Hospital district gets provisional license

Published 3:01 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE _ Hospital District No.4’s chances at

getting Snoqualmie Valley Hospital back up and operating took another step

forward early this week when the state granted the district a provisional

license.

District Superintendent Jeffrey Lyle announced the development

at Monday night’s regular meeting of the District 4 commissioners. The

provisional license maintains the hospital’s Certificate of Need through Dec.

31, 2000, and gives the district additional time to find an agency or

organization to reopen and operate the health care facility.

The letter granting the provisional license, signed by Byron Plan of

the Washington State Department of Health, Hospital, Home Health

and Ambulatory Care, was dated Friday, Jan. 28. According to Lyle, the

timing of the letter was appropriate, as the district paid off its loans with

Evergreen Hospital Medical Center and Bank of America on that Thursday.

“The debt to Evergreen was paid off last Thursday morning at 9

a.m.,” said Lyle. “We also paid off the

outstanding debt to Bank of America, which was about $150,000.

Notification came from the state after they got the word that the loans had been

paid off.”

The commissioners approved a Limited Tax Obligation Bond to

pay off Evergreen and Bank of America during a special meeting on

Thursday, Jan. 20. The bond replaced existing bonds from 1994 and 1996 and

was financed through Pacific Northwest Securities Corporation.

“We remind local residents that this was a no-tax-increase bond

issue,” Lyle added. “This is the result of a

repayment of debt _ we paid off several million dollars of outstanding debt

_ and the tax base has gone up, which gave us the money to fund this

new bond. So there is no tax increase associated with this bond.”

Lyle stated that repayment of the loans led to the issuance of the

provisional license and formed the basis for a potential plan to reopen the

hospital.

“We had several entities who were interested in operating the hospital

but walked way because of the debt,” Lyle said. “We’ve been in contact

with them, let them know the debt is no longer an issue, and we expect

follow-up shortly.”

The King County Public Hospital District No. 4 board of

commissioners meets the fourth Monday of every month in the hospital’s

Weyerhaeuser Room. The next regularly scheduled meeting is Monday, Feb. 28, at

6:30 p.m.