Our Turn: Teresa Paiva Weed and Scott Fraser: New rehab hospital is not needed, Rhode Island

Well, but are your existing hospitals good enough for stroke rehab? These statistics are available? 

1. tPA full recovery? Better than 12%?
2. 30 day deaths? Better than competitors?
3. rehab full recovery? Better than 10%?

 

Our Turn: Teresa Paiva Weed and Scott Fraser: New rehab hospital is not needed, Rhode Island

We write today with good news. Rhode Islanders in need of inpatient rehabilitation services can be sure our five existing licensed providers and skilled nursing facilities are meeting the needs of patients(Really? You get stroke patients 100% recovered?) in quality and capacity. As a result of our readiness, a new additional facility in Johnston, proposed by the out-of-state company Encompass Health, is clearly not needed.
On the surface, some may believe this is a simple economic development equation: more investment plus more jobs equals a good idea. But, a deeper look at the facts shows the addition of Encompass Health would instead be an economic drain on our health-care system and state economy.
Thanks to existing law, there is a clear path to showing the potential benefits and the potential damage.
In Rhode Island, any health-care facility hoping to enter the state must apply to the Health Services Council for a Certificate of Need. The prospective facility must prove a need or gap in health services in order to establish themselves here.
So, let’s consider a couple of issues: First, to the question of need. Our rehabilitation centers have 109 available beds to care for those who have suffered injuries (stroke, brain injury or other debilitating health issue) and whom a doctor determines requires more than three hours of daily inpatient intensive therapy for five days a week.
A 2018 audit revealed a 54% daily use rate of the inpatient rehabilitation beds, meaning nearly half the 109 beds remain available each day. This leaves us with the capacity to nearly double the amount of patients, if needed. Our skilled nursing facilities provide rehabilitative care for hundreds more. In other words, we have an over-supply.(But are you any good at all?)
So why would Encompass try to build a facility knowing these facts? Encompass has a business model including marketing their facility with the result of cannibalizing the existing facilities. In other words, they would be taking patients from Rhode Island’s hospitals and nursing homes. Encompass would create a duplication of services and the potential decimation of existing providers. This would result in closures and the loss of many jobs.
The best and most efficient use of state and federal health-care dollars and the overall impact on providers and their employees must be considered. Economic development is not replacing an existing facility with a new one just for sake of creating something new.
As inpatient rehabilitation and skilled nursing facilities, together we employ thousands of people and serve as economic drivers in our community.

Minnesota Launches New Policy For Car Used Less Than 50 Miles/Day

Sponsored by Comparisons.org

See More

The case is clear. Rhode Island has high-quality, nationally recognized rehabilitation resources in place. We have more than enough capacity to meet current and future needs.
The addition of a large, new facility would duplicate existing resources and likely degrade the ability of existing programs to maintain themselves. The state’s own consultant, The Faulkner Consulting Group, has validated these conclusions.
We urge the Health Services Council and the Department of Health to deny this petition.
Teresa Paiva Weed is the president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island. Scott Fraser is the president of the Rhode Island Health Care Association.