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Health department supports hospital near Walker
Cass County Correspondent WALKER The Minnesota Department of Health issued a finding Tuesday in support of the Legislature enacting an exemption to the state moratorium on additional hospital beds to permit Cass County to have a 25-bed critical access hospital near Walker.
The health department endorsement is an important step toward obtaining the special legislation to allow a hospital to be built at the current Ah-Gwah-Ching state facility site or within 20 miles of it.
Minnesota law has prohibited additional hospital beds since 1984 when a determination was made that additional beds could create more availability in the state than customers to use them. Special exemptions have been made since then in areas underserved by existing hospitals.
In 2004, the Legislature enacted a law requiring anyone seeking an exemption to apply first to the commissioner of health for a review of whether the plan would be in the public interest, improve timely access to care, financial impact on existing hospitals and serve nonpaying or low-income people. Affected parties' views are considered.
Cass County's application for review included letters of support from Cass, Beltrami, Crow Wing and Itasca counties; Leech Lake Tribal Council; townships of Shingobee, Pine Lake and Leech Lake; and the city of Walker, plus a few private individuals.
St. Joseph's Health Services at Park Rapids submitted a letter acknowledging the underserved Cass area, but questioning sufficient availability of health workers and whether such a small hospital could be cost effective.
Cass County paid for the MDH review, which the state department estimated to cost $10,000.
The MDH finding notes a sizable north-central Cass population currently lacks access to an inpatient hospital within 30 miles. Future demand can be expected to grow as the population is expected to continue to grow faster than other parts of the state.
Benedictine Health System of Duluth proposes not only to build the 25-bed hospital at or near Ah-Gwah-Ching, but also ambulatory care and senior housing facilities. Benedictine Health System also operates St. Joseph's Medical Center at Brainerd.
The new hospital would have a level IV trauma designation and open with 12 to 14 beds, then expand to 25 by about 2010.
Six existing hospitals in neighboring counties now serve the area, but it is estimated 50 percent of the residents in north-central Cass now drive more than 30 minutes to their usual health care provider. The average rural Minnesota drive time is 23 minutes.
The health department review indicates Cass' population grew 30 percent from 1990 to 2004, compared with 16 percent statewide. Cass' population is expected to grow another 18 percent by 2015. The county has a substantially higher share of the population that is age 65 and older, the MDH review states.
Statewide hospital occupancy rate was 59 percent in 2004. The review anticipates the six existing hospitals around Cass will have 57 to 70 percent occupancy by 2015. Currently the six hospitals average 47.6 to 55 percent, except two Itasca County hospitals, which have lower occupancy and currently serve only the low-density northeast corner of Cass.
Walker Ambulance averaged over two hours per call in 2005 and Longville Ambulance, 76 minutes.
Because the proposed hospital would be small compared to existing neighboring hospitals, Minnesota Department of Health found it unlikely to have a financial impact on the existing hospitals or that it would affect specialized and emergency services currently being provided or staffing at existing hospitals.
The county now must obtain the special legislation for the hospital plan. Cass also has a request filed at the federal level to permit building a critical access hospital within 35 miles of an existing hospital. Park Rapids is about 32 miles from Walker.
Should the federal government deny that request, the hospital would have to be built at another location rather than on the Ah-Gwah-Ching grounds in order to get the critical access designation.
Having critical access designation enables a hospital to receive cost-based reimbursements from Medicare and would make the difference between whether the new hospital would or would not be financially feasible to build.
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