Braden Health Revenue Cycle Director Larry Henson provided an update and answered questions from residents regarding Stuart Community Hospital at a community meeting held May 21 in the community room of Patrick & Henry Community College (P&HCC).
Dozens of residents attended the meeting, and learned that Braden Health, a Tennessee-based healthcare company, was started about five years ago to revitalize rural hospitals.
Henson said the core of what the company wants to do is preventive care, followed by acute care when needed.
“Your in-patient services, your out-patient services, your emergency services. And those three things—that is what we’re going to open first as that is the immediate need that we know that the county has,” he said.
Stuart Community Hospital will be a for-profit, critical access hospital.
In speaking with Patrick County’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Coordinator Scottie Cassell, Henson said he’s been told about the 3- to 4-hour run times local EMS services have when taking patients to Mount Airy, North Carolina, or Martinsville.
“We’re going to change that three hours to 45 minutes. They’re very excited about that, they’re going to spend a lot less time in vehicles and more time responding,” he said.
When the hospital opens, Henson said he will serve as its CEO temporarily for about a year to see the facility through its initial launch.
“We like them to be as autonomous as possible. We want to make sure that transition happens smoothly,” he said.
The hospital also doesn’t currently have a planned opening date.
“Because we don’t want to throw out an opening date and pass it. We do not want to make a false promise, we want to know when we can open and actually make a promise that we can keep because there’s a lot of stuff that goes on with the state and federal government,” like inspections and regulations, “that have to happen first,” he said.
In terms of community investment, Henson said Braden Health’s goal is to make sure that it’s here to stay and will open the hospital.
“Anybody who’s driven by during the day will see cars parked out there all the time, different vendors and just different people doing work on the hospital. We’ve already contributed a lot to the hospital, a lot of finances and we’ve got a lot more to do, and we’re happy to do it. That is what we do,” he said.
Henson said he knows the community’s been burned before. When they first walked into the facility, Henson noted there were boxes filled with banners that said, “Foresight Health Grand Opening 2023.”
“We don’t want to be like that, we’re not like that. We’re here to stay,” he said.
Facility and Amenities
Henson said the building’s upstairs will be fully operational and will serve the community’s immediate needs, like emergency services, inpatient care and acute care.
As required, the hospital will include a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner, which will be a 16-slice model to start.
“Then once the hospital starts making money, that’s when we start getting better equipment in. We’ve done that in each and every one of our hospitals. We’re going to take care of the immediate needs that we have to have. The specialties and better equipment will be an ongoing process,” he said.
While the hospital will be licensed for 25 inpatient beds as part of its Certificate of Public Need (COPN), Henson said it will start out with 22 beds, as there are 22 available rooms.
“There are a couple of rooms that have dual bed capabilities, but we’re going to stick a single bed in there to start. Obviously, if the need to add beds arises, we will do so,” he said. “We’re going to make sure people are comfortable, we’re not going to have these 2- or 3- inch mattresses. We’re going to make sure that people are as comfortable as we can make them in the hospital.”
Some outpatient services, like the CT scanner and lab services, also will be available. Telemedicine will not be done at the hospital.
The hospital’s pharmacy will move upstairs, and Henson said its kitchen equipment, sewer lines, electrical lines, HVAC system, and other amenities have been updated.
The hospital’s Emergency Room (ER) will have six rooms and a triage area. Mental health services are currently not in the plan.
Henson said Braden Health has its own ambulance/EMS company in Lexington, Tenn.
“Every county that we’ve gone into, we have done EMS in that county. The counties that we’re in will oftentimes still have their own EMS, but we will have our own trucks,” he said, adding he doesn’t know how many trucks will be used for the local facility.
Henson also doesn’t know if the ambulances will be used just for hospital transfers, or if they will provide EMS services in the community.
He said none of the volunteer rescue squads are at risk of being replaced by the hospital’s ambulances.
He is unsure if Station 8, the county’s paid EMS service, will be phased out once the hospital opens.
“I know there’s been talks with our EMS director and the county officials, but I do not have an answer. My role in that is, if something like that happens, I have a place for EMS to stay. In all the places we have EMS, we don’t take over 911 services,” he said.
Henson said there are plans for work crews to come out and look at potential helipads or landing zone locations. Having one is required in Virginia, but Henson noted there are waivers, depending on what’s available locally.
Hiring
Henson said the hospital currently does not have a hiring date, but when hiring starts, it will begin with department directors.
“It’s going to be those people so they can set up their areas and start working with me and my team and start getting that vision of what we want for the hospital,” he said.
After that, Braden Health will reach out to local media to advertise the open positions. Listings will also be posted online.
Henson said the company isn’t worried about hiring physicians to staff the hospital.
“The physicians are going to be in 12-hour shifts. You’ll have physicians that will work 60 hours a week, those are your core physicians that will work at the hospital. We’ll have physicians that will work 12 hours a week, or the weekend, or something like that. The minimum that we need to start is half a dozen, but we don’t see any problem with getting that. We’ve never had any problems getting doctors that are at other hospitals” to move to our facilities, he said.
Henson said the doctors will not be traveling physicians.
“They will actually be hired into our own provider group. Outsourcing physicians is a one-way road to nowhere,” he said, adding those physicians are not beholden to hospital management.
The hospital also plans to work with local nursing programs to help keep young people in the community.
“Whatever it takes to keep young people here. We have done programs at our hospitals in Tennessee with the local community colleges to help. We put some young nurses through getting their degrees and enhancing their education as well, so if we find somebody that really has a lot of potential, we’ll invest in them,” he said.
When asked if hiring physicians and other medical personnel from surrounding areas could harm those communities, Henson said “we will take care of Patrick County. Part of taking care of Patrick County will be going to our specialty services in Winston (N.C.) and Roanoke, but we are Stuart Community Hospital. We will work with the other hospitals. If they have overflow, we will make sure it comes to Stuart. If we’re full, we’ll make sure it goes there,” he said.
Henson also noted that many large hospitals, like Sovah Health in Martinsville, outsources doctors from other provider groups.
“So, it’s not their own doctors,” he said.
Insurance
Stuart Community Hospital will accept all Medicare and Medicaid services, according to Henson. He added that Braden Health is aggressive in ensuring everyone can afford to receive care.
“If you’re out of network, you got discounts there. What I’ve done at the other hospitals is, we look at the volumes of what types of insurance people have in the various areas. Even without the hospital being open, we’re able to see that. I already know the top five, top 10 payers, that we need to focus on,” he said.
To ensure any insurance questions are addressed, billing personnel will be hired, and as required by law, the hospital will accept patients without insurance.
“We’ll make sure we have the right person in our billing department, and then we’ll work with a payment program. We will have policies already in place for a self-pay discount that you’re probably not going to find anywhere else,” he said, noting the self-pay discounts will be a type of financial assistance for those without insurance.
