Adventist Hospitals Expand to Meet Growing Needs in the United States
March 13, 2016: In communities across the United States, health care institutions affiliated with the Adventist denomination are expanding to meet growing needs. Last week Washington Adventist Hospital in the suburbs of the nation’s capital had a groundbreaking ceremony for its new facilities. The new construction is about six miles from the campus that the hospital has shared with Washington Adventist University since 1907. The new campus will be next door to the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a key Federal agency assuring the safety of food products and the effectiveness of medications.
This is perhaps the most visible and costly of several projects currently underway or recently completed. The new 170-bed hospital will be completed in early 2019, reported the Montgomery County Media news service. The current buildings in Takoma Park will continue to be used for the long term to operate a community health center and other services.
Hundreds of local residents were present for the event. Ike Leggett, the county executive, spoke, praising the “great milestone” achievement that “will inject $800 million into the state’s economy in construction alone.” The new hospital will create nearly 7,500 jobs stated Dr. Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.
Adventist HealthCare, the nonprofit that operates the hospital on behalf of the denomination’s Columbia Union Conference, has pursued this project for more than two decades. The aging facilities in Takoma Park were landlocked in a neighborhood where residents were resistant to widening roads and expanding parking, etc.
Expansion in the Midwest Also
Kettering Medical Center in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, is completing construction of a new $49 million cancer care center. There is a soaring incidence of cancers in this Midwest city where Adventists have what may be the largest visible presence among major metropolitan areas in America. The new center is across the street from Kettering Memorial Hospital and Kettering College, and across a parking lot from the 1,400-member Kettering Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In late January, the Kettering Health Network celebrated completion of $19 million in construction at two of its other hospitals; Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek and Sycamore Hospital in Miamisburg. A total of 30 additional beds were opened at Soin on its formerly vacant fifth floor and 32 more beds at Sycamore.
“Kettering and other hospital networks have been expanding at a rapid pace to accommodate increased demand,” explained the Dayton Daily News. This is due to “a shrinking uninsured population driven largely by an improving economy and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and expanded Medicaid in Ohio.”
Last week (March 6), Kettering Medical Center was recognized for the 12th year in a row as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals. Sycamore received the same honor for the seventh time. They are the only two hospitals in the Dayton area included in this top evaluation category by Truven Health Analytics, according to the Dayton Daily News.
Moody’s Investor Service has upgraded its credit rating for Kettering Health Network, the nonprofit that manages eight hospitals and 10 free-standing emergency departments in the Dayton area for the Adventist denomination’s Columbia Union Conference. The bond rating was upgrade from A1 to A2 on $397 million the organization has borrowed, said Moody’s because of strong operating performance over the previous two years.
Other Health Care Projects
Adventist Health System (AHS), the largest of the denomination’s health care organizations, is purchasing the administrative office facilities of the Shawnee Mission School District for $2 million, as reported in the Prairie Village Post where one of its hospitals is located in the suburbs of Kansas City. The 5-acre facility is located a quarter mile from the hospital and will provide room for expanded services when the hospital takes possession of it in July next year.
Shawnee Mission Medical Center also received in December a donation of $1 million from one of the physicians who practices at the hospital for an endowment to support mission trips overseas. Dr. and Mrs. Douglas Cusick have traveled with teams of volunteers from the hospital to meet medical needs in China, the Philippines, Argentina, Nepal and other countries over the years. Barbara Cusick told the Kansas City Star that she and her husband believe in the AHS mission statement to provide “compassionate care for the whole person, following the example of Christ’s healing ministry” and want to endow a program that will continue mission trips overseas in the future.
They have involved their three young adult children in the committee that oversee the endowment. The first mission trip under the new funding will go to Peru later this year.
Florida Hospital North Pinellas celebrated the opening of its new Wound Healing Institute in February. It is located in the 168-bed full service hospital and includes four state-of-the-art hyperbaric chambers for hyperbaric oxygen theraphy.
Adventist Medical Center in Hanford, California, opened its new Family Birth Center in February. The $45 million facility includes two operating rooms, four evaluation rooms, 11 labor and delivery suites, 15 recovery room and six neonatal intensive care beds.
The Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District, also in California, has completed negotiations with Adventist Health, the nonprofit that manages health care institutions for the denomination in four western states, for a 30-year lease of its new hospital in Capital Hills. Adventist Health has agreed to pick up the $25 million necessary to complete construction of the facility if voters approve the deal later this spring.
Adventist Health is also exploring with the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, a public entity, to take over management of three facilities, including the Hilo Medical Center and Kau Hospital on the Big Island in the eastern part of the state, reported the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in December. The health ministry operates 40 rural health clinics in California, so it has a strong track record for this kind of operation, stated the Pacific Business News.
