Healthcare: Obstacles will not stop new hospital
VALPARAISO | The chief executive officer of Porter hospital said a new facility will be built in the next two years, despite the ongoing legal challenge by nearby residents and the ailing economy.
While ground has yet to be broken at the targeted site near the northwest corner of Ind. 49 and U.S. 6, planning work has been under way since the county sold the hospital two years ago to Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, said CEO Jonathan Nalli. Community agreed as part of that purchase to build a 225-room hospital within four years.
The poor economy continues to stall construction of a second hospital a little farther south along the east side Ind. 49 at County Road 500 North (Burlington Beach Road).
South Bend-based Memorial Health Systems received a two-year extension a few months ago from Valparaiso on the deadline for presenting plans for the site. Hospital officials have said they still intend to build a 100-bed hospital along with a 100,000-square-foot medical office building, but they blame the economic recession for making it difficult to obtain financing.
Nalli said Porter hospital also is feeling the impact of the economy, but it will not interfere with the funding of its new hospital.
The down economy also has not stood in the way of Porter investing $20 million thus far in improving local facilities, he said. A further investment has been made in employees, he said, in the form of pay increases, improved benefits and tuition assistance.
Nalli said the purchase of Porter hospital has worked out well for Community Health Systems, and he believes construction of a new hospital would boost the local economy.
A challenge by nearby property owners, however, has slowed the hospital project and continues to pose an obstacle.
The group of Liberty Township landowners is arguing the county granted a rezoning for the 105-acre site in question in violation of the county’s unified development ordinance, which prohibits institutions from being built alongside residential areas.
A judge dismissed the legal challenge in April on grounds that Liberty Landowners Association Inc. lacks standing to sue because the group owns no real estate near the site and would not suffer if a hospital is built there.
The group’s attorney, Martin Lucas, said he will argue the landowners association has public standing because of the public interest involved.
Nalli declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Porter County attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger has said she would urge the hospital not to allow the appeal to delay the construction project.
It would be up to the landowners association to seek a restraining order to stop the work, which would require the group to post a bond and, Rinkenberger said, present a stronger case.
Lucas said his clients don’t have the resources or interest to stop construction work. The group is not against the hospital, he said.
By Bob Kasarda for NWI Times
