June 1, 2010

The Marin Healthcare District has submitted pre-application plans to the County of Marin for a $500 million expansion and seismic retrofitting of Marin General Hospital. And its new information technology system is about to be launched as the June 29 deadline nears for Sutter Health to pass control of the hospital back to the Marin Healthcare District (MHD).

Marin General will replace one of its in-patient towers and will build a new ambulatory services building and parking garage. MHD plans to make all the rooms private ones, to expand trauma and emergency services as well as expand the size of operating rooms and labor and delivery rooms. Those expansions would accommodate more equipment and medical teams.

Dec. 31, 2014 is the seismic retrofit deadline for Marin General and MHD submitted drawings for those plans to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) in May.

The project is estimated to cost $500 million and MHD may have to go to voters with a general obligation bond to help pay for it, said Jon Friedenberg, Chief Fund and Business Development Officer for MHD. He said the District has not yet decided on the bond but that if it were to go before voters that would have to happen in 2011.

As part of the settlement and transfer agreements with Sutter, MHD has to implement information technology and business office systems before the transfer, to replace similar services provided by Sutter.

MHD signed a seven-year contract with Affiliated Computer Services Inc. in April of 2009 to deliver IT services to Marin General at the completion of the transfer and Friedenberg said the IT system is on track to meet the June 29 deadline. Within two years of that deadline an electronic medical records system should also be operational, Friedenberg said.

In 2009 MHD filed and won a lawsuit in Marin Superior Court claiming Sutter was not providing some patient and financial records necessary to operate the IT system.

“We now have all the information we sought since that time and the cooperation has allowed us to do our work,” Friedenberg said.

To finance the transfer, MHD secured a $20 million loan from the County of Marin and $11.5 million of that will have been drawn down by June 29, 2010. MHD will repay that in full by the following day. The District also got a $30 million line of credit and a $30 million term loan from Union Bank and insurance payers for the District are collectively advancing it $20 million, Friedenberg said.

“Those are significant endorsements of the executive team and our plans, a good vote of confidence,” Friendenberg said. “We feel we’ll have sufficient liquidity to operate the hospital.”