Commissioner hopeful on hospital issues

Hospital District Commissioner Jerry Kennedy said Monday that a commission meeting that had been scheduled for Dec. 18 has been rescheduled for Dec. 26.

Kennedy said the commission discovered that a regular monthly meeting can only be rescheduled during a regularly scheduled meeting, but the Dec. 18 change had been made during a special meeting last month. The commissions bylaws require the meeting to take place on the next business day, which is Dec. 26.

Kennedy, who sits on three committees formed to respond to community concerns, said those committees may be ready to report their findings to the public in another special meeting that could be called as early as next week.

“We’ve done a lot of interviews and learned a lot,” he said.

Kennedy and Commissioner Kris Hare form a personnel committee tasked with finding a way through a current impasse between medical staff and administration that has several health care providers saying they would leave Coulee Medical Center without a resolution.

“As difficult as things are right now, I think the reason they’re still here … is that they really care about their community and about the patients here,” Kennedy said. “That commitment to the community is what gives me hope that we can find a way through this.”

Kennedy said he and Hare hope to sit down with the doctors and CEO Scott Graham to talk. Graham has been on leave since Thanksgiving.

“I was sure impressed talking to our medical providers, not just with how much they care about the community and their patients, but I was reaffirmed about the quality of our staff; we have excellent medical providers here,” Kennedy said. “Very few rural areas are as lucky to have the quality of staff that we do.”

Other committee reports will also be coming on the need for an independent counsel for the commission, on a way to allow CMC to offer a popular lab test discount week, on the need for process and performance audit.