After a break for sandwiches and sweets at the April 16 forum, the second group of candidates - those on the ballot for the DeWitt Hospital District board -- answered a number of questions, including the challenges of rural healthcare and the misconceptions about Cuero Regional Hospital.
Each first introduced themselves: Martin Leske III, Faye Sheppard and Pedro Gonzalez.
Leske comes from a business background, Gonzalez from an engineering background, and Sheppard has a nursing and legal background. The candidates’ full biographies are available in the April 16 issue of The Cuero Record.
Leske and Sheppard currently serve on the board, while Gonzalez said with his experience he can help with large capital projects.
Rural Healthcare Challenges
Sheppard said that she had just come from a meeting of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals (TORCH) where she regularly learns what other rural hospitals are doing. She said across Texas, 25% of rural patients are uninsured, which makes it difficult to meet all the needs of hospitals.
“But Cuero as a hospital district is financially very sound, which is pretty atypical for rural hospitals,” she said. “They tell us that a third of the rural hospitals in Texas are at risk of closing. So we need to be very, very good stewards and work very hard so that we can provide health care.”
Gonzalez said that one of the deciding factors for his retirement in Cuero was the availability of quality healthcare. “You don't want to have a rural hospital where the survival rate is not very good, but Cuero has a very good health rating,” he said, quipping that H-E-B was another factor for him and his wife. “The hospital system was A-1 and we were very fortunate to have that hospital system here.”
Leske pointed out that the Wharton hospital that was caddy corner to the Buccees on Highway 59 shut down. “If you were in a wreck at that intersection, it would take you two-and-a-half to three hours to get there (hospital),” he said.
Leske said the number one goal for Cuero Regional Hospital is keeping it strong.
“Number two: people, people, people,” he said, naming a number of doctors who retired or left. ”Bricks and mortar, equipment cannot operate themselves. We have to attract good doctors, good nurses,” Leske said. “These people are leaving medical school with half a million dollars in student debt. We need to figure out a way to retain what we have and attract more doctors if we're going to continue to have top five medical care.”
The candidates talked about a number of preventive healthcare options including use of the Cuero Wellness Center and diabetes prevention classes.
Gonzalez suggested education lunches with a half price enticement. Sheppard said the hospital does a lot of outreach, but could do more. Leske suggested that nonprofits contact the hospital to partner on preventive health care education.
Public Misconception
Sheppard said she has heard people say that the hospital is owned by Methodist Hospital in San Antonio.
“That absolutely is incorrect, but we do have a relationship,” she said. “They provide us direction. Lynn (Falcone) has a ton of background and experience, and if you know anything about healthcare, you know that the retirement plans and the things that they provide from a benefit perspective, you can't really do that if you're on your own.”
She said that Falcone, the CEO of Cuero Regional Hospital, is a Methodist employee, but the board is in a position to hire and fire her.
“It's a management contract,” Leske said. “Your property tax dollars stay right here in DeWitt County. They did not go to San Antonio after the Affordable Care Act.”
He said insurance companies change every year and Methodist helps update the Cuero Hospital staff on filing regulations as well as government regulations. “We get their buying power, lower expenses. And we get their knowledge on how to file things,” Leske added.
Gonzalez said the problem with the misconception about the relationship with Methodist goes back to communication.
“If people were just up front and let the people know about the six figures that we’re saving, that the hospital administration can be fired by us, that we review her performance, that would go a long ways,” he said. “Because when there's doubt out there, everybody takes the negative side.”
The candidates also discussed the lengthy wait times for doctor appointments. They were surprised by the statement that the average wait time was one week when the norm seemed to be three weeks.
Leske said the hospital has a new information system that updated cyber security, and that all employees need to get trained on it. “We have to train our people on the technology that we gave them, and we have to staff up and handle the volume until we get the technology. It drives efficiency,” he said.
Sheppard said urgent needs can be attended to with communication. A physician’s assistant can see patients sooner for urgent needs.
“If you want to see Dr. Hill at three o'clock on Thursday, he's got eight hours in his day, and all these time slots are filled,” Sheppard said. “They can't put you in that time slot …. We have a recruiter. We're trying to hire doctors all the time. We have a new doctor coming in the fall, and I interviewed three doctors in the last three weeks. So we're working on that very hard. It's hard to get people to come to a rural area.”
Gonzalez said people will start looking to Victoria for their healthcare needs if the situation doesn’t improve.
“I haven't heard one week. I heard five weeks (wait time),” Gonzalez said. “People are going to leave, they're going to go to Victoria, and then once they get a plan doctor, they may not come back, so we definitely have an issue that we need to address.”
