The second of two planned Town Hall meetings in Devils Lake happened Thursday evening in the Fire Hall with Mayor Jim Moe and City Manager Spencer Halvorson moderating the evening.
At the outset the mayor spoke about why they were gathering and his concern and purpose in bringing everyone together.
Then he outlined how they were to proceed during the comment period using the provided microphone and stating their name before asking their question or making a comment.
Moe explained that he had been a member of the community’s board of directors that served as advisors to the Devils Lake Mercy Hospital and continued to do that when it changed to CHI St. Alexius Health Devils Lake Hospital. He explained that with that transition the influence of the board seemed to wane and ultimately they did away with the board altogether. That transition also led to a large number of valued employees leaving the Hospital. He explained that the board had no knowledge of or input into how or why they were let go, only that they were gone. At some point since then CHI merged with other health care entities to make it part of the Common Spirit Organization, an even larger corporation.
Moe also added that numerous promises to update the existing 100-year old hospital facility starting back then, about fifteen years ago or more. Yet to this date those updates have yet to take place.
“Now we have no input,” Moe stated referring to the community board input adding, “I have concerns about going forward with CHI because of that.”
Convinced that nothing will change unless the community itself drives the momentum forward, Moe stated that these two Town Hall meetings and a meeting coming Monday with u.S. Senator John Hoeven will be opportunities for the community to air their concerns and hopes for the community’s health care needs.
The problem?
The problem is not the personnel at the hospital, they are fine, excellent providers, Moe pointed that out more than once. That is not the problem. In fact a press release received recently from the Common Spirit Organization states that CHI St. Alexius Health Devils Lake has been named one of the Top 100 Critical Access hospitals across the nation. The Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX™ issued the award. It shows that in spite of the severe limitations of the 100-year-old building and aging equipment at the Devils Lake hospital, it remains successful and worthy of recognition. In its 13th year, the INDEX has established itself as the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance.
Don’t be misled, the Devils Lake Hospital is a successful hospital and has been banking the rewards of that success for decades, however, it has not been reinvesting that capital here in this community and that is a point of contention with Moe and others throughout the community.
Another point of contention is that the hospital here in Devils Lake has the designation as a Critical Access Hospital. That designation provides a higher reimbursement for services than other hospitals receive. No two Critical Access Hospitals can be within 35 miles of each other.
As communities like Rugby (64 miles away) and Cando (45 miles away) are getting updated hospital facilities the needs of Devils Lake and the Lake Region have gone pretty much unmet.
The Mayor outlined briefly the previous meetings held to discuss the issues including one where representatives from upper management of CHI were not present though other healthcare corporations were present and one where Essentia Health, Altru, Sanford and CHI were all present.
Comments from those in attendance 11-16-23 6:30 p.m.:
The first person from the audience to speak stated, “The name of the hospital doesn’t matter. The recruitment and retention of young doctors to Devils Lake, that’s what matters. This has become a regional health care center.”
The next person asked about Spirit Lake and their involvement in these dialogues.
Moe responded, saying they would be at Monday’s meeting and are also very interested and concerned about this issue.
The third person who spoke complained about account and timely billing issues he had with the present hospital’s finance department.
Another person commented that he’d like to see a specialist come to town regularly, maybe once a week, or one week a month.
The next person talked about how many of the hospital’s employees he thought had been targeted by “a [corporate] hatchet man.”
The next comment stated that “ours is a mobile society, but we still require care here in our own community, not an hour and a half’s drive away.”
The next individual questioned the phrase “improve facility” asking “When is enough, enough?”
The next comment was from a local pastor who said, “the community needs mental health care, community care.”
“Show we care.”
“We need to attract and retain doctors, how are we going to do that with what we have now?”
Two local ambulance services were represented at the meeting and both stated that they average 1,000 runs to other hospitals in other towns (outside Devils Lake) each month. The loss of helicopter rescue services, also, has taken a toll on the community.
The city’s Chief of Police commented on the security issue involved with the present hospital as nurses are being assaulted while on the job – there is no detox facility or psych ward available for assisting with those issues here in Devils Lake.
The Mayor thanked everyone for their comments and asked them to attend Monday’s meeting in the Hofstad Ag Building on the LRSC campus at 1 p.m., Nov. 20 when they would meet again to discuss this issue with Essentia, Altru, CHI, Spirit Lake Health – all the health care parties willing to work for a better solution. Sen. Hoeven would be there, also, to determine what the community needs, wants and how to accomplish that.
Imagine what they could do if they had a brand new hospital, with modern amenities or even an updated one like the community has been promised for a long, long time. How much easier would it be to recruit and retain young doctors and personnel with a better facility? How much better it would be for all the community!