By Ann McCreary
About 20 Methow Valley residents attended two community information sessions last week to learn more about the Three Rivers Hospital tax levy proposals.
Hospital personnel are prohibited by law from promoting the levy, but held the sessions to provide information about the hospital and the tax propositions on the November election ballot.
On the ballot the hospital is listed as Okanogan Douglas District Hospital 1, which was renamed Three Rivers Hospital in 2011. The hospital is a public, nonprofit facility that serves the Methow Valley, Pateros, Mansfield, Bridgeport, Brewster and surrounding communities.
The hospital is asking for a levy lid lift that would increase the levy from .63 per $1,000 assessed valuation to .75 per $1,000, the maximum ongoing amount the hospital is allowed to levy under state law. That would bring the tax bill to $75 per $100,000 of assessed valuation if a majority of voters approve it.
In a second levy proposition, the hospital is asking for a one-time “excess levy” of $1 per $1,000 per assessed valuation, or $100 per $100,000, to be paid in 2016. This levy requires a supermajority vote of at least 60 percent of the votes cast to pass. The tax would expire in 2017.
The ballot language says the funding is needed for “operations, development and expansion of the district’s health care facilities and services.”
Upgrades, modernization
In information sessions at Liberty Bell High School and TwispWorks last Thursday (Oct. 22), Scott Graham, chief executive officer, said funds raised through the tax levy would be used to modernize and upgrade the hospital, particularly the emergency room.
The funds would allow the hospital to relocate the current emergency room to a more modern portion of the building that will provide more space and more efficient monitoring of patients, Graham said.
The money would also fund purchase of X-ray and EKG equipment, patient beds, an operating table, and repairs and replacement of heating and cooling systems throughout the hospital, he said. He said the upgraded air conditioning system would pay for itself in energy savings over 30 years.
The area of the hospital that houses patients was built in 1958, and needs considerable renovation, he said.
If approved, the one-time excess levy would raise $1.8 million based on current valuation. “It would give us working capital,” Graham said.
The levy lid lift would generate an additional $200,000 per year for ongoing maintenance, repair, equipment and other investments, he said.
If the levies are not passed “we’ll make the best use of resources we can. We won’t be able to make investments in repairs,” he said. “We will focus on services we get reimbursement for and eliminate those we don’t.”
Graham described the hospital’s efforts to improve its financial condition through staff training programs, contracting for physician services, collaborating with other area hospitals, and improvements in billing and collections.
The hospital is working to reduce the debt owed to Okanogan County for many years, and has a goal of paying off all warrants by the end of 2016, Graham said.
