Mental-health, indigent and long-term care are some of the services state law requires county government to provide.
Working in partnership with the University of Arizona and now Banner Health, Pima County offers an expanded level of services, much of them at the county owned Banner-University Medical Center South.
βIβm pleased with our success so far,β said Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll.
Improvements to Banner-University Medical Center South totaling $18 million are included among the projects in the $815.7 million bond proposal before voters on November ballots.
Proposition 429: Public Health, Welfare, Safety, Neighborhoods and Housing, totals $105.3 million. Medical-center upgrades in the measure include an expanded intensive-care unit, renovated operating room and improvements to the behavioral-health pavilion to allow for more outpatient behavioral-health services.
βItβs important to have a full-service hospital on the south side,β Carroll said. βThis used to be a hospital that only provided mental-health-care services.β
That has changed measurably since the county partnered with the university to run the hospital in 2006, after years of county mismanagement.
Under county operations, the hospital was losing more than $30 million annually with overall costs even greater. It also had become little more than a psychiatric facility, with about 50 mental-health patients and only five medical beds.
Today, the county contributes about $15 million annually toward the public-private partnership that runs the hospital. A portion of the money funds the Medicare Graduate Medical Education program, which in-turn receives more than double the amount in federal matching funds.
βWe cut our losses by two-thirds,β Carroll said. βWe have zero pension obligations with this private sector partnership.β
Working with the university, patient treatment volumes have increased across the board.
As of fiscal 2013, more than 3,300 surgical procedures were done at the hospital versus 660 the final year the county ran Kino.
Clinic visits also increased to nearly 163,000, up from about 49,000.
Supervisor Ally Miller said she doesnβt see why taxpayers should foot the bill for the upgrades to the county-owned facility.
βThey should be doing this at their own expense,β Miller said of Banner.
She has been critical of the county contract with Banner, and its predecessor, saying county taxpayers have been paying the costs to educate doctors at the hospital.
Through the partnership with Banner-University Medical Center, medical students have additional opportunities for practical training at the facility.
Miller also has been critical of the university and Banner for investing in the College of Medicine in Phoenix, a UA medical school campus.
Prop. 429 also includes $5 million for a jail annex proposal at Pima County Juvenile Detention Center.
The proposal would fund a retrofit of the juvenile facility to house as many as 180 adult and adolescent inmates awaiting trial.
The project is aimed at alleviating overcrowding at the Pima County jail.
Another project on the ballot is a $15 million proposal for either new construction or a complete rehab of the Pima County Office of Medical Examiner.
The office conducts autopsy and medical examination services for Pima and several surrounding counties.
Total cost for the new facility would be an estimated $20 million, with the additional funding coming from the county general fund.
The most expensive project listed among those on Prop. 429 is a $25 million neighborhood reinvestment program.
The plan would continue the existing neighborhood reinvestment program approved in the 2004 bond election, which allows jurisdictions or nonprofit groups to apply for funding for neighborhood street improvements, recreation facility upgrades and the purchase of derelict buildings.
A funding limit of $500,000 per neighborhood project and $750,000 for community buildings would be set with some projects requiring matching funds.
