Should the situation remain status quo, Dimensions Healthcare would have to start shutting down the Prince George’s County Hospital system after the first week of August, according to a Dimensions official.

“We know we have enough cash to get through [then],” Dimensions spokeswoman Suzanne Almalel told The Examiner on Tuesday. But she said she was unsure how much cash the system currently has.

Dimensions, which is more than $100 million in debt, runs the county-owned system. On Monday, Dimensions board of directors voted not to accept the county’s ultimatum that four board members resign or it will stop funding the county hospital system.

The vote puts in jeopardy the future of the hospital system, which has about 2,300 employees and serves 180,000 people per year.

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According to Almalel, the board is going to submit a counterproposal to the county before Friday and wants a response by July 2.

“If they want to make a proposal,” Jim Keary, a spokesman for County Executive Jack Johnson said, “it needs to be responsive to the taxpayers of Prince George’s County, not to the corporate interests of Dimensions.”

The county has said it wants more say in the direction of the hospital system.

“It’s a ransom demand,” state Del. Doyle Niemann said at news conference Tuesday.

Almalel said the board has scheduled a meeting for July 3, and will take action at that point. That could mean moving on the counterproposal issue, she said, or beginning discussions on bankruptcy or closure.

But, Almalel said, she doesn’t think the system will close.

“If we are not here, a lot of people die,” she said.

Almost two weeks ago, the county demanded that four of 11 board members resign: Chairman Calvin Brown, George Bone, Donald Foran and William Williams.

“The board stands ready to work with the county to resolve any issues that centered around the constitution of our board,” Brown said at Tuesday’s news conference.

In April, Dimensions Chief Executive Officer Dunlop Ecker said the system faced bankruptcy or closure before the county pledged to fund it through June 2008.

When the county previously provided Dimensions with $5 million in February, the board agreed to reconstitute itself, among other things, if it required subsequent county appropriations. But Dimensions contends subsequent communications supersede the legislation.

dfowler@dcexaminer.com