- April 18, 2024
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In advance of the Aug. 30 primary election, the Sarasota Observer is asking local candidates about the issues impacting their races. This week, we spoke to the Republican candidates vying for Seat 1 and Seat 3 on the Sarasota County Hospital Board.
John H. DeJongh
Age: 83
Occupation: Retired business executive
Hometown: Chicago
Why do you want to serve on the hospital board? What qualifies you to oversee the fiscal health of the Sarasota County Memorial Health Care System?
I am currently a board member of the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board. When elected, I plan to continue my board responsibilities as I agreed to do when I was appointed.
With 40 years of executive management experience, I do have a finance background, which allows me the opportunity to apply my knowledge to the fiduciary responsibilities needed to protect our Sarasota County citizens from an undue tax burden.
What is your position on how the hospital board should use and manage its taxing authority? Do you have a position on whether that millage rate should be raised or lowered?
The tax amount received by the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is continuing to represent a smaller percentage in relationship to the total revenue the hospital generates.
Currently, the tax contribution represents about 6% of the total annual revenue of over $700 million. The board continues to review the millage rate, and the board makes an effort to reduce the rate.
In conversations with citizens, the school tax represents a far larger portion of their tax than the cost of their medical care.
A proposed hospital in Venice is just one of the ways SMH has attempted to grow over the past few years. Do you favor pursuing a hospital in Venice? Why?
With the growth that is happening in Sarasota County, new facilities will need to come on-stream sooner rather than later. In season, SMH already has experienced a shortage of patient rooms.
A new hospital in Venice will come about as soon as the legal hurdles have been cleared. The board and SMH are actively pursuing this effort.
What is your position on building a hospital in Sarasota County's largest city, North Port?
There is no doubt in my mind that the North Port community will need a hospital. While the average age of the citizens is well below Venice and Sarasota, a staff of physicians is needed in order to provide expanded services for inpatient care.
As most patients follow their physicians for service, the need for an expanded group of physicians in North Port remains as a major challenge.
What is your position on doing what Venice and other communities have done — selling and privatizing the hospital system and using the proceeds in a community foundation?
Under no circumstance would I agree to any attempt to privatize the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Health Care System.
The citizens of Sarasota County are very proud of their hospital and are not in any way desirous of changing the status quo.
There are too many examples of corporate ownership hospitals that are suffering from the lack of service and maintenance of the physical facility.
Sharon Wetzler Depeters
Age: 69
Occupation: Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner
Hometown: Buffalo, NY
Why do you want to serve on the hospital board?
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Future of Nursing Campaign for Action advocates for a nurse in every boardroom. I agree. “A nurse on the board is a voice to be heard.” I want to be that voice, as a patient advocate first and foremost.
Here’s what I can offer: As an experienced health care provider and educator for close to 40 years, I came out of medical/nursing retirement in order to run for this position on the board and strongly believe with that knowledge and expertise that I can offer a unique perspective to the health care needs of the community.
What is your position on how the hospital board should use and manage its taxing authority? Do you have a position on whether the millage rate should be raised or lowered?
I believe the millage rate is between about right and in some aspects somewhat too low. I intend to continue serving the community health needs within the main hospital and the area clinics. The tax monies come from the community; consequently, those monies should be utilized to give back to the community with respect to services provided.
If elected, what do you believe should be the top priority of the board during your term?
Top priority is to focus on keeping SMH’s current status of excellence intact. This will and should evolve around many if not all of the core areas listed (on the SMH website).
My number one priority is and always will revolve around providing each PATIENT, as a consumer of health care, the best quality and quantity of health care possible.
Do you favor or oppose pursuing a hospital in Venice? Why?
Yes, I favor an SMH facility in Venice. A community-needs assessment has shown that the population in the Venice/North Port area has increased. Progressive growth and affordable living costs have attracted young families. Building SMH in that area would provide accessible quality health care as well as employment for those in the community for many years to come.
What is your position on selling and privatizing the hospital system and using the proceeds in a community foundation?
The community has several choices for health care within this county, both private and nonprofit, each offering specialized care and procedures.
As a public hospital, Sarasota Memorial meets strict requirements regarding governance, taxing authority and the services it provides to the community. Transparency dominates a nonprofit hospital. SMH has proven to be both efficient and effective in providing more specialized services and procedures than many private facilities while keeping taxpayer costs down.
Our community has a county health care system that is truly exceptional and well-respected. Why would we do anything to change that? My position is to absolutely keep SMH a nonprofit public hospital and to continue its growth within the community.
Michael T. Sutphin
Age: 69
Occupation: Residential construction/inspection business owner
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Why do you want to serve on the hospital board?
My mission will be to represent the taxpayer citizen owners of our community hospital. I plan to pursue and demand, from both the SMH administration and the current arrogant and secretive SMH board members, much better truthful, ethical behavior, especially as regards to the lack of respect for we the taxpayers’ money and the future debt burden.
What qualifies you to oversee the fiscal health of the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System?
I am a financially conservative non-establishment candidate, not a favorite son incumbent. Since early 2014, I have been attending most SMH board committee meetings to help understand what they do and how decisions are made.
