a document.

"That's the whole purpose of a letter of intent ... 'While we talk to you, we will forsake all others,'" he commented. "Otherwise, who would invest the money to do the due diligence? It's not a nefarious thing. It's not an evil thing."

Other questions related to local input as to the direction of the hospital were a partnership to occur. Ammons said the publicly elected board would be the "voice" and "ears" of Mercy.

"We meet the needs we have in our community. I'm responsible for that. Your CEO would be responsible for that," he said.

Several questions involved anecdotal instances of what the commenters said involved substandard/untimely care and personnel issues at Mercy facilities. The Mercy officials said they would look into each of the cases and report back to the involved parties.

"That buck stops with me," Weick said. "I don't know what happened, but I am darn well going to find out."

In one case, a man said he had to wait a month to get treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome at a Mercy facility. Chris Wibbenmeyer, chief executive officer of Perry County Memorial, who attended the forum, told the man that procedure was available locally and should have taken no longer than a week to schedule. The man said it was his fault he didn't know that. Wibbenmeyer disagreed.

"That's my fault you didn't know it," he said.

Another issue at the heart of a potential partnership is SoutheastHEALTH's plan to locate a nursing school in Perryville. When asked whether Mercy would commit to doing so, Ammons said a local nursing program would provide a pipeline of health care professionals, adding Mercy has been in contact with two accredited institutions to provide local health care education.