The Southeast Health Planning Task Force, established to evaluate and analyze the financial, organizational, and managerial health of Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, voted to meet behind closed doors again last week.
The decision to exclude citizens in the Mount Vernon/Lee districts leaves outside parties, including the press, without first-hand knowledge of the process and the facts upon which the task force will base their decision on the fate of the hospital.
The decision to go into executive session was not imposed by task force Chairman Warren Cikins, but rather by a vote of the entire body.
"Even though I feel very strongly that if these meetings are open it will hinder the mission of the task force. I am going to leave it up to the group to vote on having them open or closed," Cikins said at the outset. He then suggested a secret ballot vote "so that no one will feel pressure to vote one way or the other."
This lead to a discussion of what should constitute the choices. First, it was suggested there should be four possibilities: 1. All meetings open; 2. All meetings closed; 3. Each meeting to be partially open and partially closed depending on the agenda subject matter; and 4. Some meetings open and some meetings closed at the discretion of the members.
Members expressed their feeling about which proposal was the best for their deliberations and for the public. It was eventually decided to do away with number three, each meeting being partially open and partially closed, and vote on numbers one, two, and four.
WITH 17 MEMBERS eligible to vote, no one voted to have all meetings be open. Six voted to have all meetings closed and nine voted to have some meetings open and some closed. Cikins abstained from voting but voiced his preference that "some meetings be open and some closed."
Prior to the vote, Patrick Walters, Inova Health System representative, reiterated the corporation's desire to have all meetings closed.
"There is a lot of proprietary information that will be discussed. Also, as we get along with this process, a lot of 'what if' type items will come up.
"This could end up being reported as fact, not as speculative. We should go through the information, discuss the items, and then issue an open report," he suggested.
Former U.S. Rep. Herbert E. Harris II, another task force member, who had abandoned the previous meeting when the press was excluded, warned, "A lot of planning for new hospitals has been done in secret. That is why people are concerned. The notion that you can have a group this large, issue minutes of the meeting, and expect it to remain secret is not realistic."
Following the vote to establish the procedure that all public accessibility to future task force meetings will be determined by the content of that meeting, the task force was faced with deciding how to handle the June 5 meeting.
On another secret ballot the vote was 11-1 with three abstentions and two not voting to close the meeting. Cikins again abstained.
PRIOR TO THE VOTE, Cikens, showing irritation toward the press conference held at the Mount Vernon Government Center the day before and toward comments made in the press about his closing previous task force meetings announced "tonight it's my turn."
He then pointed out that he had been a parttime political science professor for 50 years and questioned the emphasis on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution providing for freedom of the press.
"There have been many amendments to the Constitution, some of which are in conflict the First Amendment," he contended.
He did not elaborate which those might be. However, in justification of his previous decisions to close the task force meetings, Cikins quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes, stating, 'The life of the law is not logic but experience.'
The press conference, called by Mount Vernon and Lee district supervisors Gerald W. Hyland and Dana Kauffman, drew an overflow crowd of citizens as well as virtually every elected official at the local and state level that serves the constituency impacted by the hospital's fate. All participants voiced unanimous support to keep the hospital open with serious questions being raised about Inova Health System's motives.
Kauffman challenged Inova Health System "to stand by their words" of promising the citizens to bring them the "top quality medical care" they deserve. He noted, "We are here to defend and promote our community hospital. It's our stake in this community."
He further stated, "Inova has been so focused on competition, they have failed to honor the community. They are so afraid of being boxed in they have boxed out the community."
Hyland pointed out to the audience that he considered the actions of Inova Health System and the critical need to maintain Inova Mount Vernon Hospital so important that he had called his first press conference in 16 years of public office. "I hope this conveys to the Inova Health System people the importance of this issue," he said.
FOLLOWING THAT press conference, Inova Health System called one of their own at the hospital to present their rationale for the task force. They also issued a press release to explain their position.
Repeating the rationale put forth at the original task force meeting, the release stated, "Inova is in the midst of a regional planning study that it conducts every four to five years to review health care needs in the communities it serves."
However, fueling speculation that Inova Health System is looking for a way to either close Inova Mount Vernon Hospital or drastically reduce services there to establish a new health facility elsewhere, the release noted, Inova is working "with Mount Vernon community leaders and physicians ... to review health care needs in Mount Vernon and the surrounding communities ..."
The release pointed out, "Inova Mount Vernon Hospital is struggling to survive in challenging financial times ... payments for services have not kept pace with higher salaries and wages, skyrocketing pharmaceutical and supply costs, more uninsured patients, disaster readiness upgrades, soaring professional liability premiums, and shortfalls in Medicare and Medicaid payments."
Inova described the hospital as "geographically isolated" and seemed to blame "a significantly higher percentage of patients needing charity care" for part of the financial struggle. Inova Health System is structured as a non-profit corporation while their most aggressive competitor HCA is a for-profit entity.
The release continued, "...Inova is looking at the best mix of facilities and services to serve the Mount Vernon area and the communities of Lorton, Fairfax Station, South Springfield, Franconia, Rose Hill and Kingstowne that have grown significantly in the past few years."
AT THE FIRST task force meeting it was revealed that the hospital lost in excess of $2 million in the last fiscal year. Projections for this year forecasts an $8 million loss without significant changes. Inova Health System also admitted to a $30 million overstatement of earnings in an recent audit disclosure.
But, as Hyland pointed out, Inova Health System, overall, is making money. As he also noted at his press conference, "I used to serve on the Inova Health System Board. Today, there is no representative from the Mount Vernon District on that Board."