Wow!! What an arrogant, rubber-stamp financial mess.
I have attended more of these committee meetings than at least six of the nine board members. So I suggest that I know more by far than any of the other candidates except Malone.
What is your position on how the hospital board should use its taxing authority?
Lower taxes, lower millage, spend much less and no new debt spending. (There’s been) $1,000 million — that’s 1 billion — of your taxpayers’ money and debt spent over the recent 13 years and $300 million more coming.
Do you favor or oppose pursuing a hospital in Venice? Why?
Not in the near future. This is another even bigger community investment bamboozle, part of the arrogant SMH administration unethical secret strategic planning process. Most “community investment” expansion projects have been money losers now and for the future.
What is your position on building a hospital in North Port?
Also not in the near future because of past irresponsible community investment planning by (former SMH CEO) Gwen MacKenzie and some of the current board members. The very nice North Port full-service ER opened in 2009, cost about $20 million (and is) estimated to be losing $4 million each year.
One reason: This facility is located about one mile from the Charlotte County border. An estimated 35% of visits are from Charlotte ZIP codes, and an estimated 35% of North Port ER free care is given to Charlotte County residents, paid for by the taxpayers of Sarasota County.
What is your position on selling and privatizing the hospital system and using the proceeds in a community foundation?
Do not know much about that issue. However, the continued evil tax tax tax tax and spend spend spend spend secret strategic planning process and other arrogant spending may make privatization necessary — maybe sooner than you think.
Marguerite Malone
Age: 77
Occupation: Member of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System Board; retired business executive
Hometown: Memphis, Tenn.
Why do you want to serve on the hospital board?
Having worked with health care organizations in my past experience, I am passionate about having a hospital and health care system in Sarasota that serves ALL the residents with top-notch quality care and comprehensive services at the most affordable cost possible. I am also totally committed to keeping Sarasota Memorial a public hospital so it can continue in its mission to provide quality, comprehensive care to ALL whether they can afford to pay or not.
What qualifies you to oversee the fiscal health of the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System?
Not only do I have academic background in economics/finance, I have worked with health care organizations in my consulting business. I have also served as treasurer and chairman of finance, investment, quality, audit, mission and planning board committees since I have been on the board of Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
What is your position on how the hospital board should use its taxing authority?
Our current rate of 1.0525 mills is lower than what we have had over recent years and generates about $46 million. This amount represents only 6% of our revenue of about $750 million. However, it is important to our mission of providing quality health care to ALL our citizens. As a public hospital, we carry the lion’s share of all uninsured and underinsured patients in our community and had about $97 million in costs for bad debts, charity care, Medicare losses, Medicaid losses, etc. for FY2015.
I believe the current rate is a low amount of taxation on our community and reasonable because we operate so efficiently. If we on the board believe we can lower the millage rate a bit more this year, we will.
Do you favor or oppose pursuing a hospital in Venice? Why?
I strongly support SMH pursuing the building of a hospital in Venice. We are committed to providing quality care and services in the most efficient, effective and least costly way possible to all of our community residents. A hospital in the southern part of the county located where the community demographics and supply of physicians would support it is the right thing to do.
Venice has more than 200 physicians living in the area, and the average age is 65-plus. In addition, with the consistently increasing number of patients at our main campus, a hospital in Venice would alleviate that increasing burden on our main campus resources.
Susan Tucker
Age: 26
Occupation: Registered Nurse
Hometown: New Orleans
Why do you want to serve on the hospital board?
As a nurse for eight years in numerous avenues of the medical field, I feel that my background and knowledge of the health care system and community places me in a great position to benefit the hospital and community.
What qualifies you to oversee the fiscal health of the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System?
I have been a nurse for eight years, three of the last years directly involved in the health of the community as a home health care nurse. I see the needs of the community on a daily basis.
What is your position on how the hospital board should use its taxing authority?
I do not think that the hospital board should be focusing on building more hospitals in local geographies. I feel that improving quality controls within the current hospital, and focusing on community prevention, should be a goal for the board and finances should allow for some of those areas to be grown upon/improved.
If elected, what do you believe should be the top priority of the board during your term?
Improving community services for preventative medicine. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
Do you favor or oppose pursuing a hospital in Venice? Why?
I would be opposed to another hospital being opened in Venice. As a home health nurse, I travel to Venice five days a week. The commute is not a cumbersome one, and most patients that I work with prefer SMH, as they know from previous experiences that they are taken care of.
What is your position on building a hospital in North Port?
As a nurse that worked as a home health nurse in the North Port community for two years, I did not come into any issues with the city of North Port not having its own hospital. There is an emergency facility within North Port that is utilized and numerous walk-in clinics. I feel that the taxpayers’ money can be used elsewhere for the upcoming years and a hospital, at this time, is not an urgent need.
What is your position on selling and privatizing the hospital system and using the proceeds in a community foundation?
I personally feel that privatized health care facilities do not thrive as well as those, like SMH, that are publicly owned. SMH is outranking local hospitals and focuses on the needs of the community, just as much, if not more so, than its neighboring privately owned hospital.
