Future Of Medical Center Discussed

Staff Writer

As soon as financing can be secured, people will start to see much more than a large sign on the corner of U.S. 80 and State Highway 19.

Ron Ensor, chief executive officer for Cozby-Germany Hospital in Grand Saline, talked about the site for a future regional medical center at Tuesday’s Van Zandt County Council of Governments Visions 2008 meeting.

Ensor briefly displayed diagrams of the proposed facility, which will be known as Van Zandt Regional Medical Center.

"Our goal is to get it (financing) done and move ahead," Ensor said after the presentation.

Cozby-Germany Hospital’s board of directors is currently working with Consolidated Financial Services of Greenville for that purpose, Ensor said.

One issue the new facility could help address is outmigration of dollars to other counties for medical services, he said.

"Sure, there are services for which people still need to go outside the county. With general medicine and surgical, though, a community hospital like Cozby-Germany is more than capable of providing that," Ensor said.

He outlined many of the services now offered at Cozby-Germany, and later said the new facility would provide newer and more equipment than what Cozby-Germany already has.

"Future expansion will depend on what the needs of the communities in Van Zandt County are," he said.

The estimated $25 million facility includes 72,000 square feet with an additional 15,000 square-foot medical professional building, Ensor said.

Better determining specific needs could be helped through a survey, something Roz Catania, vice president of benefits for Eustis Insurance and Benefits, brought up during discussion after Ensor’s presentation.

"We need to know what is the reality out there, what employers have a need for and what are the needs of the community," she said.

Ensor also spoke about the growing issue of reimbursement for services to hospitals, pointing to cuts in Medicaid and Medicare programs as well as a significant number of indigent, uninsured and underinsured patients.

"There has been a shifting of the burden to patients to pay more through increasing deductibles and co-payments, and also an increase in the number of uninsured," Ensor said.

"What results is a harder situation on hospitals and (medical) providers to get reimbursed for services," he added.

To help in that regard, Ensor said, Cozby-Germany has begun offering significant discounts for cash up front payments.

Ensor became chief executive officer of Cozby-Germany Hospital in January 2007 after the retirement of Bill Rowton from that position.

Cozby-Germany Hospital also operates two clinics, one on the hospital campus in Grand Saline and one in Wills Point on South Fourth Street, next to the Wills Point Volunteer Fire Department station.