Castle Rock Adventist Hospital in Colorado opened a $1.5 million expansion of its birthing facilities in December. Last year the hospital had nearly 700 deliveries and in 2016 expects to have more than 950, according to the News-Press local newspaper.
Adventist Health has had significant growth in the patients treated in its 20 hospitals and scores of clinics and health centers and in December purchased a $17 million parcel for a new headquarters in Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento, California. It no longer has sufficient room in the office it has used since 1985 on Dougas Boulevard, reported the Sacramento Business Journal and has 700 employees spread across four locations.
Adventist Health had a 13 percent increase in hospital admissions in the latest year on record (2014) and outpatient visits rose six percent, as more people got insurance under the Affordable Care Act. It had a net income of $117.7 million on revenue of almost $3.3 billion with more than 21,000 employees.
There Are Also Problems
Along with considerable success and expansion, Adventist health care institutions have encountered some problems recently. AHS agreed to pay the U.S. government $2 million to settle allegations that it gave patients chemotherapy drugs that were left over from other patients, reported the professional journal Modern Healthcare last month. Claims were filed with Medicare and other insurance programs for payment as if the drugs were fresh supplies.
In 2011, AHS conducted an internal investigation that found this had happened and in 2012 the organization voluntarily reported the discrepancies to the government. The investigation “didn’t identify any harms to patients,” the journal stated, but AHS “did ‘notify the small number of impacted patients and addressed their concerns.’ [And] has since implemented new procedures.”
A sexual harassment lawsuit was filed last year against Adventist Medical Center in Hanford, California. A female employee caught on video an incident in which a male nurse exposed himself and masturbated while they were in an operating room and a patient was undergoing surgery,” reported the Fresno Bee. And a male physician was accused of making inappropriate remarks and physical contact with a female technician, and “attempts to report [the] behavior to management were mishandled and led to retaliation,” according to The Sentinel newspaper in Hanford.
Kings County Superior Court Judge James LaPorte has ordered arbitration in the case due to the fact that the hospital employees signed an agreement requiring that claims be settled without filing litigation. The lawsuit is delayed pending arbitration.
I was reading along calmly this article about AHS, when I was confronted with what seems to me to be a questionable reporting practice. As a reader of AT and blogger I did not need to know lurid details of sexual allegations/improprieties at Hanford Community Hospital, that are contained in this article about employee conduct. In identifying specific hospital department, and types of employees (doctors, OR techs, etc. you painted a very wide brush. So many potential persons are impacted by these allegations that have been repeated by AT.
These are the areas I have serious concerns about, does Adventist Today:
– Recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification to publish or broadcast.
– Realize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than public figures and others who seek power, influence or attention. Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal information.
– Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.
– Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.
– Consider the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of publication.
Will AT Provide updated and more complete information as appropriate?
I am hopeful that AT’ reporting policies are in agreement with the SPJ’s code of ethics (Society of Professional Journalists). This link has the code of ethics.
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Thank you!
All of the information reported here, but in much lengthier detail was reported in the Fresno Bee, circulated throughout central California. This web site was merely reporting what was previously published in both papers, and likely more. Hospitals are a favorite target and those who operate them should be well prepared to handle such cases. That they likely did not consider the allegations seriously cannot be blamed on the press.
,Elaine,
The article was about AHS corporate growth and plans for expansion. Was it informative to report on specific allegations that are still being investigated? To report sexual impropriety allegations in graphic detail, even if reported by others, was not necessary. When certain distasteful material is considered important to the story, there are a variety of common methods for mitigating negative reader reaction. Read the ethical guidelines that are followed by the journalists themselves which I provided in my response. Different organizations and even individual reporters have different standards and practices. Like the people who make kosher hot dogs (Hebrew National) like to say, Adventist Today has to answer to a a higher level”, a higher ethical standard.
I failed to see any ethical standards that were violated according to AToday’s own principles. Allusion is not good reporting when there are only hints supplied. When AHS reported the incidents that it had previously acknowledged.
Elaine
You missed the entire point. Precisely because until proven in court these are allegations. The plaintiffs have to be considered innocent until proven guilty. To report specific details on allegations in a lawsuit in an article dealing with AHS expansion in a journal such as Adventist Today calls into question what the masthead by AT says:
“Adventist Today (AT) is an independent journalism ministry serving the global Adventist community and readers interested in a reliable source of information about the Adventist faith and institutions.”
This is NOT the National Enquirer of our church.
“The plaintiffs have to be considered innocent until proven guilty.”
