Burnsides vow to block Valley

Burnsides vow to block Valley-Wide

Related story: Valley-Wide disputes allegations

July 28, 2001

By Tom Vaughan
Mancos Times Editor

Allan Burnside, M.D., and his wife, Linda Burnside, owners of the Dolores Medical Center, have drawn a line in the sand.

"I don’t want Valley-Wide (Health Services, Inc.) in Montezuma County," Dr. Burnside said last week.

Long-simmering differences in health-care philosophies, as well as conflicts between individuals, broke into the open at the July 17 meeting of the Montezuma County Hospital District board when the Burnsides appeared with two June 25 letters in opposition to a potential federal grant that would allow Valley-Wide to operate a clinic in Mancos.

In their letter addressed to "Montezuma County Primary Care Physicians," the Burnsides take issue with the county’s designation as a medically under-served area and with Gov. Bill Owens’ letter in support of that federal designation. They say the information gathered by VWHS to justify the designation "is somewhere between ‘fudged’ and ‘fraudulent’" and the opportunity to comment on the application was not made widely known.

They further contend that the combination of a federal operating grant "to establish a ‘low-income’ rural health clinic that will receive cost-based reimbursement" and MCHD’s recent commitment to purchase the Mancos clinic building would result in "unfair competition for providers who have been taking care of these patients for many years."

Physicians receiving the letter are asked to send the Burnsides letters protesting the federal funding to Valley-Wide.

The letter to the physicians raises the concern that VWHS will "pull out" when it finds "that there simply is not enough business to support a clinic there," leaving the MCHD with a debt to pay off.

The Burnsides go on to state, "Mike Guillette, P.A., the only candidate for the (clinic) job, is a long time Mercy supporter. Mike and his wife, Manda Sloan, P.A.C., have been promoting Mercy Medical as the best providers of health care. It is clear where their loyalties are, despite any ‘lip service’ paid to SWMH."

The two-page letter seeking support from the physicians was included with a one-page letter, also dated June 25, to the MCHD and Southwest Health Systems boards.

They add the claim that the county does not qualify as a Health Professional Shortage Area any more than as a medically under-served area, but both designations were granted by the federal government. (La Plata County was designated an MUA at the same time as Montezuma County.)

The Burnsides claim that Valley-Wide will "unfairly compete and will have to take patients from other practices in order to have any chance. Their presence will fracture the existing infrastructure of health care delivery in Montezuma County."

They expressed concern that low-income patients from the county and those who "feed into Cortez from the west" will have to bypass Cortez and "travel the extra distance to Mancos, only to turn around, in many cases, and return to Cortez for laboratory studies, X-ray, etc."

The Burnsides say they have "700 patients from Mancos" and the clinic would have to take those to survive. "If it was being done with private money, you wouldn’t hear a word from me," said Burnside, stressing his concern about the federal support.

Guillette, who was a physician’s assistant at the Mancos clinic when it was owned by Mercy Medical Center, was criticized as having worked against the Burnsides when they took over the operation of the clinic after Mercy sold it to Mancos investors in 1999.

In addition to advertising in The Mancos Times-Tribune, "trying to get people to go out of the area," the Burnsides allege that they found letters from Guillette in charts, urging patients to transfer their records to Mercy.

Noting that the Burnsides and Dr. Lawrence Wallington (who practiced with them in Mancos) had not been included in the initial data collection for the MUA designation, Linda Burnside said she "can’t believe Mike just forgot us." She alleged Guillette signed off on one portion of the MUA application.

The Burnsides say they have an "open practice." that allows for walk-ins. They cited other physicians who either limit or currently do not accept Medicaid patients. In contrast, "We take Medicaid for all Four Corners states."

With regard to the charge that low-income patients may have to go back to Cortez for X-rays or tests after trekking to Mancos, Burnside was asked if that was not also true when he had the Mancos clinic. "We did that there," he said, noting that there is no longer an X-ray machine at the Mancos clinic building.