Ed note: First in an occasional series of reports leading up to the special election June 18. <\/p>\n
By SARA KENNEDY <\/p>\n
skennedy@bradenton.com<\/a> <\/p>\n MANATEE -- The year was 1983 and the chief of the medical staff at Manatee Memorial Hospital was applying for staff privileges at a competing hospital. <\/p>\n His doctors were fleeing Manatee Memorial, which was running low on patients. They preferred what is now called Blake Medical Center, a newer hospital. <\/p>\n Bradenton's publicly owned hospital needed renovation, and the county didn't have the money, so officials began looking for a buyer. <\/p>\n They found a suitor in nonprofit Baptist Hospitals and Health Systems, of Phoenix, which in 1984 paid $44,264,075 for the venerable hospital located at U.S. Highway 301 and Manatee Avenue. <\/p>\n The money from the sale went into a health care trust fund. <\/p>\n Up to 75 percent of the interest earned on proceeds from the sale, or $3,576,789 in the first year, went toward health care for indigent patients. <\/p>\n The remaining interest was to be put back into the fund used for other health-related programs. By 2002, the fund balance had risen to a high of $61 million, according to a county spreadsheet charting the health care trust fund's entire 29-year history. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Excerpt from:<\/p>\n Manatee indigent health care trust fund: wisely spent or squandered?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ed note: First in an occasional series of reports leading up to the special election June 18. By SARA KENNEDY skennedy@bradenton.com<\/a> MANATEE -- The year was 1983 and the chief of the medical staff at Manatee Memorial Hospital was applying for staff privileges at a competing hospital. His doctors were fleeing Manatee Memorial, which was running low on patients. Continue reading