by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | October 04, 2019
From the October 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HCB News: What is the makeup of patients as far as type of medical coverage?
MB: We cover private pay, insurance pay, Medicare and Medicaid. We’re full-spectrum with patient care. We have family practice providers taking care of babies and deliveries. We also have a nursing home. We do home health and an assisted living facility and we do counseling and behavioral health services. So we feel pretty proud of the fact that while we’re a critical access hospital in a small community, we offer a wide breadth of services and we do them well. We also provide general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and counseling services.
HCB News: Many rural communities have been hit by the opioid crisis. Others struggle with large populations suffering from chronic conditions like diabetes. Is there any particular type of health crisis in your community that stands out?
MB: We’re serving the community generally — covering all aspects of healthcare. Whatever needs our community has, we’re here to facilitate and give them the best care they need. We’re pretty fortunate to have a long-term facility as part of our organization, but also to have dialysis and chemo and some of the other things mentioned before. Not all critical access hospitals have labor and delivery. We’re fortunate to have that as part of our healthcare system. We’re able to cover all general needs.
Drawing from experience in other sites, I think like all rural locations, we’re worried about things like access to care and general overall health. Diabetes is always a problem and some of those dependencies you mentioned, behavioral health, I think probably, we have the same issues that most rural communities have. We work to engage with the community and solve those problems the best we can.
HCB News: Do you have any big goals or initiatives planned?
MB: I’m currently just getting the lay of the land, but I know one big project that’s in the works is an upcoming emergency department remodel that includes establishing an in-house MR. We’re looking to renovate and expand and make sure our ER best serves our patients and staff. We’re also looking to increase the privacy of the ER. Right now, we have a traveling MR that comes to our facility once or twice a week, but we really need to have one in-house, so that’s a focus.
