House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox has submitted legislation to make public input a critical part of the evaluation of any major proposed hospital expansion.
Specifically, the Fox bill would add two members of the public to the state’s Health Services Council, a state panel that approves expansions of facilities or equipment by Rhode Island hospitals. The Speaker of the House and Senate President would each appoint a member.
The bill would also add “community input” to the list of criteria the board must consider when it reviews such plans.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
The House Majority Leader’s proposal is an attempt to fix a process that isn’t broken. It troubles us that this proposed legislation targets a specific case, The Miriam Hospital’s attempt to build a new surgical center, yet it would impact future hospital expansion projects throughout Rhode Island.
In explaining his proposal, Fox said: “It’s important that neighbors whose lives are most directly impacted by traffic and quality of life have a voice in the process. With the current setup, the community really hasn’t had any standing before the council that would be factored into the decision.”
To suggest that the residents who live near The Miriam Hospital do not – or have not had – a voice in this process is simply off base.
We remind Fox that neighbors of the hospital in the Summit neighborhood on the East Side of Providence displayed some clout last summer, convincing the Providence City Council to place a six-month moratorium on the hospital’s expansion plans so the impact on the neighborhood could be more closely studied.
The Miriam Hospital has met all the requirements it has been asked to meet, including securing the approval of the state Department of Health to build the new surgical center. The project in question does not require an expansion of Miriam’s institutional zone. It does not require a zoning variance and it would not encroach beyond the hospital’s existing footprint.
The $25 million project would double the hospital’s inpatient surgical space and replace 10 cramped operating rooms with 10 new ones. The hospital’s plan calls for the construction of a three-story building along Seventh Street, the second floor of which would house the new surgical center.
From a business perspective, the project is critical to the hospital. Hospital officials say their operating rooms and imaging equipment is so old that without an upgrade, patients and doctors may be driven to competing hospitals.
That would put the hospital’s very existence in jeopardy, which would not be a good thing for Providence – or the Summit neighborhood.
In proposing this legislation, the House Majority Leader is specifically responding to the interests of his constituents in Providence District 4 who oppose the hospital’s expansion project.
That may well be good politics on his part. We just don’t think it’s good business.
