DMH officials believe hospital 'will stay open'
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

Despite recent issues with late paychecks to its employees, Dickerson Memorial Hospital officials said Wednesday, Sept. 12, that the "hospital will not close."

"Since we re-opened in 2000, everyone has said we are going to close," said DMH Administrator John Tatum. "We are dedicated to serve this community and will continue to serve this community."

"This is a painful bump in the road," said DMH Owner Larry Wedekind. "But we have already gotten around this bump in the road."

Rumors of the hospital's demise circulated last week after the company failed to deliver paychecks to its employees.

"We can project our cash coming for the next two weeks and on Friday, Sept. 7, we saw it was going to be pretty slim," Tatum said. "That was due to our reimbursements and our occupancy being down.

"In the best interest of the employees, we decided to hold their checks until Tuesday (Sept. 11), Tatum said.

In a memo sent by Tatum to DMH employees Sept. 7, Tatum cited reasons of "Dr. Joe Dickerson's extended illness and the lower census this summer combined with several unannounced Medicare re-coupments last week has caused a temporary cash flow shortage."

"Will it happen again? I hope not," Tatum said. "I don't want to go through what we went through because of the anxiety within the employees. We will do the best we can to help it from happening again."

Wedekind said putting a hold on employees' paychecks "had never happened in the past."

Wedekind admitted that DMH has suffered issues with payroll checks not clearing the bank.

"The payroll before this one we had trouble with the checks not clearing," Wedekind. "One of the reasons we decided to defer this week's checks was because we didn't want to bounce checks again.

"It tears my heart out when a check bounces," Wedekind said. "You do everything you can and you still have an issue. I had no choice but to hold the checks - I was $40,000 short because of what was supposed to come in from Medicare didn't.

"We have never had this happen before," Wedekind said. "We handed out the letter and told them honestly what was going on."

Wedekind admitted there were angry employees over the issue. He said he spent Sunday, Sept. 9, at the hospital and held an employees meeting in an attempt to "minimize the damage."

Another issue that Wedekind addressed was Dickerson's illness that kept him out of his office.

According to a radio interview on KJAS, Dickerson said he had not experienced a lengthy illness.

"The problem is that the management of the hospital is trying to use a 90-yearold man and a 70-year-old man to keep a multimillion dollar business going," Dickerson said on KJAS.

Dickerson said in the interview that he was only out of work one day a week for three weeks.

"We provide a home for Dr. Joe here," Wedekind said. "Due to a medical issue, from time to time, he gets ill. When he said he was only out three days, from his perspective that may be true because he was only out of the hospital for three days but he was in his bed here sick.

"He couldn't see patients. I love Dr. Joe and greatly admire him but I don't know why he said the things he said on the radio," Wedekind said.

"Maybe we have offended him. I didn't know he was going to do a radio interview. We have supported him every step of the way and will continue to do so. But the hospital has suffered financially because of his illness and inability to see patients."

Tatum pointed to an ongoing struggle in the health care community by hospitals in metro and rural areas.

"Hospitals are going through some real tough times," Tatum said. "Reimbursement for Medicaid and Medicare is making cash flow money to hospitals very difficult."

In fact, Christus St. Mary's and St. Elizabeth's in Beaumont recently had to lay off 100 employees.

"We're not laying off anybody," Tatum said. "But it just shows you that even the big hospitals are being affected and the little hospitals are feeling it too.

"I don't care if you are in Jasper or Beaumont - if you are in this field you are feeling the effects of this crisis," Tatum said. "We just have to make adjustments. It's just a real tough industry to be in right now."

Wedekind said DMH has recorded profit months in the past.

"When I say profit, I mean mildly profitable and when that happens it's a wonderful thing," Wedekind said. "We had a $250,000 profit in 2005 but then Hurricane Rita hit and everyone lost their shirts for six months."

To show their dedication to this community, Wedekind said DMH has sealed an agreement with Baptist Memorial Hospital in Beaumont to bring a cardiologist and oncologist to the Jasper area.

"I have heard rumors that we are going to close tomorrow but those are just nasty rumors," Wedekind said. "We saw a whole bunch of patients over the weekend even though we were supposedly closed.

"The hospital has survived for seven years and will be profitable again," Wedekind said. "Our future is bright."