COLUMBIA, Mo. - Boone Hospital Center is fighting a proposal from Fulton Medical Center to build a new 10-bed hospital in south Columbia.
Fulton Medical Center, formerly Callaway Community Hospital, is owned by the Kansas company Neuterra and MU. It filed an application April 24 with the Missouri Health Facilities Committee for a certificate of need that would allow it to build the hospital at 4130 and 4150 Lenoir St., where Ed's and Sunset mobile home parks are located. The property is east of U.S. 63 and opposite the city's A. Perry Philips Park.
Boone Hospital Center spokesman Ben Cornelius said in an email that the hospital opposed Fulton Medical Center on the day it was filed. It started a petition against the application in late May.
Jim Sinek, president of Boone Hospital Center, said it would be a bad idea for Fulton Medical Center to build another hospital within five miles of the hospitals already serving Columbia. Those include Boone, University, Landmark, Women's and Children's, and Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans hospitals.
In its application, Fulton Medical Center said the proposed new hospital is intended to serve southern Boone County and all of Callaway County, an area it calculated to be 103 medical-surgical beds short of what it needs. The medical center is the only hospital in the proposed service area and has 18 surgical beds available.
According to its application document, the expanded Fulton Medical Center campus in Columbia would include emergency services; general, urology and orthopedic surgery; and behavioral health services. It would also allow the center to expand its rehabilitation, geriatric and outreach services.
Sinek said the 1,100 beds available at Columbia's existing hospitals are not being used to their full capacity. Cornelius noted Boone Hospital Center had an occupancy rate of 45 percent in 2014.
Sinek also said data from the Missouri Hospital Association indicate 80 percent of the area that would be served by the new hospital is already served in Columbia and less than 5 percent of the area is served by the Fulton Medical Center. He said it would make more sense to expand the existing Fulton hospital, which is approximately 30 miles from Columbia in western Fulton.
"I would invest in my hospital to attract people within a 10- to 15-mile radius," Sinek said.
Fulton Medical Center said in its application that it is struggling financially and the new care-delivery model it plans to adopt, both at the existing hospital and the new one, would improve its bottom line.
Amy Leiker, vice president of global marketing at Neuterra, said in an email that revenue from the new hospital would be used to improve both facilities. It projects a loss of $727,839 in 2017 and profits of $821,157 and $1.9 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Boone County owns Boone Hospital Center and leases it to BJC Health Care of St. Louis. Sinek said Boone Hospital uses some of the money it makes from surgeries, radiology and pharmacy services to pay for other services that lose money.
The hospital also gives Boone County government a share of its profits each year. Since 2013, that amount has been approximately $2.3 million, according to the most recent county budget. That money helps pay for roads and community services, including health screenings and wellness education, Sinek said.
Cornelius said in an email that 75 percent of the hospital's profits remain in Boone County.
Boone Hospital Center's petition against the Fulton Medical Center plan said there is a need to strengthen local care providers' capacity to provide services rather than lose money to a private company in Kansas.
Leiker said the proposed new hospital would serve some patients from Fulton Medical Center who otherwise would be sent to University Hospital. It also would provide an additional place for medical and nursing students at MU to gain experience in treating outpatients in rural Missouri.
If approved, the new hospital would cost $36.2 million to develop, including the $4 million it will take to buy the property. Ron Netemeyer, who owns Ed's and Sunset mobile home parks, announced in early April he would close the parks and sell the property.