Oregon Public Broadcasting

A state panel that oversees hospital construction has denied Columbia County’s application for a new hospital.

The county is largely rural. Historically, its residents have had trouble getting health care.

Dr. Grant Higginson is the state’s officer of Community Health and Health Planning. He says decision-makers felt the proposal didn’t add up to improved access to care at a reasonable cost.

The plan called for a new $25 million hospital. With interest figured in, Higginson pegs the estimated cost at $45 million.

But he says concerns weren’t limited to cost.

Grant Higginson “What we heard over and over again from the community – and, actually, from the majority of providers providing health care in the community was that what’s really needed out there is primary care and prevention services. And building a hospital, even though it was going to have a rural health clinic really is not the way you provide access to primary care.”

An administrator with the hospital project said its members would decide at a meeting Tuesday whether to appeal.