by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | October 04, 2019
From the October 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
We have a small community, about 6,000 people here. But we have over one million visitors every year to our valley to see the beautiful landscapes and enjoy the surroundings — the lake, the mountains. So we have a big responsibility here at our organization to care for not only our residents and our part-time residents, but also all the visitors that come to Bear Lake Valley as well.
HCB News: I understand that Bear Lake Memorial is county owned?
MB: That’s right. Fortunately, even though we’re county owned, we don’t use county taxes to run our operation.
HCB News: What are the biggest challenges facing BLM today?
MB: I’m new to Bear Lake Memorial, but based on my past experience, I think that the challenges we have here are similar to the challenges most other rural hospitals face. You’re always going to be concerned about reimbursement, managing your finances and attracting good clinical staff and providers. At this location, we focus a lot on growing our own and giving folks in the community opportunities to grow and develop by supporting their education, so that’s helpful. I think maintaining independence is something else to always keep in mind. There’s a lot of consolidation in healthcare generally. So we have to make sure we’re poised for success for the future and that involves managing our operations in such a way that we can continue to move in the right direction.
HCB News: What are the main strengths of BLM?
MB: I think that’s much of that we’ve touched upon previously. Things that come to mind would be going back to the internal vision of “the most caring”.
I also feel like this facility has a good track record of successfully reinvesting. It’s a beautiful facility. It’s been well taken care of and I think it’s a real gem. Again, the breadth of services is a strength. Good decisions were made in the past to set us up to really serve the community. So individuals don’t have to travel as often to find the services they need.
Our “grow your own” is another strength. We have people here in our community who used to be a bus driver and then saw there was a need to be a nurse. They’re already an established part of our community, they have gotten the training in nursing and they really care. People are able to get the education they need, stay in the community and be a valuable part of what we do here. It also strengthens our partnership between the facility and the community.
