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Study recommends health service priorities as best ways to reuse Ah-Gwah-Ching site
Cass County Correspondent BACKUS - The study Frauenshuh Health Care Real Estate Solutions of Minneapolis recently completed on feasibility to reuse the Ah-Gwah-Ching site for community health services recommends building the critical access hospital first rather than last of three stages.
The study found there are existing services in the community for assisted living and skilled nursing home care sufficient to handle current demands. What is lacking most is 24-hour critical care emergency service and a hospital close to central Cass County residents.
To complete the envisioned hospital, clinic, assisted living and nursing home complex will cost an estimated $40 million for construction and $16 million for startup, according to Michael Hedrix of Benedictine Health Systems, lead provider for the project. He said the hospital alone would cost $10 million to build and start.
Frauenshuh's study indicates the Ah-Gwah-Ching site is the best location for the complex, because infrastructure is already in place and because the complex should be built as a unit on one site. Located on a hill by Leech Lake amid tall pines, the site also is viewed as a "healing environment," according to the study. There is sufficient acreage.
Federal legislation has been introduced in Congress to waive the 35-mile limit for a critical access hospital from the nearest existing hospital, which would permit building the hospital at Ah-Gwah-Ching. That site is about 32 miles from the hospital in Park Rapids.
Tuesday, the board voted to allow an extension from June to September for Benedictine Health Systems to return with a more concrete proposal on how the hospital will be financed and what actual costs estimates will be.
The study recommends and Benedictine Health Systems supports a concept of involving not only the Brainerd Medical Group, which operates with its St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd, but also the Dakota Clinic system connected with the hospital in Park Rapids and MeritCare system connected with North Country Regional Hospital at Bemidji to create a coordinated service provider system at the new hospital.
With the three neighboring medical services used by the largest number of central Cass residents involved in the project at Ah-Gwah-Ching, Hedrix said the cooperative venture could bring not only more primary care physicians to the area, but also give the potential for more specializing physicians.
Demographics suggest a demand that would create a need for 22 primary care providers, 10 more than currently practice in the primary service area around Walker, and a need for 13 medical and surgical specialists, the report states.
Initial needs projections would be for about 12 beds in the hospital for use in the first five years of operation. The state license availability for the site is up to 25 beds.
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