Comments (0) | |

Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2009

Authority, commission may now be singing from same hymnal

I’ve been watching and reporting on the matters of Houston County for better than 25 years, and there are still some things I don’t understand.

Oversight of public health care, for instance.

@MA BodyRR:For whatever reason, health care in Houston County can bring out the dandiest in public conduct.

Like the day last week when, for the first time in memory, the Houston County Commission and the Houston County Hospital Authority met at the same time in the same room. In the past, authority members and commissioners occasionally may have gotten together for interagency Christmas parties or other such functions, but this was the first time they were found together taking care of business.

And here’s how it happened.

Commissioners appoint hospital authority members and have since the beginning of time.

When they named new members a month ago, they appointed three of their number: Tom McMichael, Jay Walker and Larry Thomson.

At last week’s “reorganization” gathering, Thomson was elected hospital authority chairman.

Other members include Warner Robins Mayor Donald Walker (brother of Jay), Perry Mayor Jim Worrall and Centerville Mayor Bubba Edwards. Rounding out the authority membership are Trudy Warren and the chiefs-of-staff of Houston Medical Center and Perry Hospital. Although Commission Chairman Ned Sanders was not invited to sit as a Hospital Authority member, he attended last week’s meeting as an observer. That constitutes more than a quorum of commission members, and that’s how it came to pass that the two groups met together.

More surprising, however, is how the newly-constituted Hospital Authority sees its role in the health-care picture. Moments after his election, Chairman Thomson explained his understanding of the authority’s future role.

“As I understand it, our main responsibility will be if the Houston Health System Inc. was to decide they want to sell the hospitals. That,” he said, “couldn’t be done unless we (the authority) voted to go along.”

There was one more interesting aside. When asked what new things might be in the offing since the county leased facilities to a not-for-profit corporation earlier this year, Houston Healthcare CEO Skip Phillips said Houston Health System Inc. might find itself partnering with communities outside the county to provide improved health services in those places.

That was strictly forbidden under jurisdictions governed by a strong and traditional hospital authority.

The most encouraging thing is that, no matter what led them to turn to it, most parties now seem to be singing from the same page in the hymnal.

And it will be done to the tune of “Ain’t gonna need this authority no longer ...”

Contact David Cranshaw at dcranshaw@cox.net.