Supervisors receive somber hospital status report

During their first night meeting in the Porterville City Council chambers, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors were given a report on the status of the local hospitals. The report highlighted the dire situation local hospitals could face due to their current financial and staffing issues.

Kaweah Health CEO Gary Herbst began the status report by saying that Kaweah Health took a loss of $2 million dollars in just one month, a loss of over $30 million in the months of April, May, and June of 2020, and an overall loss of $136 million from March 2020 through December 2022.

Herbst explained that when COVID first hit the county the community became afraid to visit the hospitals for medical needs in fear of catching the virus. The decline in patients caused the hospital to suffer negative financial impacts.

Now the hospitals, and healthcare industry in general, are facing a new problem, a lack of healthcare staff. Herbst said that because of burn out from working through COVID and continuously working exhausting shifts, the healthcare industry is losing certified nursing staff at an alarming rate.

“What has been left in the aftermath of COVID is devastating because what we are facing now is an unprecedented shortage of clinical staff,” said Herbst.

According to his report, hospitals throughout the country are on the brink of collapse, and many just in the state have already closed their doors because they cannot meet the financial needs to operate.

Herbst said one of the biggest financial hindrances is the payback short

falls from the Medicare and Medi-cal programs. He said that the healthcare programs don’t cover the actual cost of care and only cover up to roughly 75 percent of actual costs incurred by the hospital.

Kaweah Health has taken drastic measures to try and recover some of the financial losses. Hospital leaders have taken a pay cut between 10 and 20 percent, the hospital is not matching any of their employees 401K plans, and over 130 employees have already been laid off with up to 100 more to come by the end of March.

“We will not continue to exist if it keeps going in the same direction,” said Herbst. “So we’ve had to do some very gutwrenching, heartbreaking things.”

Herbst urged the board and the community to help local hospitals in any way they could. He suggested contacting local state and federal representatives and asking them for support. He also explored the idea of the county providing financial aid to its hospitals, implementing a possible new sales tax initiative, implementing a parcel tax, and encouraged everybody to get their health care provided locally.

Supervisor Pete Vander Poel thanked Herbst for the report, and stated the status was terrifying and that the public is truly unaware of the state the hospitals are in.

“You take away the healthcare, the ability of this local economy, this local jurisdiction to provide healthcare to any national employer, we’re really going to be hurting in a big way,” said Vander Poel.

During his report, Herbst mentioned the closing of a Madera hospital, prompting Supervisor Eddie Valero to ask if the local hospitals have felt the effect of the Madera closure. Herbst said that while Porterville, Tulare, Hanford, and Visalia haven’t felt much of the effects from the Madera closure, Fresno certainly has. He also stated that if Sierra View Medical Center, Tulare Adventist Health, or Kaweah Health were to ever close their doors it would have an enormous and horrendous ripple effect on the neighboring communities.

Supervisor Amy Shuklian inquired if any studies had been done on how much potential revenue would be generated from a new tax initiative. Herbst stated a quick and rough estimate of revenue was made at $60 million a year.

Board Chairman Dennis Townsend assured Herbst that the Board of Supervisors will support their local hospitals as much as they can, and that reimbursements for Medicare and Medi-cal services would be one of their priorities for their federal legislative platform.

In addition to the hospital report, on Tuesday the Board of Supervisors approved submitting an application for financial assistance through the state water board for wastewater service connection for the community of Matheny Tract. With a population of 1,141 people, almost all of Matheny Tract’s residents are supported by failing septic systems.

The community of Matheny Tract has been interested in connecting to the City of Tulare’s wastewater system for nearly a decade, and residents of the community encouraged the board to approve a the financial assistance application with the state water board in hopes that the state board will fund the connection project at a total cost of $22.8 million.

Now that it has been approved by the Board of Supervisors, if the state water board accepts the application and provides the funding for the project, the residents of Matheny Tract could see connections to wastewater and sewer services in their community within the next five to seven years.

Before their meeting ended, the board held a debateful discussion about the implementation of a prayer program for the board meetings. Chairman Townsend requested the program be discussed and suggested that the meetings open with a prayer following the flag salute.

After asking for public input, the community was not shy in expressing their vehement support or firm opposition to the implementation of the program. Many who spoke in favor of the program commented that the country was founded on prayer and the belief in God, and that belief in spirit needs to be brought back into the community.

Those who spoke in opposition said that the board would be opening a can of worms by implementing a prayer program as they would have to include any individual or organization that would like to provide a prayer to the board before their meetings, including the chance that a member of the Church of Satan would want to participate in the prayer program.

“To allow the prayer we have to be open to what the public is willing to submit for us to listen to,” said Vander Poel.

Many of the board members stated that they take the given moment of silence and say their own prayers before the meeting begins. Supervisor Shuklian said in all her years of public service only twice has a prayer been given that was not a Christian prayer. She also stated that what her comforts are may not be the comforts of others.

Vice Chairman Larry Micari said that he feared the implementation of a prayer program would become a circus, and, if approved, it must be structured, open and fair to anyone interested in praying over the meeting. He made sure to add that individual supervisors cannot show biasness based on religion when choosing those who would give the prayer.

Ultimately it was decided that a list would be made at the beginning of each year with open slots for individuals or organizations for each board meeting scheduled on that calendar year. Slots are filled on a first come first serve basis, and will be open to any individuals or organizations who wish to pray over the supervisors and their meetings. A draft proposal of the program will come before the board at a future meeting.