HCOE Unsuccessful in Securing Hospital Funding Commitment

Hospital Center of Excellence (HCOE) has failed to obtain adequate funding commitments to save St. Mark’s Medical Center (SMMC). In June, HCOE signed a term sheet with SMMC that laid out specific terms that both SMMC and HCOE would meet, including bringing $8.5 million in private funding, to complete a change in management that HCOE believed would be necessary to change the trajectory of SMMC. HCOE did not enter into that agreement lightly. Prior to executing the agreement several members of HCOE met with high-net-worth residents of Lee and Fayette Counties, and based on those conversations, honestly believed that if an operational plan was established with a credible work out strategy and business plan, residents of Fayette County would work with HCOE to bring the needed working capital. Sam Wilson, Chief Strategy Officer says, “We were wrong in that belief.”

The community impact of losing one of our largest and most important employers and the only hospital in a twocounty region is tremendous. Every community member will suffer if the hospital permanently closes, even if they do not currently use St. Marks Medical Center for their healthcare needs.

From the start HCOE has been committed to full transparency. We want the residents of Fayette County to know that while we are still working to secure the needed commitments, to date we have actual commitments of $1.5 million of the total $8.5 million required. Part of this funding commitment is from members of HCOE.

What have we been doing? Since June, HCOE members have invested 538 hours meeting 53 times with members of the management, physician, nurse and administrative staff at SMMC. We have conducted 68 separate meetings with individuals that are part of the contracted and outsourced support of SMMC as well as community members and potential investors. We confirmed a list of 46 high-net-worth individuals in the community that we believed had the potential to provide funding. On July 24 we completed and published a 36-page workout strategy and business plan, complete with a detailed financial plan. We then began presenting that plan to potential investors. A total of nine individuals have agreed to help with commitments that range from $25,000 to $1 million for a total commitment of $1.5 million. It all now hinges on funding. And we are not yet there.

As a part of these discussions, HCOE members have met with both City and County leaders to solicit their support. We have met with nine local banks representing Giddings, Carmine, Round Top, and La Grange to solicit and gauge their interest in helping HCOE refinance the existing HUDbacked mortgage. We have since developed additional refinancing approaches that involved the county, and local banks. We met with four foundations operating in Fayette County. We have also developed an approach to a privatesector sale leaseback refinance. We have explored New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) as a way of funding the equity. We have contacted two local utilities to determine if capital credits held on account for SMMC can be released. We have met with one major university system and one community college system. And we have met with current and prior political leaders. In the end none have been willing to commit adequate funds.

The SMMC Foundation, the La Grange Lions Foundation, and eight individual donors have made contributions to fund the due diligence effort totaling $77,450 dollars. Just over $15,000 has been spent. Unused funds will be returned if we are unable to complete the transaction.

Perhaps it is all just too little too late. Normally, a due diligence effort of this magnitude will take six months and that is what we initially proposed to the SMMC Board of Directors. Early on we learned we didn’t have six months, that we had two months to conclude a transition. HCOE, SMMC, and CHC ramped up efforts and agreed to cooperate and collaborate, which we all did. Everyone dedicated time and effort. CHC has made themselves available at every request and contributed hours of support providing Information and guidance. CHC has invested an estimated 115 hours and SMMC staff have invested an estimated 525 hours in actual discussions with HCOE to bring a solution. This does not include the dero believed there was a giant grain of truth in a politician’s hysterical warning: “Zapata is the new Attila, a Spartacus, the liberator of slaves. He is a total danger to society. He is the underground rising with a will to sweep the surface clean.”

It is an indisputable fact that Zapata was the only true revolutionary in a cast of corrupt characters motivated more by personal gain than a better tomorrow for the people of Mexico.

Soon after taking office, the schoolmaster Madero lectured the unruly pupil, “Your rebellious attitude is doing serious harm to my government.” The answer from Zapata must have made Madero’s blood run cold: “You can begin counting the days, because in a month I will be in Mexico City with 20,000 men and I will have the pleasure of hanging you from one of the tallest trees in the forest.”

Gen. Victoriano Huerta robbed Zapata of that pleasure with his bloody overthrow and murder of Madero in February 1913. The latest tyrant sent his soldiers to crush the zapatistas, but their atrocities and scorched-earth strategy only strengthened the grass-roots movement. The sandaled fighters drove the invaders from Morelos, and Huerta followed Diaz in exile in August 1914.

Venustiano Carranza filled the void created by the dictator’s departure, presumably to maintain order in Mexico City but in reality to guard against the peasant peril. He left town in December 1914 after showing he was just the political reincarnation of Madero.

Two days after at last laying eyes on each other for the first time, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata rode triumphantly together into Mexico City. They were an unbeatable combination but neither knew how to govern nor cared to learn. Even something as simple as a mutual aid pact eluded them, and the two proud lions returned to their strongholds.

Carranza proclaimed himself president in January 1915 and set about destroying his rivals one at a time. Once Villa was permanently crippled, he unleashed Gen. Pablo Gonzalez on Morelos. Thirty thousand troops ran amuck looting, burning and putting hundreds to death.

On the verge of annihilation, Zapata launched a counteroffensive in October 1916. By Christmas he had Gonzalez on the run and complete control once again of Morelos.

Zapata recognized too late the importance of alliances and threw caution to the wind in an attempt to win friends and influence people. On Apr. 10, 1919, he went to the site of his first battle to bury the hatchet with a Gonzalez subordinate, but a ceremonial salute from an honor guard turned into a treacherous volley that killed the peasant hero.

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