This story was corrected on July 20, 2011. An explanation of the correction is at the bottom of the story.

Deal to salvage some of Prince George’s hospital to be announced Thursday (Washingtonpost.com)

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and state leaders have been holding negotiations to have the University of Maryland Medical System take over the county’s three troubled public hospitals by 2013, county officials confirmed this week.

Five high-ranking officials familiar with the negotiations said that the state and county could sign a deal in the next few weeks for the partnership, which eventually could lead to a new hospital being built in the county to replace the aging Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly.

County Council members met in an unannounced, closed session Monday, where they tentatively agreed to sign an agreement with the state once details are arranged, one of the sources said.

The sources include people familiar with the deal within the Baker administration, state health system, and with Dimensions Healthcare System, the nonprofit company that runs the hospitals. All the officials declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the discussions, which began shortly after Baker took office in December.

Details are being worked out, including how much the county would have to pay to get the financially struggling hospital system off the books, sources said. The ultimate goal is to have the University of Maryland Medical System, a nonprofit network of eight teaching hospitals, take over daily management and ownership of the local facilities, which have been county-owned for decades.

Health officials with the system would first come in as advisers and help audit and revise the hospitals’ finances, sources said. UMMS and the county would then sign a deal on how to settle the hospital’s more than $160 million in debt from its pension system and construction bonds, and then talks about building a new hospital to serve the region would begin in earnest.

Baker spokesman Scott Peterson repeatedly has denied requests for information on the dealings since May, and rejected multiple requests to speak with the administration’s designated negotiator, Brad Seamon.

“For the future of health care for generations of Prince Georgians, I hope you understand that we can't risk any information being misconstrued or taken out of context and understand our sensitivity to giving the appropriate responses at the appropriate time,” Peterson wrote in an email in May.

Peterson provided no further response before press time.

Sources said the the county broke its silence because Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown mentioned the negotiations Friday in an interview, which forced them to go public.

If successful, a hospital deal would represent a major breakthrough for the county, which repeatedly has failed in the past decade to divest itself of the troubled facilities. The hospitals have continuously lost money, suffered from inadequate capital investment and came close to a complete shutdown in 2006 and 2007 because they lacked money.

Prince George’s County owns the Dimensions hospitals, including Laurel Regional Hospital, the Bowie Health Campus and the Cheverly health center, the busiest but most financially troubled of the system.

Though they serve more than 180,000 patients a year, the hospitals have lost money because more than 25 percent of the people treated are not insured. For several years, the state and county governments have each contributed $12 million a year to keep the hospitals breaking even.

A deal to have the state take over the facilities in 2007 failed on the final day of the general assembly, when County Council members disagreed on how much the county would need to pay. A 2008 partnership that created an independent hospital authority to sell off the system to bidders failed when no health care company wanted to buy the centers, which are older and attract fewer insured patients than newer, privately-owned hospitals in the region.

A health study commissioned by the county found that 75 percent of county residents who schedule outpatient surgeries choose not to have the procedures done at Dimensions hospitals. Roughly 150,000 residents do not have insurance, and county residents have higher rates of obesity, cardiovascular problems, diabetes, infant mortality and other chronic health issues.

Dimensions CEO Kenneth Glover, the former Hospital Authority Chairman, promised this year to overhaul the systems’ finances. Glover met with the County Council on Monday, but declined to publicly comment on the negotiations.

dvalentine@gazette.net

This story incorrectly stated that Dimensions CEO Kenneth Glover met in closed session with the County Council on July 18. Glover briefed the council, which then discussed negotiations in a closed session.