’Specially for kids
Baptist’s pediatric ER plan reflects medicine’s recession-defying trend
Baptist Memorial Hospital stepped up its East Memphis presence on Thursday, breaking ground for a $14.1 million pediatric emergency department at the Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women.
Memphis’ biggest hospital system has steadily expanded into the suburbs, following the neighborhoods that sprouted up, but hospital officials say the new unit planned by Baptist won’t compete head-on with Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
What’s going on in the Eastside medical complex reflects the larger growth trend. While the Greater Memphis jobless rate stands at 9.5 percent, the region’s massive 70,000- employee medical industry has defied the slow economy, adding about 10,000 jobs in the last decade.
Fueled by a constant flow of insurance and federal dollars, the industry is expanding. Residents of Memphis and Shelby County from birth to age 18 made nearly 82,000 emergency room visits in 2010, according to state statistics. That leaves room for two children’s’ units to fit in, hospital officials say.
“We love Le Bonheur; they do the hearts, the neuro, and all of that, and of course some general, but there’s plenty for both of us,” said Anita Vaughn, chief executive officer of the Baptist hospital for women.
Baptist’s new 17,000-square-foot emergency facility will contain eight treatment rooms and will focus on general pediatrics, Vaughn said.
It’s the second major step weaning
pediatric services away from the hospital system’s flagship, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis, to the nearby hospital for women that opened a dozen years ago on the East Memphis campus bordering Humphreys Boulevard.
Le Bonheur provides a completely different level of pediatric services, works with other hospitals including Baptist and isn’t in competition with them, said Meri Armour, chief executive officer of Le Bonheur, part of the Methodist Healthcare system.
With the new pediatric emergency room facilities scheduled to open in the spring of 2015, Baptist Memorial Health Care chief executive officer Stephen Reynolds drew applause Thursday at the groundbreaking event. Standing in the women’s hospital lobby, he said the hospital for women will soon be renamed to be a hospital for women and children.
The new pediatric emergency department is projected to draw about 7,320 visits its first year and 7,900 in its second year, according to Baptist’s “certificate of need” filed with a state agency. That’s more than a 10 percent increase the first year from 6,618 pediatric visits made to Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis.
On the opposite, west side of the Interstate 240 loop in Memphis, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital reports having more than 80,000 emergency room visits a year, including patients from outside Shelby County.
The emotional highlight of Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony was a tearful speech by 12-yearold Arianna Ervin, who described her struggle to live after her birth at the hospital for women and noted that she is an honor student who loves Justin Bieber.
Eight more children who had health problems from birth or were patched up at the hospital for women were invited to join the official line up on a flattened mound of dirt to dig on cue.
Obtaining state approval for the expansion from the state Health Services and Development Agency focused on Baptist’s addition of a fourth MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, machine to the campus. One will be moved from Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis to the women’s hospital and a wide-bore model added at the flagship hospital.
The MRI at the hospital for women won’t meet the state’s minimum requirement for number of annual uses, but that hurdle was cleared by grouping it with the average numbers for all four machines, which use powerful magnets and radio waves to make images of patients’ insides. In 2011, Shelby County medical facilities contained 40 MRIs, according to a state report.
The hospital’s state application for the expansion also illustrates the high cost of health care. Although expected to generate more than $10 million in gross operating revenue its first year and more than $11.3 million in year two, subtracting contract adjustments, charity care, bad debt and operating costs led Baptist to project net operating losses of more than $538,000 the first year and $338,000 the second.