Saying he understood that the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic doctors, nurses and staff worked well with Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center staff, Hospital Board Member Tom Spence said he didn’t even know the names of most of the people on the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic board and he called for the two groups to meet twice a year so they could discuss internal problems and hash out any differences they might have and see what points they agreed on.
Spence’s comments came at a joint meeting with the Cook County Hospital Board and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Board on Wednesday, June 24 in the clinic’s lower level with Dr. Milan Schmidt moderating.
“What if I had an embryotic idea that could help the clinic? I wouldn’t even know who to call on your board to bounce an idea off of,” said Spence.
The meeting was held after the clinic board received questions from constituents who had read comments made by St. Luke’s CEO and President John Strange in a February 27, 2015 Cook County News-Herald article. In that article, Board Chair Kay Olson first asked Jim Spreitzer of McGladery & Pullen—the firm that performed the examined financial forecast for the hospital/care center expansion—if he would pursue a $22.5 million building project for the hospital and care center.
Olson asked Spreitzer, “If you were a CEO would this be a project that you would do?”
“Yes, absolutely. It has valid and reasonable expectations,” Spreitzer answered.
Olson then asked Strange for his thoughts. Strange said there was a “narrow corridor in volume” and he worried that the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic was encroaching on some of the hospital’s services. “You need to present this to the clinic board and explain this project to them. They are in this with you and they need to play ball. In a way this is partnership.”
The clinic board bristled at the thought that they might be encroaching on any of the hospital’s services, and members gave testimony about how each works well with the other.
While Strange said his comments were accurate, he said they were “taken out of context.” When Dr. Michael Samson asked Strange what he would change about his words, Strange said, “nothing.”
Carol DeSain, president of the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic volunteer board of directors, which governs the clinic, said she was surprised by Spence’s comments. She said this isn’t a “you or us” situation, and felt the two boards worked well at doing their jobs. DeSain said the boards conducted several joint meetings together in the past, and a liaison from the hospital board had attended their meetings for some years, but none of it seemed to work well.
Currently, said DeSain, Sawtooth Mountain Director Rita Plourde and Hospital Administrator Kimber Wraalstad meet monthly to discuss business and each reports back to their boards.
Strange said it was important for the two boards to work closely together, especially with the escalating financial challenges he said would likely be coming. Those challenges include the way the federal government might fund critical care access hospitals and the push by insurance companies to get more dollars from hospitals and clinics by raising their rates, he said.
Strange based his comments on a “Sensitivity Analysis,” a what-if tool that examines the effect on a company’s bottom line when sales levels are increased or decreased. That analysis, said Strange, also looked at how few patients were in Cook County and its distance from the nearest critical care access hospital in Two Harbors 90 miles away. He also cited the economic importance of the clinic and hospital in the numbers of jobs each provides, and said a major reason people move to the area was because they could get good health care.
“It’s incredibly important for the future for the two of you to work together,” said Strange.
At the meeting’s conclusion, both groups seemed willing to meet again, but no firm plans were made for such a meeting.
Schmidt handed out an outline documenting the way the hospital and clinic collaborate, for example, clinic doctors referring patients to the hospital’s physical therapy or occupational therapy departments.
Dr. Jenny Delfs said the clinic and hospital have had a tremendous history of working together. “We need to get away from the idea of being cynical. We should be grateful for each other. I’m grateful for the chance to take care of friends and neighbors, grateful for having community run boards in charge of running the clinic and hospital.”
Delf ’s comments were greeted with affirmation and nodding heads.
Clinic Board Members Bob Carter and Deb Benedict both thought meetings should be held with the hospital board and hospital board members seemed to be in agreement that getting together would be a positive step going forward.
Meanwhile, as Dr. Samson said, as far as the employees are concerned for both institutions, “We all get along pretty well in the sandbox.”
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