The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The Columbia County Health System Board last week agreed to ask voters to approve a capital bond levy of $5.5 million in the November general election. The funds would finance remodeling of Dayton General Hospital. The vote on the resolution was unanimous.

Voters who live within the Columbia County Hospital District boundaries will vote on the measure in November, and all property owners in the district would be affected by the new tax levy, if it passes. A 60% yes vote is required for approval. The district includes all of Columbia County, plus the portion of Walla Walla County within the Waitsburg School District.

If the levy measure is approved, the cost to property owners in the district is expected to initially be slightly under 50 cents per thousand dollar valuation. The district would issue 25-year bonds with an expected interest rate of 4%.

Upon approval, the district will move forward next year with the project. During their regular meeting on July 24, board chair Ted Paterson outlined three major improvements that will result the remodel:

1. The nurses' station and acute care beds would be moved closer to the emergency room.

2. Food and laundry services would move to a location adjacent to Booker Rest Home.

3. Physical therapy and rehabilitation facilities would be expanded, an aqua-therapy pool would be constructed, and the lab area would be moved and expanded.

Interim CCHS CEO Jon Smiley pointed out that the hospital building was built in 1964, and has not seen a major renovation since. "When the hospital was built, babies were delivered here and surgeries were performed here," he said."The majority of the people served in the hospital were inpatient then. Now, except for long-term care, almost all are outpatient. Our facilities weren't designed for what we do now."

Paterson said that the remodeled hospital is expected to improve the financial bottom line for CCHS. This will be accomplished through improved employee productivity and increased revenue from physical therapy and lab services. Productivity will improve because food and laundry services and the nurses' station will be much closer to the residents served by those employees.

"The improved profitability will help offset the losses we incur in long-term care," Paterson said.

The Booker Rest Home, which is part of the DGH facility, was the topic of much discussion during the meeting. Paterson said that Booker has run at an average deficit of $397,000 per year for the last four years. "Taxpayers in the district provide about $800,000 to the hospital district," he said, "and about half of that goes to subsidize Booker."

Paterson said that the majority of residents at Booker are Medicaid recipients, and that state-funded reimbursement simply doesn't cover the full cost of the service provided to each resident. He also said that the board feels that continuing to keep Booker open is important to the community. "All of our long-term care residents are either Dayton or Waitsburg residents, or have immediate family here," he said.

Smiley pointed out that long-term care facilities in many rural communities in Washington have closed down in recent years. "Communities like Pomeroy, Prosser and Asotin no longer have long-term care facilities," he said. "Dayton is one of the few that still does."

According to information provided by Smiley, nurses in the hospital must support both acute care and emergency room patients, but those beds are currently a long distance apart. "The remodel places the nurses' station in between acute, swing and ER patients for better coverage." This change will also provide much greater privacy for patients and their families, he said.

Moving food service and laundry to a spot adjacent to Booker will eliminate a long walk for employees for more than 90% of the people served. CCHS serves 48,000 meals per year to rest home residents, and only 4,000 to other hospital patients. Currently, meals destined for Booker must be transported nearly the full length of the building. The same issue affects laundry services.

Paterson said that the need for physical therapy services in the Dayton and Waitsburg communities has grown significantly. The expanded facilities and addition of an aqua-therapy pool will help generate more revenue for CCHS. Information provided to The Times stated that the number of rehabilitation procedures performed at the hospital has more than quadrupled since 2010.

Lab services are also an important part of the health system's business. The new facilities will not only generate more revenue, but also create a much more private environment for patients.

According to hospital statistics, DGH has about 1,500 emergency room visits annually. It performs 21,000 physical therapy procedures and 31,000 laboratory tests each year, along with 2,800 imaging procedures. The Dayton and Waitsburg clinics combined have more than 10,000 clinic visits per year. CCHS currently has 136 full time staff, with a payroll of more than $500,000 per month.