New hospital owner makes trip to town
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Capella purchased River Park in July as part of a multi-million dollar deal that included five HCA-owned hospitals.
Capella Healthcare was formed on May 5 of this year by Anderson and company CEO Dan Slipkovich, two former management officials of Province Healthcare Inc. The pair has extensive management experience with over 200 hospitals in over 30 states.
Anderson took some time out from his visit to talk about Capella’s plans for the local facility.
“HCA has done an excellent job in a number of ways here,” Anderson said. “They supplied good capital in terms of maintaining the facility and equipment. What we want to do is add capital for strategic expansion.
For instance, Anderson said a recently installed MRI machine, which is currently leased, will be purchased when Capella takes over.
“So the first thing you’ll notice is an infusion of capital for expansion of services,” Anderson said.
“The other thing I think you’ll notice is a little more activity from Capella inside McMinnville and Warren County.”
“We’ll be more involved than HCA,” Anderson continued. “And that’s not saying anything derogatory toward anyone, it’s just that we will be a company of four hospitals, and they’re a company of 190, so we’ll have more opportunity to be here and we will be here for the purpose of learning what we need to do to better serve this community.”
Anderson said Capella plans to continue support of local activities, such as the Highland Rim Bike Race, but the intention is to take things a step further.
“We will continue those things,” Anderson said. “But more importantly we want to be more personally involved. It’s easier to send money than become personally involved and we want to do both.”
Anderson says the corporation will maintain a hands on policy.
“What we would like to do is come and be here and know what needs to be done,” Anderson said, “to help support the employees, help support the physicians and help support the board, to make sure that we’re providing services and also that we’re interacting with the community.”
HCA’s Ernie Bacon has been acting as interim CEO since the departure of former CEO Steve Otto, but Anderson said Capella is working on hiring a permanent CEO for River Park.
“We’re looking for the right candidate now,” Anderson said. “We’ve interviewed a couple of people, but we want to make sure that we have the right candidate, and when we have the right candidate, we’ll bring that individual to the board here for their approval and have them interview them and talk to them as well.
Anderson said the hospital board of directors Capella appoints will consist of seven to nine people with at least half being physicians. All board members will be local residents.
“Because of our knowledge of this area and what we think that we can do here in this community, we’re excited to be here,” Anderson said. “We’re excited to work with the physicians, with the employees, with the board, and with the community at large, just to make sure that we’re doing a very good job providing care here.”