With all due respect Sam, I think you have inadvertently mixed-up your legal jargon. In US jurisprudence the “plaintiff” is someone who initiates a civil rather than criminal proceeding. And “innocent until proven guilty” is a concept that applies to the “accused” in a criminal proceeding. Though there may be cases where the “accused” in a civil proceeding is also the “plaintiff” in a civil proceeding, these are two different things.
Still I agree with you that the un-adjudicated allegations of sexual misconduct are out-of-place and out-of-context, given the predominant subject matter of most of this news article.
It’s a good point, Jim. In fact, one of my pet peeves, even in a criminal case, is to hear commentators intone that of course we must assume he’s innocent unless and until he’s convicted – unless of course rushing to judgment is compelled by the exigencies of political correctness. The presumption on innocence only applies in a court of law; it only applies to criminal cases; and it only attaches until a plea, or until the state proves its case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
The presumption is to limit the states ability to impose its authority to deprive a citizen of property or liberty. It does not mean that the accused cannot be fired from his job until he’s proven guilty. Nor does it mean that the public is somehow being unfair if it chooses to believe, on the basis of available hearsay evidence – or even inadmissible evidence –
that the accused is responsible for the wrongdoing.
When sports teams refuse to take action against a player pending resolution of criminal charges, citing the presumption of innocence, it’s just a copout. They are private organizations whose hands are in no way tied by the absence of a criminal conviction.
Thank you Jim, you are right
My legal experience goes back to watching Perry Mason while doing my homework. So now I’ve really dated myself. I should have used a simpler example like “not counting your chickens…” but I have to admit I’ve never counted chicken before…
Thanks!
Sam
I agree with Sam. The Hanford Hospital incident is nothing other than a drive-by, completely tangential to the story. Elaine obviously doesn’t understand journalism, or she would see why this irrelevant aside would receive an “F” in basic journalism.
I am also offended by the insinuation that “problems” are unique to Adventist health care and are somehow a recent development. This is like saying that Republicans have recently been having problems with the IRS. Well duh…So have non-Republicans. The types of problems catalogued here are neither unique to Adventist health care nor are they recent. Sexual misconduct allegations and run-ins with regulatory agencies are ubiquitous in the health care industry. These events may well be newsworthy in the local communities where they occur, but I fail to see how they have unique relevance to Adventism. Is the AToday news team going to start reporting every case of sexual misconduct alleged against SDA teachers and pastors – or will they simply do that when reporting on plans for church or school expansion?
Elaine has an insatiable appetite for anything that can put SDA institutions and leaders in a bad light. So naturally, context and integrity don’t really matter to her.
I live within less than an hour for several SdA hospitals including the one reported on. “Sexual harassment” is such a catch-all term including touching to outright rape, that a distinction IS important for the reader. I could be a patient on the operating room in this hospital as could good friends in that area. To say this is “unimportant” may be your view but as a female and who understands “sexual harassment and its damage to anyone involved, it should not be downplayed. While this may be under adjudication, it is not denied nor does a final verdict change the damaging effects on individuals.
It’s no different than a rape victim: she may suffer from trauma for years before the perpetrator has been brought to justice. Justice delayed is not denial of the incident, only a final court ruling.
(Why is the first paragraph above not shown? What is going on?)
Who said sexual harassment is unimportant, Elaine? Or is this just a straw man – er, straw person – to justify staying on tangent?
Perverted sexual acts caught on camera and the unethical chemo scam pales in comparison to the practice of elective abortions being carried out at a number of AHS hospitals. As a commandment keeping people the “thou shalt not kill’ should be adhered to I would say.
One must be careful when throwing around acronyms and initials. AHS is based in Florida and had absolutely nothing to do with the sad situation in Hanford which facility is run by AH out of Roseville, CA. And neither AH or AHS have anything to do with Kettering or Adventist Healthcare in the mid-Atlantic area. And for the record abortions in AHS facilities are extremely rare.
this is the greatest news I have heard in the recent past. I am more optimistic that the fine University y of Washington Staff and students do everything in God’s power to cooperate and operate, no pun intended, with human hearts!
Miracles are happening here and I request that you lift in pray all of the hard work theses saints labor in love for the kids,
i agree completely with Sam, Nathan, and Trevor. Most of the report was sharing the news of the very successful operation, expansion, and creditworthiness of Adventist Hospitals in America, and then out of the ether arrives exploitation of wanton acts of sensational sexual deeds, of which is common occurrence in perhaps every organization in the world. No need to exploit it. Think about it.
If after careful consideration a report is needed regarding things alleged at Hanford, perhaps AT should do a report about that subject matter. It does seem to be unrelated to Adventist Hospitals Expanding to meet growing need in the USA.