May 22, 2002 – Officers of Juan F. Luis Hospital were given strict instructions at a Senate Finance Committee meeting Tuesday evening to "fight" for their long-planned Cardiac Center of Excellence.
"Don't sit back and let the administration take the money. If you go to sleep on this one, I'm going to hold you personally responsible," the committee chair, Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, told Dr. Michael Potts, Luis Cardiology Department head; Dr. Claudius Henry, Luis medical director; and Nelson Bowry, Luis chief financial officer.
Hansen called the meeting to get an update on how each hospital's share of the territory's portion of the national tobacco settlement money is being spent. Gov. Charles W. Turnbull announced last September, after closing a deal leveraging the tobacco funds, that the territory's net share of the settlement, $18.4 million, would go to finance a number of projects at the territory's two hospitals and to fund the Health Department.
The Health Department was to receive 36 percent of the money, earmarked for prevention, basic and long-term health care needs, and health-related capital improvement projects that include renovating or replacing several buildings. Each hospital was to receive 32 percent, or about $5.9 million..
On St. Thomas, the tobacco proceeds will cover the costs of developing new facilities and purchasing radiotherapy and cancer center equipment for Roy L. Schneider Hospital
On St. Croix, Luis Hospital will get a renovated emergency room and clinic, improvements to the cardiac care unit, a new warehouse, a water line and an air-conditioning system for the morgue.
Hansen's comments Tuesday night were in response to the announcement earlier this month by Luis chief executive Thomas Robinson that some of the hospital's tobacco money would go toward the expenses other than the cardiac center. He said some of the money would be used to shore up the hospital's failing infrastructure.
Robinson was unable to attend Tuesday's hearing.
Hansen quizzed Bowry about how exactly the money was being spent. He said the hospital has so far spent more than $690,000 on a variety of projects including air-conditioning upgrades and anesthesia machines.
Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel asked the Legislature's legal counsel, Yvonne Tharpes, to verify the language in the law regarding the allocation of the funds. After Tharpes confirmed the funds could be used for something other than the cardiac center at the hospital, Hansen said, "We are going to stop that right now. We will have language to tighten up the legislation. Hopefully, we will close it all up tomorrow."
The week's calendar calls for the full Senate to meet Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
"What is written, and what is intended are two different things," Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole said.
Hansen told Potts, "Don't let them [the hospital administrators] touch the cardiac center money, man." She said the St. Croix hospital authorities "should be embarrassed."
In contrast, the words of Rodney Miller, the new Schneider Hospital chief executive officer, were music to Hansen's ears. He said all of the hospital's tobacco money would go to the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Treatment Center. "I'm ready for my money," he told the senators.
Hansen suggested the St. Croix hospital officers "get some advice from St. Thomas."
Miller said the cost of the new center would exceed the $5.9 million possibly by another $1 million. And that, he said, didn't include the initial costs of operating the center, which he said could take five years to become profitable.
When Miller said his board was in the process of selecting a "physician champion" to oversee the cancer center, Pickard-Samuel expressed surprise, saying, "Aren't you going to select Dr. Bert Petersen?"
Miller replied that the board members had heard Petersen's presentation and were "very pleased" by what they saw, but they had not yet made a final selection.
Petersen, a native Virgin Islander, is a New York City surgeon, cancer specialist and medical school professor. He has been instrumental in planning the Kimelman Center. Named outstanding chief surgical resident at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., in 1994, he was recruited to join the faculty of the Beth Israel Medical Center Cancer Center when it opened in New York in 1996.
He has become a voice of authority on minority health-care issues, especially relating to cancer prevention, detection and treatment. He was named senior investigator for the New York Cancer Project, a study designed to examine genetic, ethnic and environmental factors in cancer incidence and mortality among 300,000 New Yorkers. In addition, he now directs the Family Risk Program at the Beth Israel Cancer Center, a clinical surveillance and genetic counseling service for healthy women at increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer due to their family history.

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