Seton vs. Hospital District?

The success of a Travis Co. hospital district may depend on whether Seton Healthcare Network agrees to delay plans to build a new $200 million children's hospital, leaders of a district working group assert. Clarke Heidrick and Lowell Lebermann, who co-chair the steering committee facilitating the creation of a health-financing district, have asked both Seton and the city of Austin to wait until a more urgent matter is settled -- a city-county plan to share the cost of indigent health care.

Seton stunned observers two weeks ago by announcing plans to build a new children's facility -- thus calling into question the future viability of city-owned Children's Hospital of Austin, which Seton currently leases and operates along with Brackenridge Hospital. Hospital district backers fear that those concerns will distract public attention at a time when they're trying to rally support. A Central Texas hospital district would require authorization from the 2003 Legislature and then would be put to voters in November 2003.

"We would prefer not to have a decision made on the Children's Hospital until a hospital district is in place and an independent board of trustees can then act on the issue," said Heidrick, who along with Lebermann oversees a committee of various health care and community representatives. The group, he says, "intends to pull together the facts surrounding the question of not only what's best for children's health care, but also what's best for trauma care, emergency care, and indigent care at Brackenridge." Heidrick and other committee members addressed these concerns in a meeting with Seton officials late Tuesday afternoon.

But Pat Hayes, Seton's interim president and CEO, says "relocating" Children's Hospital would neither harm efforts to form a hospital district nor siphon money out of the district. Hayes said City Manager Toby Futrell has agreed to introduce some "educational programs" to the community to better explain Seton's position. "What I urge [hospital district advocates] to do is to take a look at why Children's Hospital needs to be expanded," she said, while trying to dispel concerns the new hospital would turn its back on the poor. "We would serve all children, not just children whose families can pay for treatment." Seton wants the city to amend its lease by striking the word "Brackenridge" as the designated site for pediatric care, thus allowing Seton to relocate the children's facility, possibly to property in North Austin (Seton officials were expected to announce the location Wednesday night, after the Chronicle went to press). Hayes said a demographic study indicates the hospital will be closer to some low-income families and further from others, and officials are weighing various transit options for those without transportation.

The city can, of course, decline to amend the contract, but that's not likely to stop Seton from building a new children's hospital. So far, Mayor Gus Garcia is clear on where he stands on the issue. "I'm not interested in amending the contract," he said. "If they want to build another hospital, we can't stop them. But the way I see it, we already have a contract. And a contract is a contract."