Mainstreet Radio's Cara Hetland reports that The Weiner Memorial Hospital in Marshall is announcing it's merge with a regional health care system. For the last year the board has struggled between independence and the desire to grow. Officials have decided the benefits of joining with a larger system outweigh the loss of autonomy.
For Marshall, a town of about 14,000, Weiner Memorial is the center of all things medical. It holds the lab and high-tech scanning equipment. It houses the clinic and nursing home, as well as the rehab and exercise center.Â
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CARA HETLAND: For Marshall, a town of about 14,000, Weiner Memorial is the center of all things medical. It holds the lab and high-tech scanning equipment. It houses the clinic and nursing home. And it's the rehab and exercise center. The building is remodeled and modern. It's a welcoming place. Richard Slieter runs Marshall's hospital. He says thousands of people come through every year. It's been successful, but Slieter confesses health care is starting to suffer. Nine physicians have left in the last two years.
RICHARD SLIETER: Due to retirement and for a variety of reasons, there were nine physicians who left this community. Now, that's not uncommon, but some of that was predicted and some of those physicians were replaced, but not all of them. As a result of that, our community's access to health care services was compromised.
CARA HETLAND: There are 17 physicians who practice in Marshall. That include doctors at the hospital and others at an independent clinic. Slieter says the shortage means they can't offer specialty practices like urology or oncology. Recruiting physicians to a small town is a full-time job, and no one at the Marshall hospital has time to do it.
RICHARD SLIETER: We could recruit all kinds of physicians. If you have enough money, you can bring any doc into any community. The question is, will he or she be a good fit? Will it be comfortable? Will it be rewarding, professionally satisfying? And will they stay?
CARA HETLAND: Mitchell, South Dakota, was in the same boat eight years ago. Doctors were leaving, and patient care was starting to suffer. Today, the Mitchell hospital has more than 40 physicians. The facility is thriving. The turnaround came in the form of a merger. The region's two big health care chains are working to get bigger. Avera and Sioux Valley are both based in Sioux Falls. They're in constant competition. Each wants to merge with smaller rural hospitals and clinics. Each company employs around 10,000 people.
Avera is a Catholic health ministry. Curt Hohman is the senior vice president. He says their network consists of four hub hospitals, each with its own network of clinics and smaller hospitals. Hohman says if Marshall merges with Avera, then its hospital becomes another regional hub.
CURT HOHMAN: Regional hub status is special status within Avera Health, whereby those four communities, and with Marshall-- if that comes to fruition, they would be the fifth-- they would be developing their own regional referral network with a network of specialists, with a network of hospitals and possibly even clinics that extend within some geographic area around Marshall.
CARA HETLAND: Sioux Valley Regional Health System is a much larger operation. It manages 23 hospitals and 16 nursing homes. The facilities are in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Ed Weiland is the president. He says Sioux Valley offers a way for rural hospitals to stay current. Most were built more than 50 years ago for a different kind of patient care. Now the needs have changed.
ED WEILAND: Our specialists will travel out in the rural communities and visit our clinics. And those are scheduled in advance. And the local clinic and staff know it, and the specialists visit on a routine basis. And many times, those follow-up services can be taken care of as well right in your own community by the specialist. But either way, it's a way of keeping health care closer to home.
CARA HETLAND: The CEO of Marshall's small, independent hospital says both Avera and Sioux Valley have a lot to offer. Richard Slieter says the hospital's board will choose to merge with a company that best fits its goals and objectives. Many hospitals prefer to stay independent. Slieter says many in Marshall would prefer it that way.
RICHARD SLIETER: But you give up something. You give up some autonomy. You give up some independence. You need to standardize in ways that you may not otherwise want to do that. You lose some control, I guess, or you compromise over certain control issues. But the community wins. This is all about the community.
CARA HETLAND: The board announces its decision this afternoon. It'll take about three months before a contract is finalized and the merger is complete. Cara Hetland, Minnesota Public Radio, Sioux Falls.