CCHS Feels Impact of WWGH Closure

WAITSBURG – How will the recent closure of Walla Walla General Hospital impact the Columbia County Health System, as well as Waitsburg and Dayton residents? CCHS CEO Shane McGuire was invited to a July 27 meeting of the Waitsburg Commercial Club executive board to address just those questions.

McGuire attributed the closure of WWGH in large part to a lack of cooperation between WWGH and Providence St. Mary’s Medical Center, saying the two hospitals were in a constant battle over a relatively low population to support two hospitals.

“Instead of working collaboratively, General puts in a cath lab and within three months Providence announces they’re going to build a cath lab as well. Instead of saying, ‘you can have a cath lab, let us have this,’ they invest all this capital. And there are all these cardiologists with both cath labs and there is not enough cath lab need to support both. Eventually, somebody wins,” he said.

McGuire called the closure of WWGH “tragic,” noting the loss of 400 jobs and 61,000 patient visits. He said that Providence is being “very optimistic” that they can handle and absorb the swell in patient need.

“I think they’re going to find that very challenging. They have no capital plans to expand ER or inpatient. . . what they’ve done is taken their emergency surge plans and put them into effect to accommodate the load.” he said.

After announcing its closure, McGuire said WWGH worked closely with St. Mary’s and local clinics to help patients find new primary care providers.

“They did not invite us to the table. Dayton has been out of the loop, for the most part, through most of these conversations,” he said.

McGuire said that Dayton and Waitsburg residents are already experiencing the effects of the WWGH closure. Effects which are compounded by the recent purchase of Kadlec Medical Center, by St. Mary’s.

“We have already recognized an inability to transfer patients to St. Mary’s. When their beds are full, they surge to Kadlec. Our next call usually was to Kadlec but now they’re full. So now we’re having to route to Trios, to St. Joes, to Spokane, other hospitals that are farther away,” McGuire said.

McGuire said one of the main priorities for CCHS is getting the word out that people need to get Life Flight memberships.

“It was traditionally presumed that if you were stable but needed additional care at another hospital you would be transported by ambulance to the nearest hospital. Now, that nearest hospital may be two-and-a-half hours away. Even though you’re stable, the best way to get you there may be by helicopter,” he said.

McGuire said Waitsburg has been having problems staffing its all-volunteer ambulance crews, and Dayton has been making the majority of the Waitsburg runs. He cited a recent situation where a patient wanted to bypass Dayton and go directly to St. Mary’s. While the ambulance crew was en route to St. Mary’s, dispatch was notified of a 78-year-old Dayton resident, lying on the floor, awaiting an ambulance.

“So an elective ambulance haul took the only crew that was available in two communities out of the community to go to St. Mary’s where there were multi-hour waits in their ER. And they had to rush back and take care of the more urgent call of someone on the floor.

“We’re already seeing some things happen that may mean you’re going to receive care at the closest facility for the level of care you need, versus electively taking these crews out of the area and making them unavailable and inaccessible to other people that may be in need,” he said.

McGuire said that Providence is working hard to educate the community about the proper use of the ER department.

“It’s not going to be unrealistic to see three to four hour waits for non-urgent needs in St. Mary’s emergency department. That’s really big city waits. Currently, we (DGH) do not, and have never used our ER waiting room for anyone waiting for the ER. They show up, they get roomed. We have a provider there during the day or within 20 minutes,” he said.

“We have plenty of capacity and staff to absorb additional emergency department needs. In the last couple of years, from what I’ve heard, the quality of care is perceivably better since most of them are board certified ER physicians, rather than someone who is trying to juggle between primary care and the emergency department,” he added.

McGuire said he hears stories of people who bypass Dayton because they don’t realize they have a CT scanner on site and aren’t aware of the services and technology DGH has available.

“They don’t pay attention because they’re healthy. Then they have an accident and don’t know if Dayton can take care of it,” he said.

“Not only is there the stigma of the technology and the availability of the technology, but healthcare is not definitive. No health facilities have a perfect outcome every time. But when you live in a small town and you don’t have a good outcome, they tell ten friends, and then they tell ten friends, and it saturates the community in a very robust fashion. At St. Mary’s, if they don’t have a good outcome, there are 80,000 people to pull from.

“I can’t say that in the past that there weren’t concerns about the quality of care coming out of Dayton. I would say that most of the people who have had care recently would say those aren’t current realizations of the quality of care. But it’s incredibly hard to change perceptions in a small community,” he added.

McGuire said if CCHS can get a portion of the patients seeking primary care physicians to look at Dayton and Waitsburg, they will probably expand the Waitsburg Clinic.

“Currently it has four exam rooms, a couple of procedure rooms, and a couple offices. The way the layout is, we know we can add at least a couple more exam rooms fairly easily,” he said. The nice thing about Waitsburg is that it’s not too far away from Walla Walla.”

McGuire said this is an opportunistic time, but also a very rough time. Not only are people losing jobs, but the patients that have established care with doctors they trust are left stranded.

“We’re careful not to be like a vulture circling in the air, but we’re working to get the word out in a way that lets people know we’re here and available without seeming like we’re celebrating the demise of a very well-valued facility that we have partnered with extensively over the years. They were a fantastic partner for the hospital. General was authentic in their offers of support every time,” McGuire said. “It is sad to see General go.”

McGuire said CCHS currently has a great medical staff and clinical team and is constantly adding and updating technology.

“It’s a constant battle to change that legacy mindset,” he said.

For those emergency situations that the Dayton hospital isn’t equipped to handle, he again stressed the importance of a Life Flight membership.

“They’re not that expensive and, on the off chance that you do need to use it and don’t have insurance, it’s incredibly expensive. We’ve had some people receive bills up to $24,000 . . .” McGuire said.

Life Flight memberships are $65/year and cover the member, spouse or domestic partner, and unmarried dependents claimed on a tax return. Memberships may be purchased at http://www.lifeflight.org.