A panel formed last year to monitor Prince George's Hospital Center yesterday urged the county to fire the contractor that runs the troubled hospital and said a bailout of at least $30 million would be needed to help keep it afloat.
In a stinging assessment of hospital management, the panel declared in a report: "Dimensions Health Corp. has never operated the system effectively. Its history of poor management and ineffective leadership continues to this day. No long-term solution to the problems facing the system can be accomplished by continuing the county's relationship with that entity."
The eight-member panel's report and recommendations will be taken up soon by the Prince George's County Council and state officials. County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said in a prepared statement that he would push for implementation.
But finding new money and new management for the hospital in Cheverly, which has a trauma center serving Prince George's and three Southern Maryland counties, could prove a major challenge. The state and county reached a $45 million deal last year to help save the hospital, but only after arduous negotiations between Johnson and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R).
It is unclear whether the additional $30 million to $35 million for the hospital and its affiliated facilities that was envisioned in the report can be found. As additional sources of revenue, the report suggested: forming a special tax district; establishing a stable stream of state or county public grants; or tapping the District of Columbia. The hospital draws many indigent patients from the District.
As for a possible management shakeup, Dimensions, a nonprofit organization, has operated the center since 1983 and is politically well-connected in the county and elsewhere in Maryland.
Through a spokeswoman, Dimensions issued a brief written statement.
The nonprofit said its board of directors had not "had an opportunity to thoroughly review the recommendations," according to a version of the statement read by spokeswoman Delores Butler in a telephone interview. "Accordingly, it is premature and inappropriate for us to comment on the substance of the recommendations."
Dimensions said that it was committed to taking steps to keep the hospital solvent and that it wanted the hospital to be "strong, stable and capable of meeting the health care needs of Prince George's County and the surrounding area."
The county-owned hospital serves thousands of uninsured patients each year, and perennially struggles to make ends meet. From 1999 to 2001, it lost $43 million. Under such straits, the hospital, like many of its public counterparts nationwide, has long operated under the threat of closure or a major shakeup.
In the report, the panel stated that the county faces tough choices in deciding the hospital's future, including finding another private management firm, merging the facility with another nonprofit system such as a teaching hospital, assuming operation of the hospital or selling it.
The oversight panel, appointed by the state and county, is chaired by Morton I. Rapoport, former president and chief executive of the University of Maryland Medical System. Other members include state Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George's); County Council members David Harrington (D-Cheverly) and Thomas R. Hendershot (D-New Carrollton); and Nelson J. Sabatini, a former state secretary of health and mental hygiene.
Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said the governor would ask the county to move swiftly to implement the nine-page report's recommendations. "The bottom line is ensuring health care access for the citizens of Prince George's County," DeLeaver said.
Johnson discussed the report in a meeting Tuesday with Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R), DeLeaver said. Ehrlich asked Johnson to work on a county-level solution in consultation with state Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary S. Anthony McCann.
Staff writer John Wagner contributed to this report.
