MCH addresses how they will mend burned bridges in community

During the public comment portion of the special meeting of the Mineral County Commissioners at the St. Regis Community Center on April 23, county resident Denley Loge directed a question towards representatives of the Mineral Community Hospital.

“What do you have in place to correct the burned bridges, the misdiagnosed cases that a lot of us in Superior, St. Regis and Alberton have experienced,” Loge asked.

MCH Director of Business Development George Bailey fielded the question – beginning by stating that he was speaking for himself rather than the hospital.

“We talked about this (with the MCH staff) earlier and I don’t think any of the smaller hospitals in Mineral County or Sanders County want to get bought out by a larger hospital,” Bailey said. “But I think the future, with all of the technology we need to put in place and new procedures – it becomes kind of a standardization of the process. I think part of it is going to be solved by getting affiliations with hospitals like community and St. Patricks.”

Bailey added “that doesn’t change what happened” and “he is not making excuses” and admitted that there have been problems at MCH with misdiagnoses.

“Any time you say there is not a problem you aren’t going to solve it,” Bailey said. “But Critical Access hospitals around the county, there are 319 of them - a lot of them have that same perception. Some of them have fought past it…but one of those things that are really going to help are these affiliations.”

MCH Board President Amy Farris added that on top of the affiliations with larger hospitals in the area and an increase in technology MCH is also working on a better tracking system for patients in order to gauge the problem and improve.

“The feedback from the community and patient surveys allows us to more accurately address those issues so we have the data to say ‘yes there out of whack here or there,’” Farris said. “Right now it’s more reactionary and we are now being a lot more proactive about addressing those issues.”

Farris elaborated on how MCH is being “more proactive” by stating the hospital is creating a “framework” to build on and “you will see a lot of improvements in those areas.”

After further discussion on MCH and their efforts in repairing the “burned bridges” Loge spoke of, Sharon Patterson of the MSU Extension Office asked a follow up question.

“My husband was hospitalized, he was seen in Superior and transferred to St. Patrick’s,” Patterson said. “When he got home, he never heard one word from any of the doctors in the clinic about how he was doing or anything. We have been patients for years but we still don’t have that basic concern and communication between doctor and patient…that needs to be addressed.”

Farris once again fielded the question, beginning by saying Patterson was “absolutely right” and that the board and MCH was just recently discussing improving communication.

“We want to have 100 percent follow-up with every patient and I think you are going to start seeing that,” Farris said. “That is changing and it has been an issue and it’s changing.”

Farris added that MCH is now able to track the issues with surveys and other things the hospital is implementing and are able to better address those issues.

At the end of the public comment portion of the meeting, Mineral County Commissioner Administrative Assistant Cindy Grimm said she wanted to speak to the 30 people gathered about the hospital.

“You always hear the negatives and I just wanted to say that when my husband had a heart attack we took him to the hospital and the doctors did not leave his side,” Grimm said. “They saved his life.”