INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Despite some disagreement over the wording of part of the Indigent Care Agreement, which defines how the Hospital District will reimburse Indian River Medical Center for indigent care, both the District and the hospital approved the agreement last Thursday.
Among the concerns for District chairman Tom Spackman was language that gives the hospital power to start new services and programs – and materially change existing programs – without approval of District trustees, who own the hospital on behalf of the taxpayers.
The new agreement says District trustees can only comment on material changes at the hospital, and can withhold funding only if new programs apply to indigent care reimbursement.
“If the hospital wanted to start a medical school and we were concerned, could we get the information we need and have a say?” Spackman asked his fellow trustees.
“It’s a really good agreement,” said trustee Allen Jones, who added that “philanthropy is really important to the hospital, and if we don’t move on, the philanthropists are going to back off.”
After five of seven District trustees approved the new document, the hospital board met at the hospital and voted unanimously to approve it.
At the end of the hospital board meeting, with the new Indigent Care Agreement in place, hospital CEO Jeff Susi announced a new teaching and training program called the Graduate Medical Education program, which will begin at the hospital in August and will provide medical school graduates a place to complete their residencies while working under supervising physicians.