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Dr. Rany Aburashed, Chief Medical Officer of the Michigan-based Insight Healthcare Group, spent more than an hour and a half answering questions from a group of about 30 community members at the Granada Theater in Hollister on Oct. 16.
Topics ranged from strategies to operate Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital to his organization’s history in taking over troubled hospitals. Among the public were residents who oppose selling the hospital.
At the two-hour event, which included a meet-and-greet component, Aburashed said Insight plans to attract young, “hungry” physicians to Hollister by using their existing networks of physicians. He said he will pitch the idea that doctors can play an important role in building the healthcare system at Hazel Hawkins rather than waiting years at a larger organization for a leadership role.
“I go to them and say,‘Look, you can wait in line at Stanford for 35 years to become the chairman or you can become the chairman in Hollister tomorrow,’” he said.
Aburashed said that “throwing a bag of money” at the hospital’s operations will not solve long-term problems. He said his strategy involves first stabilizing operations by addressing core acute community needs such as internal medicine, the emergency room, nursing, the intensive care unit (ICU) and general surgery. After that, he said, the focus will shift to preventative care and outpatient access.
Another part of Insight’s strategy is to develop a specialty that will define Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital—though he said he needs to delve into the community needs before he can identify what that specialty can be.
“We want to create something where no longer are people in the community exiting to Stanford and to Los Angeles and to San Francisco and everywhere else, but the opposite,” he said. “People are sick of the big cities.”
San Benito County resident Greg Swett, who has publicly opposed the sale of the hospital to Insight, asked if the organization would close Hazel Hawkins’ birth center. Aburashed said he would not, but he would need to find $1 million to keep it open—hospital CEO Mary Casillas and CFO Mark Robinson said the hospital loses about $1 million a year operating the birth center.
Aburashed said the first step is to get a neonatal ICU, because that increases the reimbursement rate from the state, thus reducing losses.
Aburashed said another option is to develop an affiliation agreement with a larger obstetrician’s office or take advantage of state grants for the services.
“In terms of closing it down, what I mean is that, if you don’t strategize without a neonatal ICU, you will close,” he said. He also said the reason many birth centers are being closed is because they are not sustainable and can lead to hospital closures.
He said the larger problem is dealing with it at a legislative level to ensure costs are covered.
When asked by BenitoLink if Insight would be interested in pursuing a transaction in the future if the community doesn’t approve Measure X, the initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot that would allow the sale to move forward, he said Insight would look “at other opportunities elsewhere.”
“We’re not desperate for anything,” he said. “There is not some oil field underneath the hospital that we want. We really think we can do some good work here.”
Resident Robert Bernoksy, who has been among the most vocal opponents of Measure X, told BenitoLink that from his perspective, Insight validated what he has been advocating —that the hospital needs to be run better.
He added Insight might not be a bad option but the reason he still opposes the transaction is because of the lack of details of the terms.
When asked about the final terms, Casillas said the event was not about Measure X and that it would be a topic of discussion at the next San Benito Health Care District meeting scheduled for Oct. 24.
“The voters aren’t voting on terms,” she said. “If we don’t get to a definitive agreement with anybody, the board will still be negotiating those definitive terms and that’s going to be in the contract. We still don’t have a contract.”
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