Hospitals Stretch into a New Area: Sweating Clients

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

Published: June 7, 2003

 

STAMFORD, Conn., June 6— With free valet parking, the lot attendants can barely keep up with the stream of people arriving to work out at the hottest fitness center in town.

A little over a year since it opened, the gym at Tully Health Center has signed up 2, 400 members and is adding 20 a week. On a recent weeknight, rows of treadmills were packed with a mostly middle-aged crowd tuned to the machines' personal television sets. Nearby, 20 well-toned bodies unwound to New Age music as the yoga instructor urged them to let their anxieties ''slip right away.''

Oddly enough, the gym is part of a hospital system and shares a building with walk-in clinics, diagnostic imaging machines and outpatient surgical teams. Like hundreds of hospital operators across the country, hungry for new sources of revenue, the Stamford Health System is getting into the fitness game under the mantra of disease prevention.

Odder still, the hospital system says its center, the Health and Fitness Institute, is not really a health club. To get the city's blessing for the project, the system agreed to limit membership to people undergoing rehabilitation and those who had acute or chronic diseases or were at ''high risk'' of developing them.

By all indications, that hasn't stopped system employees from applying a liberal definition of who is at risk. In addition to people with a history of heart, respiratory or other ailments, the center admits those who say they have two of these risk factors: having a sibling or parent who had heart disease, cancer or diabetes before age 55; being more than 20 pounds overweight; working out fewer than two times a week; having smoked at any time; or being a man older than 55 or a woman older than 45.

The admission policy has been good for business, but it is not popular with rival fitness club owners who say the hospital system is in a position to unfairly crush the competition, given its deep pockets, political clout and exemptions from most federal and local taxes.

''Their business is providing critical care, not preventive care, '' said Richard Beusman, an owner of Sportsplex in Stamford. ''In our country, that's typically been the job of a commercial operator who pays full taxes and mortgages.''

Here, as elsewhere around the country, local officials say they wonder whether the nonprofit institutions in their backyard are paying their share of taxes. Neighbors grumble about the hubbub in what used to be a quiet zone. And some feel that scarce health dollars could have been better spent.

''It's an impressive edifice, no question, '' Mary A. Bohen, a neighbor and member of the center, said of the $79 million building. ''But you wonder whether that was really how the health system in Stamford should have been allocating its resources.''

System officials say the move into fitness is justified. While current and former managers of the center say it is not yet paying its way, the hope is that it will eventually help support hospital services that have been threatened by managed care and cuts in government reimbursement.

''The whole point was for preventive medicine, with the idea that if people become members of the fitness club now, they may not need to use the hospital later, '' said Scott Orstad, a spokesman for Stamford Health System.

About 550 hospitals across the nation have opened fitness centers, according to the Medical Fitness Association, their trade group. All offer physical rehabilitation services, but many have spent tens of millions on far more ambitious projects.

One success story, Akron General Health System in Ohio, opened its fitness center in 1996 and turned a profit two years later. With everything from cardiac rehabilitation to mud wraps and pedicures, the center has become the model for many hospitals, including Stamford's.

The fitness center's genesis here dates to 1996, when St. Joseph Medical Center, a financially-plagued Roman Catholic hospital, was looking for a buyer. Stamford Health System -- which runs Stamford Hospital, the city's only other hospital -- paid $12.88 million for the property with the hope of converting it into an outpatient center that would complement services it offered across town.

From the beginning, the idea was to create a place where people who had, or were at risk of getting, health problemscould work out under medical supervision, away from the intimidating Spandex-clad fitness buffs found in other gyms. The hospital's team emphasized that point when it sought an exemption from zoning regulations so that it could tear down St. Joseph and begin work.

Georgiana D. White, who sits on the zoning board, approved the deal but now has doubts. ''I remember clearly asking the presenters for the applicant if indeed it was going to be just another health club, because Stamford has ample health clubs, '' she said. ''And I was assured it would be a medical facility. Whether they respect that, I'm doubtful, because I myself have gotten fliers asking me to join and, thank God, I have no need for recuperative care.''

Employees have coached some applicants on how to fill out the forms.

''I sent over my sales manager, who is perfectly healthy, just to see what's going on, '' said Glenn Colarossi, the manager of the Stamford Athletic Club. ''They said: 'Oh, you're 50. You must be menopausal. Write down 'hormonal changes.' ''

Many members, typically paying $69 a month, have only the fuzziest idea that there are barriers to entry. ''Anyone can join, '' said Phyllis Hudson, 56, an administrative assistant who said she takes medicationfor high blood pressure and cholesterol but is otherwise healthy. ''It's easy to join, '' she said, ''as long as you can pay the fee.''

Mr. Colarossi said the hospital could have collaborated with area health clubs to avoid ill will. ''Stamford definitely needed two hospitals, not a huge health facility, '' he said.

He lost about 60 of 1, 600 members to the new club, he said. The only thing he has gained, he said, are doctors from the Tully Health Center who prefer to work out at his place ''because they don't want to run into patients and get asked a lot of health questions during their workouts.''

Reading practice 3

1. The author finds it unusual and strange that the sport and medical facilities be located in the same building and be part of the same system.
2. The hospital management initially meant to limit the access to the gym to people with health problems, but did not stick to this rule.
3. The owners of other sport centers believe that one more sport facility will provide fair competition.
4. People living near the hospital are happy with the occasion to have a gym so close to their homes.
5. The management of St. Joseph Medical Center thought that their patients would find it less threatening to work out among other patients rather than with sport addicts in regular gyms.
6. Patients are obliged to lie about their health condition in order to be admitted to the hospital gym.

 

Vocabulary practice 4

1. In order to achieve a _____ ______ body, it is necessary to burn more calories than you intake.
2. _______ ______, physicians of the Near East took little notice of mace until the early 1800s when they began to prescribe it as an aphrodisiac and carminative.
3. The _______ ______ smaller than a hospital is generally called a _______, and often is run by a government agency for health services or a private partnership of physicians.
4. While simple instructions like ________ ______ with food may seem minor, ignoring such instructions can result in severe discomfort or physical illness.
5. Many hospitals offer _________ _______ services, on both in-patient and out-patient basis depending upon the individual's needs and physical condition.
6. Factors that are more likely to lead to heart diseases include aging, family _______ _ _______ _______, smoking and sedentary lifestyles.
7. Acute nursing care is short-term nursing care for medical patients with _____ or _______ diseases and for surgical patients requiring operations.
8. ______ _______ provides students with a safe and clean environment to exercise and _______.

 

Vocabulary

General

1. Endemic/pandemic (to break out)

2. An outbreak of (malaria/bird flu)

3. Conventional/holistic/alternative medicine

4. Preventive/critical medicine

Healthcare system

5. To get medical coverage

6. To get (covered with) medical insurance

7. To get/receive (quality) medical care/ adequate health services

8. Medical/health facilities

9. Private insurance companies

10. National Insurance system.

Talking about health problems & statistics

11. To cause/to lead to/result in/be associated with/to stem from

12. According to a new study

13. According to some estimates

14. Researchers say that

15. Health problems may/are more likely to occur to

16. There are certain risks involved with prolonged computer use

17. The most common physical complaints are

18. Older/young people can develop diet/computer/smoking-related diseases

19. To be at risk of developing high blood pressure

20. Heart attacks are the leading cause of death and illness in patients with...

21. Excessive weight/smoking/poor diet can result in

 

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