BGH Foundation steps in to aid rural health care

SANDPOINT — When families consider moving to a new community, there are two questions they invariably ask: How are the schools and what is the quality of medical care like?

For businesses, the answers to these questions can make or break negotiations with a key job recruit.

Fortunately for the Sandpoint area, real progress has been made in both areas with the recent passage of a $14.1 million plant facility levy for the Lake Pend Oreille School District and the re-establishment of the Bonner General Hospital Foundation. Both organizations now work in an environment of tighter funding, while the hospital also faces higher demand for its services.

Although the levy election was a squeaker, the crucial, few votes that represented the margin of success were won through a concerted effort by the school district to educate, inform and involve the community. The hospital foundation plans to work in a similar fashion.

Lynda Metz took the post of executive director for the Bonner General Hospital Foundation last June. She moved to Sandpoint from Dallas three years ago, before which she spent five years as an attorney for The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and served as fundraising counsel to Komen’s 112-member affiliate network.

After taking the BGH Foundation position, Metz set about interviewing local residents to get a feel for how they viewed the hospital.

“The reception was very positive,” she said. “But what I found was a lot of people who said, ‘I really don’t know a lot about the hospital’s services.’”

In response, the foundation plans to provide education about what BGH has to offer, as well as information about how it is funded.

A common misconception is that the hospital is fully supported by taxpayer dollars when, in fact, the property tax money that goes the Pend Oreille Hospital District accounts for just 2 percent of total net revenues. That money — earmarked for maintenance and operations of the hospital — only covers about one-quarter of the actual expenses associated with keeping the facility running.

“The primary source of revenue for the hospital — more than 95 percent — comes from patient revenues,” Metz said.

And most of those payments come through Medicare, Medicaid, or third parties such as Blue Cross. Many of the bills are reimbursed using a flat rate system, where a predetermined amount goes to the hospital, regardless of the actual costs incurred for treating a patient. That system is squeezing the margins for medical facilities, particularly in small, rural hospitals.

Between them, Medicare and Medicaid pay BGH an average of a little more than 60 percent of what it costs to care for their patients on an annual basis.

One of the main functions of the BGH Foundation will be to help the hospital diversify its fundraising activities and offset the income imbalance. The money raised can’t go to pay salaries, but can be used to cover capital equipment and technology needs, making it possible to purchase items a rural hospital might not be able acquire without such help.

“As this community grows, the need for health care services expands along with the hospital’s capital equipment needs,” Metz said. “Most hospitals have a foundation in place, so this is bringing to BGH something other communities already have — another source of funding.”

Bonner General, which currently employs approximately 425 people and has about 45 physicians on staff, has enhanced its physical presence with the inclusion of the Kootenai Cancer Center at Bonner General Hospital — a partnership that provides chemotherapy for patients in Bonner and Boundary counties who formerly had to drive to Coeur d’Alene for those treatments.

In May, the foundation announced the purchase of a $45,000 portable ultrasound unit, the results of its first fundraising project. Dollars raised through the remainder of this year will go into a general fund, to be used for equipment purchases the hospital deems most important.

“The hospital board and administration determines the most critical needs each year,” Metz said. “Our job is to raise money to support those needs.

“We’re dedicated to helping them have cutting-edge technology and services,” she added. “And our staff and physicians recognize the benefits a foundation can bring.”

Many of those medical professionals hadn’t yet arrived in Sandpoint when the first hospital foundation was formed in the 1970s. After hosting events such as bike races and a yearly wine & cheese tasting through the early ‘80s, the group finally disbanded and forfeited its corporate charter in the process.

“It just kind of died a natural death,” said Jack Parker, a BGH board member who was around when the original foundation was still active and now sits on the foundation board as a liaison between the two organizations. “Personally, I always felt there was a void there after it broke up. We still needed outside help and support — not just financially, but in the community.

“These days, rural medicine is getting tough,” he continued. “We’re still short as far as having physicians in the various specialties. Having a foundation helps us recruit those physicians, because it shows that people here care about their facility.”

Metz, who grew up in rural Oklahoma, watched the small hospital in her hometown close as higher costs eventually drove it out of business, causing a ripple effect that touched all parts of the community.

“That’s why it’s so important to me that we always have a good quality hospital here, because I’ve experienced what happens when you don’t,” she said. “I saw first-hand what it did to that economy.”

The foundation board includes Howard Simmons, president; Dana Williams, vice-president; Nancy Hadley, treasurer; Kathy Hubbard, secretary; and members Dan White, Marcella Nelson, Charles Maile, M.D., and Parker. The criteria for gaining a seat, according to Metz, were a passion for health care, a commitment to the community and a willingness to serve on a working board.

“These people are ambassadors of the hospital,” the foundation executive director said. “In a lot of ways, they are our eyes and ears in the community. They’re two-way communicators who also hear what people’s thoughts and perceptions are and then bring those back so we can synthesize them.”

As president of the foundation board, Simmons said he looks forward to building close relationship with the hospital, helping to get the word out about how its services have grown and raising money to support that growth. From his vantage point as both long-time board member and liaison, Parker wants to make sure that the hospital recognizes that the second incarnation of the foundation plans to be around for the long haul.

“I’m here because I think it’s important that the hospital board realizes we’re serious about this thing and that it’s alive and vital,” he said.