Residents ask city leaders to continue to seek a second provider

Approximately a half dozen community members Monday expressed their desire for the Albert Lea City Council to continue working to keep a full-service, acute-care hospital in Albert Lea.

The public forum came less than a week after Quorum Health Resources LLC. announced in a public forum that the city could host a profitable full-service, acute-care hospital, but only if certain conditions were met.

No action was taken by the council.

Albert Lea-Save Our Hospital co-chairman Brad Arends said it is “extremely important” to understand there are next steps that need to be taken to ensure the organization’s mission is met.

Arends said the feasibility report compiled by the organization was only done after it was suggested by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and suggested in lieu of the report Save Our Hospital and the city continue to work together.

He was optimistic of the amount of work that has been made together by government organizations and Save Our Hospital in the six months since Mayo Clinic Health System announced it would transition most inpatient services to Austin, and called it “an extremely important time for this process and this community.”

Arends said Save Our Hospital members will discuss the organization’s continuing effort to reach out to other providers Sunday during its bimonthly meeting and stated the group will not abandon its effort to keep a full-service, acute-care hospital in Albert Lea.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the city to achieve this effort,” he said.

Save Our Hospital member Joel Erickson said concerns about the hospital system’s operations rest with leadership.

“The reality of this is that the issue is not with the doctors or the nurses,” he said.

Erickson, a retired pastor, spoke of his support of the help the city has given Save Our Hospital through the process and said continuing to attempting to seek an alternative provider.

“Something’s gotta change, and I hope and pray that you will stay the course like you have and make sure we have an alternative provider,” he said.

Following last week’s meeting, Mayo Clinic said it was committed to the community and had no plans to sell the hospital. It has cited a shortage of physicians in rural health care that it said is putting patients at risk and revenue losses as reasons for the transition.

Save Our Hospital steering committee member Al Arends said the community has seen its once considerable power over local health care decisions reduced and spoke of high local health insurance costs, stating his belief that control over local health care services need to be returned to patients, doctors and the community.

Albert Lea resident Mavis Jacobs discussed the difficulties she had with Mayo Clinic regarding the care of her now-deceased husband and spoke of her support of having a full-service, acute-care hospital in Albert Lea.

“We have to have a hospital right here,” she said.

Save Our Hospital member Jerry Collins suggested the free market be used to lure a second provider to the community and suggested if there were another hospital within a close proximity to the Albert Lea hospital, the current facility would have gone bankrupt because of its operation model.

After the public forum, 2nd Ward Councilor Larry Baker and 5th Ward Councilor Robert Rasmussen said they support a second provider entering the community and suggested a public forum be planned in mid- to late January so people can have their questions answered.

Baker predicted people would use an alternative provider because of the problems they have voiced with the hospital system.

“The people deserve to be treated better than they have,” he said.

First Ward Councilor Rich Murray said a lot of work still needs to be done in the process and suggested organizers continue speaking with the hospital system and look for alternative providers while finding out what the economic impact of the transition will be on the community.

Look for more news from Monday’s meeting in Wednesday’s Tribune.