History as perspective

Saturday marks the official one-year anniversary of the opening of Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf.

By all accounts, the first year has brought both successes and challenges.

Out-patient visits have exceeded estimates, according to Roger Hall, president of Sacred Heart Health Systems, though in-patient visits have not quite reached the numbers hoped for.

That is important as a new medical office building on the hospital campus opens later this month since in large measure the ultimate success of the hospital is linked to the success of attracting a satellite physician base and a broad geographical swath from which it draws patients in need of more than urgent care.

That the demographics are positive in that regard, with the hospital providing services to more and more patients from Wewahitchka and Franklin County, is comforting.

Also comforting is a drive along Highway 98 in Destin where Sacred Heart constructed a new hospital more than a decade ago.

At the time that hospital went up there was not much more than a Donut Hole restaurant and forest.

Today there is a bustle of businesses, especially related to the health field, surrounding the hospital.

That is the bright side of the hospital’s presence – jobs and economic development – the county can only hope occurs despite the reality that WindMark Beach may never be the resort community envisioned and in turn the county’s population growth may not follow as steep an upward arc as believed six or seven years ago.

 Important during these turbulent times on the economic development front, particularly the actions of the Board of County Commissioners pertaining to two private organizations is to remember how Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf came along.

The history books will remember that moment as a community moment, not one during which the spotlight was shone on any one organization or individuals, but on the collaboration that it took to bring that hospital from the drawing board to the ground.

A private investor, The St. Company, put up land, permitting and upfront construction costs in the seven figures.

Another private partner, The St. Community Foundation, pledged another half a million dollars.

A committee of volunteers, not unlike the members of the boards involved in the current Chamber/Economic Development Council maelstrom, got together and launched a community fundraising campaign.

That committee raised some $2 million as highlighted by the plaques that line the walls and adorn the entrances into various rooms in the hospital.

The testament to that committee’s work, and the private partners who came to the table and invested in the community, is laid out in the atrium of the hospital, in the pyramid of plaques that are the thanks to those who believed in the vision.

A slew of other private partners, from local businesses to civic organizations, also made pledges and continue to hew to their promises even as economic times shrink pockets.

There was little to no action from local government until near the end of the preparation, when crunch time arrived and county commissioners had to vote on adding to the sales tax by half a penny to care for the indigent and underinsured.

It was a deal maker, protecting the hospital in its providing services to those who have no means to pay, who use the hospital as a primary care physician.

Two commissioners, initially, openly questioned how important the hospital was to people in their district and whether they could support an increase in the sales tax. A pledge of expanded services at the county health department facility in Wewahitchka later, those doubts vanished with a unanimous vote on raising the sales tax.

Those same fingerprints were all over final resolution of the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process pertaining to WindMark Beach, The St. Joe Company making pledges of land and money for everything from fire stations to parks to recreational complexes and more and commissioners unanimously voting approval in the end.

But in this latest Chamber/EDC dustup commissioners have taken hold of a whopper. Using the Chamber as cover as the Chamber board is simply following the lead of the county, the county has put in motion a plan – mapped out in the Chamber’s draft proposal approved by commissioners – that will expand the cost to taxpayers and add two new positions to the payroll.

Private partners also seem a tough nut to crack considering that commissioner have not been able to make up their mind about economic development for the past 14 years. Businesses like a plan; commissioners have yet to offer any of their own and when they have changed their minds every two to three years.

How do you sell an executive director’s position at the Chamber, not to mention two assistant director positions, to any “cracker-jack” economic development specialist from outside the county – as desired by commissioners – given the instability of the position as created by county commissioners?

This argument about the former EDC executive director not being a full-time resident is a red herring – moving based on a five-year plan commissioners agreed to two years ago and reneged upon would now leave him as just another of the county’s unemployed.

The mudslinging back and forth about the issue is moot. The train has left the station. Commissioners have put the Chamber and the EDC private partners in an awkward situation by acting with apparent whim.

Where this process will be in two years is anybody’s guess: but good or bad commissioners will own it all by themselves – they approved the model and will pay the bill – and history, as defined in part by Sacred Heart on the Gulf, teaches that is not exactly an ideal model for creating real jobs.