Hospital Board Election 2004, Part II

What do you see as major issues facing local health care?
What should be the board's priorities in addressing this?
A couple of issues come to mind - the ability to recruit and retain quality staff and to keep up to date on current technologies. I think having current technologies is critical to recruiting new staff and retaining the excellent people we have currently.

In the last couple years, PAHCS has had a tight financial position, which has improved over the past 12 months. What are the keys to continuing this improvement?
As the recent article in the Paynesville Press indicated, PAHCS expects a profit of $1 million for 2005. The key to that improvement has been the amount of reimbursement PAHCS receives from Medicare. Management must continue to maximize reimbursement and be ever mindful of its budget while continuing to invest in both staff and technologies that insure an appropriate level of services and care is maintained.

PAHCS -Ęthe trade name for the hospital district - has expanded tremendously in the last 20 years, from a community hospital to a regional health care system. How important is continued growth to PAHCS?
It is critical to PAHCS but also to our community. Our society seldom is willing to wait and yet we still demand the best. We are also very mobile; to drive to St. Cloud or another community for health care is a viable option.

However, when an emergency strikes or you have a need for healthcare, most of us prefer to be closer to home and family. The ability to receive quality, current (or in some instances state-of-the-art) care and treatment in our own community is a great advantage to our area.

The presence of PAHCS also has an influence on the economy of our area. It helps us to attract new residents and businesses. In addition, PAHCS is a prominent employer in the area.
Lastly, as a society we are aging. I hope that when I arrive at the point in my life where long-term, sustained care is required, PAHCS will continue to be offering quality long-term care options.
Well, that was a lot more than I planned on saying! So, I guess you could say I feel strongly that continued growth is important

With all the technological advances in health care, how can an independent PAHCS affort to have state-of-the-art equipment and modern facilities in the years to come? Would you ever support using the hospital district's ability to tax?
We can afford state-of-the-art equipment by being wise about our purchases. Buying equipment that generates sufficient income to pay for itself is one way to do so. We want to maintain modern and up-to-date facilities. If we do not have them, people will eventually find other providers. Fortunately, we have a large hospital district to support PAHCS, and I would support taxing if it was critical to PAHCS.

How important is long-term care to the future of the hospital district?

As I mentioned earlier, it is extremely important. We are living longer, and as the baby boomers age, there will be greater demands for long-term care. I think that the key is to be aware that long-term care no longer means just nursing homes. It also means resources such as assisted living facilities and home health care. I believe that PAHCS has done an excellent job in this area and must continue to do so.

What do you see as major issues facing local health care?
What should be the board's priorities in addressing this?
Probably the most important issue for local health care is keeping good doctors and employees. To do this we must face the expense of modern equipment and consider whether or not we can afford it and how necessary each piece of equipment is.

In the last couple years, PAHCS has had a tight financial position, which has improved over the past 12 months. What are the keys to continuing this improvement?
Our CEO, staff, and board have done a good job of making good financial decisions. We need to keep good people on staff. Within this past year, the board started doing monthly reviews of the financial status of each entity of PAHCS. This needs to continue so changes can be made in an area that continually shows a loss.

PAHCS -Ęthe trade name for the hospital district - has expanded tremendously in the last 20 years, from a community hospital to a regional health care system. How important is continued growth to PAHCS?
I don't feel that PAHCS needs more locations. We do need more patients at each of the clinics. We also need to keep our rest homes filled.

With all the technological advances in health care, how can an independent PAHCS affort to have state-of-the-art equipment and modern facilities in the years to come? Would you ever support using the hospital district's ability to tax?
I don't feel we can afford all the modern equipment that we'd like to have. We need to share some things with other hospitals like Willmar or St. Cloud. We made some major changes this year, like refinancing and switching to critical access. This cut our payments by over $2 million a year.
I don't think we'll need to tax.

How important is long-term care to the future of the hospital district?
Long-term health care is very important to PAHCS. With advances in medicine, people are living longer. Our world has a large number of older citizens, so many people will need help in the near future.