Mason Health Care Sale Pending

With the official transfer of KCH to Quorum Health Group less than two weeks old, and the $63 million the new Kosciusko 21 Century Foundation received not yet invested, one of the foundation's assets - Mason Health Care Facility - is already on the selling block.

"Mason (Health Care) and Home Health Care were in the original considerations in the talks with Quorum, but it was determined they didn't give KCH any additional value," said Willis Alt, former KCH board chairman, a member of the K21 Foundation board and the Mason Health Care board. "We wanted to divest ourselves of it with the sale, but we got more from the sale without it than we would have with it. This gives us the best dollar value for the assets."

He added that an Indianapolis certified public accounting firm and health industry consultant, Blue and Company, said Mason Health Care would be unlikely to survive as an independent facility.

"Blue and Company told us that as a stand-alone entity, it wouldn't be viable, but as a part larger organization it would be," Alt said. "The K21 board and Mason's board discussed home health care and decided it was something we should support, but residential care would be something we would divest ourselves of."

Blue and Company has been given the contract to help find acceptable bidders on Mason's, and the five most qualified suitors have been identified and requests for proposals have been extended to those.

Questions have been raised about the inclusion of one of those possible purchasers - Miller Health Care Systems, managers of Miller's Merry Manor in Warsaw and 30 other facilities in 28 communities in northern Indiana. The questions involve the close friendship between Alt and James Miller of the MMM Invest, owners of the 29 facilities managed by Miller Health Care Systems.

According to Richard Decker, chief executive officer of Miller Health Care Systems, the Miller family left the operations side of residential health care facilities in 1989 and a group of facility managers formed CareMet, later changed to Miller Health Care Systems in 1998. The Miller family still owns MMM Invest, which owns the facilities managed by Miller Health Care.

"We are excited about that (being in top five for Mason's purchase)," Decker said. "I would be very disappointed if we weren't given the opportunity to bid on that facility, and I will be even more disappointed if we don't get that facility."

Alt is quoted as stating in the minutes of the Feb. 10 meeting of the Mason Health Care Board of Directors that Jim Miller is, "probably my closest personal friend."

Miller Health Care System was approved as one of the five approved bidders by the board at that meeting.

Alt denies any correlation between his relationship with Miller and Miller Health Care System on the list of preferred bidders.

"I don't want to give any indication that Miller's is buying Mason," Alt said. "Jim Miller is not involved in any of our negotiations."

The deadline for bids is March 2, with a decision on the final purchaser expected by March 4, according to Mason Administrator Brian Catron..

As the divestiture is taking place, some patients and those close to Mason's question the if a new working relationship with KCH is living up to it's prior billing.

In December, shortly after the sale to Quorum was announced, President Wayne Hendrix said county residents and patients should expect the same quality health care to which they had become accustomed.

"Not only will the residents of the county continue to have the same quality health care they have today, but the services we're able to provide will be expanded," Hendrix said.

But two recent incidents within the last 10 days are causing concerns on Mason's staff.

One, which occurred over Feb. 6 and 7 involved a patient transferred to Mason's from Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. The patient requires feedings through a tube inserted in his stomach, with a prescribed enteral feeding solution.

On Saturday, Feb. 6, the last prescribed feeding solution Mason had on hand was used. To replenish the supply for Sunday, Feb. 7, the local pharmacies with whom Mason purchases the feeding solutions had none of the type prescribed in stock. As a stop-gap measure, the KCH nursing supervisor was called.

According to Sandy Rader, director of in-patient services for KCH said the hospital is forbidden by its pharmaceutical licenses to dispense any prescription medicines. That prohibition extends to Mason Health Care.

"KCH has not generally been a supplier, generally, for Mason. They use Pillbox Pharmacy and another supplier out-of-town," she said. "In an emergency situation, we would, of course, furnish them with whatever they needed to care for their patient."

Mason's Director of Nursing, Robin Anderson, isn't sure of that commitment.

She said according to the nurse supervisor on duty on Feb. 6, when no feeding solution could be found from their normal suppliers, the KCH evening nurses' supervisor was called. The Mason's nurse was told, "You got the patient from Lutheran Hospital, so get the feed from Lutheran Hospital," Anderson said.

With the last feeding solution expended - a solution KCH has suppled Mason the Thursday before - KCH was again contacted in the early morning hours of Feb. 7. Anderson said the KCH pharmacist named "Bob" again refused to supply the solution, saying that it was illegal.

The patient's doctor was contacted and the feeding solution prescription was changed to a dosage Mason had on hand and pediatric dose, obtained from a local pharmacy. These were used until a new shipment of the original prescription could be obtained.

Joan Darr, chief operation officer for KCH, said there was no record of a request from Mason on that weekend.

"We checked with all the pharmacists, an no one was aware of a call from Mason," she said.

A second incident occurred on Feb. 8 involving a doctor who ordered a portable chest x-ray for a Mason resident. When Mason staff called KCH for a portable x-ray, they were denied because that service from KCH stopped on Feb. 1 with the transfer to Quorum.

"We didn't have a formal agreement (with Mason)," Darr said. "It was an oversight on Brian's (Catron) part and an oversight on our part too.

"They hadn't identified it (radiology) as a need and this hasn't come up until now," she added.

Catron agreed that the lack of a service agreement for a radiological services was an oversight on his part, but that a new provider will be on-line very soon.

"We're exploring contracts with several vendors," he said. "They (KCH) have expressed no interest in a contract with us and were looking for another vendor."