MONROE – Karin Coppernoll’s 5-year-old daughter, Camille, has such a severe case of cerebral palsy that she has difficulty holding her head up and has to use a wheelchair for mobility.
She smiles or makes happy sounds to indicate “yes,” her mother said, and will cry or otherwise be upset to indicate if her needs are not being met.
She was just beginning to learn how to use picture cards, a first step, her mother hoped, in preparing her to use a computer for communication, because she is unable to speak. But in November, the in-home speech therapy she had been receiving through Valley General Hospital in Monroe was stopped.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
The youngster was put on a waiting list to get speech therapy at the hospital.
However, the hope of getting services there ended this month when the hospital sent a letter to Coppernoll – one of 65 families informed – that its pediatric speech therapy services will end by March 13.
The hospital decided to drop the program in part because it has lost money ever since it began in 2003, hospital spokeswoman Kathy Nelson said.
Losses hit nearly $149,000 in 2004 and are estimated at nearly $143,000 for 2005. The hospital’s overall budget last year was $37.17 million.
Nelson said the hospital didn’t mention the losses in its Jan. 9 letter to parents.
“It’s an emotional thing for these people,” she said. “The fact is, the program is closing. I don’t know the number would have made them feel any better about that.”
Coppernoll called the decision “a disservice to people with developmental disabilities.”
“Communication is our biggest priority” for her daughter, Coppernoll said. “That’s the program that they’ve cut.”
“Where are they going to go?” asked Linda Phillips, whose daughter, Autumn, 4, was getting in-home speech therapy.
Cerebral palsy and seizure disorders are among Autumn’s health problems. She is fed through a tube. Patients are taught swallowing and chewing in speech therapy.
“Our little ones need to be served. It’s not a matter of it would be nice. It’s necessary,” Phillips said.
The hospital provided parents with a list of organizations in Monroe, Everett, Mill Creek and elsewhere that provide the service. However, the hospital acknowledged that many have a waiting list of two to three months or longer.
“We know it’s difficult to get into other speech therapy programs,” said Jeanne Bennetts, director of the hospital’s rehabilitation services. That’s one of the reasons parents were given a two-month notice that the program was being closed, she said.
So far, 32 of the speech therapy patients have signed up elsewhere, Nelson said.
One of the hospital’s current pediatric speech therapists is opening a practice in Monroe, and 22 current patients have signed up. “She’ll have more openings as well,” Nelson said.
The pediatric speech therapy program grew out of the hospital’s services for seniors and stroke patients, Nelson said. “There wasn’t a distinct business plan made. People just began doing it.”
The decision to cut the service was made by the hospital’s administrative team this month, Nelson said.
The program employs three people full-time or part-time, who will lose their jobs. A new half-time position is being added, which current employees may apply for, she said.
The only other hospital in Snohomish County to offer speech therapy for children is Providence Everett Medical Center. Up to 190 children receive speech therapy services each week at the hospital’s children’s center, manager Christie Tipton said.
For someone living in Gold Bar or other cities in the Skykomish Valley, it’s a long commute to Everett, Deanna Locke of Monroe said.
Her son, Ian, 7, who has cerebral palsy, used to receive in-home speech therapy services from the hospital. They switched to getting the services at a clinic. She said she wanted to speak up for other special-needs children who depend on the service.
“I’m upset with Valley General,” she said. “I am a taxpayer. It is not best for the community.”
As a taxpayer-supported hospital, “We need to provide core services to our community” such as emergency room care, Nelson responded.
“In this case, it’s a service we do believe can be obtained elsewhere,” she said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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