Hospital Shutdown Scenario Stirs Fears

Experts See Ripples Beyond Pr. George's

Extended emergency room waits, longer response times for ambulances, thousands of displaced health-care workers and undermined rape prosecutions -- all are consequences industry experts and others warn could result from closure of the financially ailing Prince George's hospital system.

County leaders said yesterday that they are continuing to work to save the system, even as state officials and regional health workers said they were drafting contingency plans in the event those efforts fail.

"It's a huge health system, and obviously any disruption would have the potential really to cause health-care chaos across the region," said Gregg A. Pane, director of the D.C. Department of Health. "We're taking this very seriously."

The board of directors of Dimensions Healthcare System, which manages the county system, will meet Monday to consider bankruptcy or closure.

G.T. Dunlop Ecker, chief executive and president of Dimensions, has said he will recommend the latter.

The crisis comes after discussions between state and local leaders over a massive funding plan to save the system collapsed Monday, the last day of the Maryland legislative session. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has put aside $20 million to fund the "orderly closure" of the hospital over several months. He has said it can be prevented only by County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) and the County Council. Johnson spokesman John Erzen said talks are "ongoing."

"We all understand the need to move quickly," Erzen said.

State Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene John M. Colmers said he is convening working panels to draw up plans for the closure and the relocation of five groups of patients: trauma, maternity, psychiatry, long-term care and others.

The emergency rooms of neighboring hospitals, particularly trauma centers that treat severely injured patients, are likely to be the worst and most immediately affected. The trauma unit at Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly, the largest of three hospitals in the county system, treats 3,500 patients each year.

Shutdown of the Cheverly center, along with Laurel Regional Hospital and the Bowie Health Campus, could further strain the web of emergency rooms across Maryland. The three Prince George's hospitals handle a combined 122,000 emergency cases a year, making their emergency rooms among the busiest in the state.

Robert R. Bass, executive director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, said closure could effect patients as far away as Western and Southern Maryland.

For example, a man hurt in an auto accident in Largo might be sent to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda instead of Prince George's Hospital Center. That would mean that an elderly patient hurt in a fall in northern Montgomery County, who today might go to Suburban, could be sent to Washington County Hospital in Hagerstown. In addition, patients in northern Charles County may be flown as far north as Baltimore.