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DJWH Debt Relationship Details With City of Clinton

The Dr. John Warner Hospital faces a good amount of debt, and administrators at the hospital stress most of it is not the City of Clinton's debt.

The only debt the city is responsible for is debt for air-handling and mechanical equipment upgrades from 2005, as a co-signer. CEO of the DJWH, Earl Sheehy explains everything else is on the hospital, in fact, several revenue bonds state the City of Clinton is not responsible for them.

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The city owned hospital had nearly a million dollar operating deficit for the fiscal year that ended April 30, 2012. Sheehy notes the city is not responsible for that either. The hospital does receive money from the city for employee benefits through a levy imposed by the city of Clinton. Sheehy explains because hospital employees are considered city employees, a portion of the money from that levy goes to the hospital.

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Sheehy's previous facility was a county owned facility in Nebraska. He says the county was protected by state law that the hospital debt was not debt towards the county. He also says the hospital did not provide ambulance service, but rather the fire department did. And they only provided 9-1-1 service, which meant if patients needed transported, they would have to call outside help.

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Sheehy continues to stress the DJWH will not be making a bid to the ambulance advisory committee that has been formed. He notes, if a service is ready to serve the community earlier than the hospital's withdrawal date of December 31, they will gladly turn over the service to the new provider.

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