Korenek said that by bringing the Webster hospital into the UTMB system, it could hopefully stave off the fate of many other hospitals in the region - including East Houston Regional Medical Center, Memorial Hermann Health System and MD Anderson Cancer Center - that have contracted or closed entirely.
Korenek said that the lawsuit is “totally separate” from UTMB’s leasing agreement with Carter Validus, and “not part of our business opportunity going forward.”Īt the time of the closing, a spokesman said Bay Area Regional tried for at least a year to get better reimbursement terms, but it did not have the backing of a major hospital system. Stuart Miller, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment on how the leasing agreement with UTMB affects the lawsuit. Any company that plans to lay off 50 or more people must submit this document to the appropriate state agency, per U.S. The WARN letter, which stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, is a requirement for companies employing 100 or more people. The suit alleges that Medistar Corp., the owner of Bay Area Regional, did not file a state-required WARN letter with the Texas Workforce Commission.
“As that activity grows and we open additional beds, certainly we will be adding more staff, and certainly we’re looking forward to having the opportunity to hire back some of the people who previously worked at that facility,” Korenek said.įormer employees of Bay Area Regional Medical Center have a class action lawsuit pending against the hospital after the medical center announced its closure. Korenek added that she hoped the hospital would be able to re-hire many of the staff members that were laid off when Bay Area Regional Medical Center closed. Equipment at the hospital must be tested and recalibrated before opening, and the goal is to open the hospital at its previous capacity. Korenek said that opening the Webster facility would be a “phased-in” process. told employees in an email provided to the Houston Chronicle that the company “was not able to overcome significant hurdles with managed-care companies.” An estimated 900 employees immediately lost their jobs, but a hospital spokeswoman later said that 342 of the workers whose jobs were cut are now employed at other hospitals in the Houston area. The Bay Area Regional Medical Center hospital closed on May 4 after opening four years earlier and spending $200 million in construction and operation.
The property’s developer, an affiliate of Medistar Corp., retained the remaining 40 percent interest in the property. Carter Validus reportedly paid $119 million for the hospital and committed another $35 million for a future build-out. UTMB negotiated the lease directly with Carter Validus Mission Critical, a Florida-based real estate investment management company that in 2014 acquired a 60 percent interest in Bay Area Regional Medical Center and will continue to own the building. “It allows us to increase the number of clinical training sites that we have, and also increase our clinical research programs which are all part of the UTMB mission.” “It really allows us to expand and increase the services that we offer to our existing patients, and an opportunity to offer more clinical services to new patients,” said Becky Korenek, senior vice president of strategic and business planning at UTMB.
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