Dialysis unit funds disappear

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Now you see it, now you don't.

Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital got a tough reminder last week that you can't count on anything from Washington until it's in the bank. It watched a promised $1 million appropriation for a new dialysis unit vanish into thin air when the Democrats announced new spending rules after taking control of Congress.

The hospital was counting on the money to help it cope with a regional diabetes epidemic that only seems to be getting worse. Desperate to make up the loss, it's turning once again to the New Mexico Legislature and Gov. Bill Richardson.

According to RMCH spokeswoman Elaine Bobo, the hospital is asking the governor for $2 million of his capital outlay fund this year. Sen. Lidio Rainaldi, she added, is also considering dedicating up to $500,000 of his own cut of the state budget to the cause.

"I was disappointed to learn of the news that we will not receive our promised funding," hospital CEO Chuck Wright stated in a news release issued Monday. "However, this is an urgent need and (RMCH) is committed to obtaining the funds needed to build a new unit. I hope we can count on Gov. Richardson and our legislative delegation to approve state funds again this year."

The Legislature approved roughly $450,000 toward the $3 million project last year. And with the $201,000 the 2006 Charity Invitational netted, the hospital was counting on the $1 million from Congress to push it past the halfway mark.

When Sen. Pete Domenici's office issued a news release last July about "the Domenici secured funding," hospital officials assumed they had the money in the bag. According to the release, the hospital's $1 million was part of a massive $605.6 billion appropriations bill with a cleared path to the Senate floor.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the floor: The Democrats took over Congress. And when they did, they decided that Washington would do its appropriating a little differently. As a stand against "pork barrel" spending, they would ban all earmarks like the $1 million for RMCH until they could adopt new rules to make the practice more transparent.

With that, the hospital's hopes for federal funding for at least the next year came to an end.

Still determined to break ground by the summer of 2008, it hasn't stopped looking for money elsewhere. In addition to any additional appropriations it can win from the Legislature, Bobo said, the hospital plans to devote this year's Invitational take to the dialysis unit as well. It's also making pitches to a few foundations, although Bobo has her reservations about that route.

"The problem with most of the foundations ... is most of them don't fund capital projects," she said. "Most of the time they want to fund a new, innovative program."

A dialysis unit might not qualify as new or innovative, but it makes Gallup's need to replace the one it has no less urgent.

The 28-station unit that exists has been full since May, forcing the hospital to send all new admissions to its unit in Zuni. With three treatments per week, that's four-and-a-half hours of traveling time for a patient from Gallup. One patient from farther out travels 15 hours a week. For those who work, it can cut into their hours. For those who lack full Medicaid coverage, it means spending more on gas.

"It's just very difficult for our patients," Bobo said.

And short of a kidney transplant, it's not as if they have much choice in making the trips.

"They can't live without (dialysis)," she said. "They need it to survive."

One hospital social worker even wonders how much longer the Zuni unit can keep taking in new patients. Averaging four to five admissions per month since July, she figures it will reach capacity by August.

"It may be full by this summer," Bobo said, "and then we're in trouble."