Lafayette Journal and Courier

What a new facility means to you

Where would Clarian Health Partners and Arnett HealthSystem build the proposed new hospital?

December 22, 2005

Officials aren't discussing specifics until a final agreement is signed. However, Arnett bought 118 acres at McCarty Lane and County Road 500 East in 2004 to build its own hospital, and secured an option on 28 more acres to the north.

The project was canceled days after the groundbreaking. Arnett later sold 83 acres and its construction drawings to Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health, but regained them when St. Vincent decided that the Lafayette area had enough hospital capacity already.

How would a new hospital affect health care costs?

A new hospital would create competition in the area, but that may not necessarily mean reduced costs.

James Anderson, Purdue University professor of medical sociology and health communication, thinks two competing hospitals would actually make health care costs rise, not fall.

"In health care, it doesn't work that way," he said. When there's an oversupply of services, hospitals need to charge more to make up for the cost of their equipment, he said.

If Arnett and Clarian build a new hospital, would existing Arnett offices close?
In 2003, when Arnett announced plans to build Arnett Hospital, officials said satellite clinics and most existing offices would stay open. However, they also said that there was ample room at the hospital site for future expansion and physicians' offices. Arnett planned to add 100 physicians within five years.

Arnett officials did not comment on satellite offices on Wednesday.

How would transportation be impacted?

Part of the rationale behind building a hospital on the east side of Lafayette is that planners believe that the area's population will migrate eastward and southward.

According to Arnett officials, the state highway department would consider building an on-off ramp, which would provide access to Interstate 65. That would allow drivers to bypass Indiana 26.

However, there are many residents closer to Lafayette's center who would need public transportation to visit a hospital located there.

CityBus would consider expanding service, according to general manager Marty Sennett, who estimated such an extension would cost more than $100,000.