County clergy urge hospital action

Council has appointed authority members ahead of deadline

The county hospitals in Bowie, Cheverly and Laurel have been managed by Dimensions Healthcare and struggled financially due to the large number of uninsured patients. The General Assembly formulated a plan earlier this year that requires the county and state to form a hospital authority by June 21, agree to a funding plan to make the hospitals attractive to potential buyers by Aug. 20 and sell the system within the next two years.

Past attempts to reach a state-county agreement have failed so county pastors attended the council meeting to remind officials of the importance of succeeding this time around.

‘‘We wanted to let them know we’re still here,” Weaver said.

County officials have already selected their appointees to the authority: Stan Brown, a zoning lawyer for the county; Kenneth Glover, a PNC Bank executive and former chief administrative officer for former County Executive Wayne K. Curry from 2000 to 2002; and Thomas Himler, who worked as county budget director from 2003 to 2006.

‘‘To make sure there is no downtime, we appointed members,” Council Chairman Samuel Dean (D-Dist. 6) of Mitchellville told Weaver, president of The Collective Banking Group, a council of pastors from across the county. ‘‘We, the council, are committed to bringing a resolution to this longstanding problem. We are working closely with the county exec.”

A spokesman for Gov. Martin O’Malley said the state will likely name their appointees to the board soon. Council members said they hope the state representatives will also be county residents.

Originally built and managed by Prince George’s County, the hospital system handles about 180,000 patients a year but has fallen on hard times as the number of uninsured patients caused annual losses of about $12 million.

Clergy members said the hospital is vital for the county’s poorest residents who have no other way to afford emergency care.

‘‘The hospital system must continue to exist,” said Perry Smith III, pastor of First Baptist Church in North Brentwood. ‘‘We don’t have to have Dimensions, but this hospital must exist.”

Dean and other council members have expressed doubt that they can afford paying more than their already pledged $24 million to keep the hospital afloat through 2010, citing tight budgets.

If the two sides can’t agree by the deadline, the deal could fall through once again.

At the meeting, Councilman Tony Knotts (D-Dist. 8) of Temple Hills questioned whether the state would front most of the cost for selling the hospital. Some officials have privately expressed hope that the county health centers would be co-opted into the state’s medical system of teaching hospitals.

‘‘I was just wondering, how much does the state pay to like, say, Hopkins?” asked Knotts, referring to the Johns Hopkins University research hospitals in Baltimore. ‘‘... I was just wondering why the state couldn’t look at it the way Hopkins is looked at.”

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net