The Times Picayune, Slidell Louisiana

Tenet shelled out big buck to lose big

Rival group won with small potatoes

Tuesday June 03, 2003

By Paul Bartels

St. Tammany bureau

Tenet Healthcare Corp. spent almost $1 million in its unsuccessful campaign to persuade voters to approve its acquisition of Slidell Memorial Hospital, according to the reports on file with the state.

By contrast, the late-blooming grass-roots opposition led by Save Our Slidell Memorial Hospital raised only $21,606 and spent $18,304 between Feb. 25 and May 5.

       

For all practical purposes, these 40-days-after-the-election reports are the final statements to be submitted by the entities supporting or opposing the Slidell Memorial sale.

The reports submitted by Tenet Slidell of Louisiana and Affiliates, the company's political action committee formed to promote approval of the sale, show Tenet budgeting and spending $992,464 between Nov. 1 and May 6.

The big bucks didn't impress many voters in the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th wards, which make up St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District 2. The voters rejected the deal 77 percent to 23 percent.

The save-the-hospital group had help in its campaign against the sale from the Ochsner Clinic Foundation of Jefferson.

In a report not filed until April 22, the Ochsner group reported spending $36,941 on ads opposing the sale shortly before the April 5 referendum. Ochsner has a major presence on the north shore, including a big clinic just outside Slidell.

Paul Bartels can be reached at pbartels@timespicayune.com or (985) 645-2854.

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