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Sen. David Brock Smith (R-Port Orford) introduced a bill today that would appropriate state funding for Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay.
Bay Area lies just outside Brock Smith’s district, but his constituents rely on the hospital, which is both the largest medical center on the Oregon Coast and the region’s largest employer.
Senate Bill 1000 would appropriate $10 million to Bay Area Hospital, which posted losses of more than five times that amount from 2022 to 2024 and has announced plans to enter into a 10-year management contract and facility lease with Quorum Health, a Tennessee private equity firm.
Earlier this week, the Oregon Journalism Project reported that United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, which represents nearly half of the hospital’s more than 1,000 employees, is mounting a last-minute alternative to the Quorum deal.
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Brock Smith says his efforts to help the hospital predate UFCW’s efforts and he’s not working with the union.
“Bay Area Hospital and its services are critical to the South Coast and my constituents,” Brock Smith says. “I have been engaged with their board chair and CEO for over two years and have drafted previous legislation, HB 2952, in the 2023 legislative session to attempt to assist with some of the issues facing Bay Area and a number of rural hospitals.”
He’s skeptical of UFCW’s plan, which calls for a mixture of state funding and local tax dollars (Bay Area is owned by a local hospital district that has the authority to levy property taxes but does not currently).
“I have not been approached nor have I spoken to UFCW,” Brock Smith says. “I feel it is completely disingenuous of the UFCW to come in at the 11th hour, having no discussion with the board who has been duly elected by the residents of the district and have been working on this critical issue for years.”
Although Brock Smith isn’t working with the union, his bill doesn’t preclude any effort to help the hospital: The text of the measure says the $10 million would be “in addition to and not in lieu of any other appropriation.”
The bill is at the Senate president’s desk awaiting assignment to a committee.
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering rural Oregon. OJP seeks to inform, engage, and empower readers with investigative and watchdog reporting that makes an impact. Our stories appear in partner newspapers across the state. Learn more at oregonjournalismproject.org.