To some, the County Commission's decision to sell the Tooele Valley Medical Center to a Tennessee-based for-profit hospital corporation is a major coup that will ensure modernization of an aging health-care system.
To others, it's a tactical blunder that could increase health costs and places the quality of hospital and aging care in the hands of an unknown entity headquartered thousands of miles away.But no matter where folks come down on the hospital sale issue, they do agree on one thing:
The pending sale is a crucial decision that promises to impact medical care in Tooele Valley for decades to come.
Commissioners expect to make that decision within the next few weeks after they have completed a "due diligence" evaluation of Community Health Systems Inc., based in Brentwood, Tenn.
Their choice will affect not only the 46-year-old hospital, but a health system that includes the nursing home that adjoins the hospital, an ambulance service and a home health services program.
The entire package was placed on the auction block last winter and two offers were received, including a joint bid from Community Health and Salt Lake City-based Heritage Management Inc., which operates 143 nursing homes throughout Utah.
The other was a joint bid from the company that currently runs the hospital, Rural Health Management Corp. of Nephi, and the trustees of the special service district set up some years ago to oversee the medical system.
Both bids provided for the construction of a new medical center to replace the aging county hospital, but the latter offer would have run the health care system on a not-for-profit basis.
Under state law, non-profits don't have to pay county property taxes if they can demonstrate they provide charitable service.
Commissioners declined to release bid amounts pending a final decision on the sale, but officials indicate Community/Heritage offered $4.3 million more for the system than Rural Health.
"There have been no red flags," said Commissioner Lois McArthur. The county's representatives in the transaction "haven't run across anything that has given them consternation about the deal."
"I think our citizens will be better served by this sale," she added. "The facility is so old and rundown, and we don't have money to rebuild or modernize it ourselves."
Cory Bell, vice president of Heritage Management, said buyers have another few weeks to respond to the letter of intent. "Then, if everything proceeds well, we will be in a position where we are committed to buy and they'll be in a position to sell," he noted.
While details have not been finalized, Heritage will own and run the nursing home and likely will operate the home health program.
But the sale has been a controversial one, and the furor came to a head this week when most of the trustees of the hospital special service district sent commissioners a mass resignation letter.
Kathleen Griffith, former vice chairwoman of the 13-member trustees board, said she believes a not-for-profit hospital would better serve local needs.
"I think commissioners are looking at the property tax they would get from from a for-profit hospital," Griffith said, "That's what's driving the train right now."
Either company could provide good medical care, she added, "but in the long run, I think the for-profit hospital will be more costly to the patient because they need to make money to pay stockholders."