Jefferson Parish Council Chairman Chris Roberts confirmed Monday night that a council vote scheduled Thursday to select a lessee for the parish's two public hospitals has been canceled. Roberts stated in a text message that Inspector General David McClintock plans to release a report Wednesday on the hospital lease issue and that council members would not have time to...
Jefferson Parish Council Chairman Chris Roberts confirmed Monday night that a council vote scheduled Thursday to select a lessee for the parish's two public hospitals has been canceled. Roberts stated in a text message that Inspector General David McClintock plans to release a report Wednesday on the hospital lease issue and that council members would not have time to digest it before voting. It was not immediately clear whether the vote had been rescheduled.
The cancellation came about seven hours after Roberts and fellow Councilman-at-Large Elton Lagasse publicly endorsed Louisiana Children's Medical Center ahead of Ochsner Health System and the HCA conglomerate to lease East Jefferson General Hospital and West Jefferson Medical Center. Meanwhile, three other council members appealed for more time.
McClintock's report comes as surprise. He has previously stated that he intended to become more actively involved in monitoring the lease deal only after the council selected an operator for detailed lease negotiations.
Roberts and Lagasse issued their statement backing Children's minutes after the governing boards of West Jefferson Medical Center and East Jefferson General Hospital failed again to agree on a 30-year lease operator. Children's received 11 votes of support from the hospitals' 20-member joint board, narrowly missed the 12-vote threshold required in the board's bylaws for an official recommendation. One board member abstained and another, representing East Jefferson, was not present.
The latest developments came amid a public campaign for support by HCA, the Nashville-Tenn.-based corporation that runs 162 hospitals. HCA has the backing of most East Jefferson General board members, while Children's has the unanimous support of the West Jefferson Medical Center board.
Parish Councilmen Chris Roberts, left, and Elton Lagasse endorsed Louisiana Children's Medical Center to lease Jefferson's two public hospitals. Roberts agreed last week to delay Thursday's planned vote if a majority of the seven-member council wanted it postponed. He polled his colleagues Friday and said in a text that afternoon that most members were prepared to vote.
He surveyed the council after members Cynthia Lee-Sheng and Ben Zahn, whose districts are entirely on the east bank, pleaded for more time. Lee-Sheng, in an email to Roberts, said "we are working in a very fluid environment," and expressed doubt the council would have all the information it needed to vote Thursday. Zahn, citing "turmoil, confusion, conflicting information," said he wanted more time to "sort through what is and isn't fact."
A day earlier, the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce called for "some sort of independent recommendation" and a delay in the council vote. Last spring, the chamber supported a change in state law to deprive the public of a vote on leasing the hospitals, leaving both the lease decision and the selection of a leasee in the hands of the Parish Council. At the time, the chamber asked "in the spirit that the discussion would be all encompassing" that officials "would have all information necessary to make the right decision and then defend that position for three decades."
Roberts and Lagasse, in their written endorsement of Children's, said they had arrived at their decision after "careful consideration."
"LCMC is a local institution that understands the importance of making decisions based on what it right for the patient," they wrote. "They are a non-profit entity that does not answer to investors (but) rather (to) the community in which they serve."
Children's runs a 58-year-old pediatric hospital in New Orleans. In 2009, it took over Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, and in June it assumed operation of LSU Interim Hospital in New Orleans. It has an agreement with the state to run University Medical Center when that complex opens in 2015.
West Jefferson Chairman Harry "Chip" Cahill and East Jefferson Chairman Newell Normand, acknowledged after the joint board's vote Monday that their members remain split.
Cahill said the way Children's and other community hospitals performed after Hurricane Katrina "stuck with me." "I know the people of the West Bank love West Jefferson," Cahill said. "I see it staying the West Jefferson it is with Children's."
Normand cited inherent advantages to joining a shareholder-funded system such as HCA, as opposed to non-profits such as Children's and Ochsner. "You are using other peoples' capital, as opposed to a financial institution that is looking for a guaranteed return on their money as it relates to interest. That interest carry can be very burdensome," Normand said.
Councilman Paul Johnston expressed displeasure Monday that the hospital boards could not agree, and that the consulting firm that has helped manage the selection process, Skokie, Ill.-based Kaufman Hall, has refused to provide a recommendation.
"We have been dealing with this thing three or four weeks," Johnston said, calling the selection one of the most important decisions the council members will make in their careers as public servants. "How do you expect me to make a decision like that in such a short amount of time?"
The two hospital boards initially tried and failed to agree on a recommendation Aug. 13. Council members, including Roberts and Lagasse, said then they did not want to act without an informed recommendation.
Councilmen Mark Spears Jr. and Ricky Templet did not respond to emails Monday requesting their thoughts on delaying the vote or which company they prefer.