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November 15, 2008

UTMB woes back on county agenda

By Sherry Koonce

BEAUMONT —

By Sherry Koonce

The News staff writer

BEAUMONT — Providing medical care to the Jefferson County’s indigent continues to be a challenge in the wake of Hurricane Ike, since Galveston’s University of Texas Medical Branch was substantially damaged from the storm.

Since Ike struck the Upper Texas Gulf Coast with Galveston taking a direct hit, the charity hospital has been forced to shut its hospital doors.

At Monday’s County Commissioner meeting, a resolution urging state and legislators to make UTMB’s plight a high priority during the upcoming 81st legislative session leads the agenda.

Though UTMB officials are planning to open the hospital in a limited capacity — up to 300 beds with 100 of those dedicated to the Texas prison system — surrounding counties who contract with the facility to take care of the medically indigent will be impacted.

“This is something that is affecting not only Jefferson County, but much of the state in a critical way,” Bo Alfred, Precinct 4 County Commissioner, said during a telephone interview Friday.

Of the state’s 254 counties, 160 send some patients to UTMB. Sixty-eight of those counties, from Orange to Corpus Christi, have contracts with the hospital to treat their medically indigent, Alfed said.

Adding to the health care crisis are others who utilize UTMB for medical services such as county jail inmates and those in the state’s prison system, as well as people with special needs such as HIV/Aids patients.

Tam Kiehnoff, social services coordinator with the Triangle Aids Network in Beaumont, said the UTMB’s hospital’s closing has negatively impacted local HIV/Aids patients’ care.

Many of the 400 or so TANS patients, receive medications for other illnesses. Those prescriptions for illnesses above HIV/AIds medications, have been filled at the UTMB pharmacy, which is no longer open due to the storm.

Kiehnoff said HIV/Aids medications are not impacted since the state provides funding for those prescriptions. The medications can be filled at local pharmacies.

In addition to pharmacy needs, TANS patients many times develop other illnesses — some related to the virus, others not. Those illnesses requiring hospital stays have typically been treated at UTMB.

“We are seeing people for routine primary care and HIV care in our clinic, but are not sure what we are going to do when they need specialty care,” Kiehnoff said.

Jefferson County routinely sends from 650 to 750 patients to Galveston each month. Since the storm, some of those patients have been seen locally, while others are seeking medical care in Houston.

Earlier this month the County Commissioners voted to increase medical payments to local health care providers in an effort to obtain care for the county’s medically indigent. Local plastic surgeons, oncologists, oral surgeons, orthopedic specialists and any other area that is necessary for emergency treatment will receive the same rate as that of the federal Medicare program.

In addition, the county has formed a committee to determine how best to enhance patient care on a local level.

“This storm was not a glancing blow to our health system, it was a knockout. It puts us in a real tight spot,” Alfred said.

In other matters, the County Commissioners are expected to lift a burn ban that has been in effect for nearly three weeks. Rainfall received this week has been substantial to abate the fire damage, Fred Jackson, assistant to County Judge Ron Walker, said.

skoonce@panews.com

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