Tuesday, December 2

Tenet trauma not local

Palm Beach Post Editorial
Tuesday, December 2, 2003

However much Tenet Healthcare Corp. may be ailing elsewhere, the company still looks pretty healthy in Palm Beach County.

Tenet, which owns five of the county's 13 acute-care hospitals, made $67.2 million at those facilities during the company's 2002-03 fiscal year, which ended in May. That's down from $74.1 million in 2001-02, but Tenet-owned Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center faced charges that its infection rate was dangerously high. At one point, the federal government nearly disqualified the hospital from accepting Medicare patients. Even with all that, Palm Beach Gardens still made $8.2 million, down from $16.9 million.

Notably, profits were up at Good Samaritan and St. Mary's medical centers in West Palm Beach. Tenet bought them in 2001 from Intracoastal Health Systems, which had claimed that only by closing St. Mary's -- which provides most of the county's care for the poor -- could Good Samaritan survive. Profits increased 31 percent at Good Samaritan and 34 percent at St. Mary's. In addition, Tenet announced in October that the company would consolidate 300 South Florida jobs at Boca Raton's T-Rex Center and add 200 positions near Tenet's regional office in Fort Lauderdale. Projections were for the jobs to pay more than the county's $35,000 average wage.

Unfortunately, Tenet in South Florida is part of Tenet nationally. Overall, the company lost more than $300 million in the most recent quarter, after profits a year ago of more than $300 million. The company faces accusations related to Medicare billing. Given the length of time it may take to resolve the issues, analysts don't expect the company to recover soon. Tenet's stock price closed at $15.04 Monday, up roughly 17 percent since a low point in late October.

Tenet, which also owns West Boca and Delray medical centers and operates the two trauma centers, is the 800-pound doctor when it comes to health care in Palm Beach County. The company's regional officials have said problems at the corporate level and the California hospitals that are the subject of investigations aren't affecting service here. If so, it then becomes especially important for operations at Tenet's county hospitals to be free of controversy so they can continue to outperform a company whose short-term forecast outside of South Florida is gloomy.