Community supporters want to help Copper Basin Medical Center get back on its feet. At a meeting of the hospital district trustees last week, there was discussion of the need for fundraising to help raise the $80,000 in matching funds for a grant to reopen the hospital’s surgery center.

Hospital administrator David Hyatt said the main thing is for everyone to pull together. He said it is difficult to cut expenses at the financially troubled facility but they can generate more revenue if the surgery center can open. The grant funds, he said, will allow them to purchase equipment as well as provide other improvements. They have around 13 months to get the matching funds, Hyatt said. He said they have been trying to educate the public and get community involvement and will be making formal presentations requesting donations.

Bobbie Allen, who said she is a concerned citizen, asked, “What can we do to help this along?” She said this is a community hospital, noting a lot of her family members have been saved there and many members of the community depend on having it. “We’re  very concerned. Can we save it?” She wondered if the community could get together to hold fundraisers.

Board attorney Jim Johnstone said everybody involved really wants to save it, adding the difficulty is the manner in which it is managed. He said there was some progress at a joint meeting earlier, adding, “The last thing we want is a lawsuit.” He said he was glad to see the public and the doctors getting involved, adding, “Everybody considers it a first-class hospital.” Trustee Joan Pack agreed, commending the employees and saying the hospital has to stay open. She said she welcomed fundraising efforts.

Dee Robbins said there have been a lot of changes. Seven or eight years ago, she said, equipment had to be replaced and employees had not gotten a raise in years. Now, she said, they have nuclear medication and in-house CT scans. “Look at the big picture,” she said, adding she would like to continue to see it grow and provide service. Pack said, “We all do.”

Hyatt said the hospital was profitable last year but had a judgment and several adjustments in TennCare and Medicare payments that caused cash flow problems. Even after they generate money for the grant, he said, fundraising needs to continue and the community needs to keep the same passion for its hospital. Allen said, “I hope they don’t shut the door in our face.”

Mike Stevenson, finance manager, said small rural hospitals are becoming an endangered species because of bad debts and charity cases. He said the current management and trustees have to work for a smooth transition when the lease ends in 2011, saying there are complicated steps to go from one hospital entity to a new one. Community support is critical, he said, adding in the long run a foundation should be created to hold gifts to help shore up the hospital. Costs go up, he said, but reimbursements do not. He said the hospital won’t be self-sustaining without community support. “We want to keep it open and thriving, but it will be hard.”

The hospital district trustees want to terminate the lease but first want to eliminate the provision that calls for the district to take on the debt as well as the assets when the lease is up. (See separate story.)

Stevenson said he would be happy to host meetings with the general public to talk frankly about whatever is on anybody’s mind.

Allen said, “We’ll fight for it.” She and others said they would begin looking at possible fundraisers to help generate money for the surgery center to start. She can be reached at 828-494-4946.

Trustee Keith Ballew said a possible 10% cut in Medicare payments to doctors is also a problem, urging those present to contact their congressmen and senators and ask them not to cut health care. “I know there is a war going on that has to be funded, but we have a war here,” he said. He said a lot of doctors have stopped taking Medicare patients.

In other business, the trustees discussed a possible change in the bylaws that would allow the trustees to nominate elected officials to serve on the board. Keith Ballew had suggested deleting the prohibition in the current bylaws, but other trustees voiced concern about making the board political. Ballew said the appointments are made by the county, Ducktown and Copperhill. The trustees are to nominate three people but the appointing bodies could choose someone else, including an elected official. The decision will be made at the next meeting.

There is a vacancy following the resignation of Dan Dale. The trustees nominated Clyde Shinpaugh, Robert Hyde and Tommy Davis for the appointment to be made by Copperhill.