August 25, 2017 at 12:00 a.m.
Hospital plans to integrate with IU Health
Jay County Hospital Board
Hospital plans to integrate with IU Health
If all goes as planned, Jay County Hospital will become part of the IU Health network by early 2018.
Jay County Hospital Board voted Thursday night to sign a letter of intent to integrate with IU Health. The IU Health board of directors approved the letter of intent earlier in the day.
Hospital board president Dave Littler planned to notify hospital employees of the decision with an emailed letter at the conclusion of Thursday night’s meeting.
The integration of the hospital into the IU Health network, which is a not-for-profit organization, is still subject to final approval from the hospital board, Jay County Council and Jay County Commissioners.
“When the dust settled, they are here for Hoosiers,” said hospital board member Patrick Miller. “That’s their focus. That’s their goal. And that’s what we’re about too. …
“We felt very comfortable moving down this path.”
Jay County Hospital — a name for the facility under the IU Health banner has not yet been decided on, though IU Health Jay was floated Thursday as a possibility — would join IU Health Blackford Hospital in Hartford City and IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie in the network’s east central Indiana region. IU Health currently operates 19 hospitals, also including Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
IU Health site visits to Jay County Hospital are expected to begin next week.
The letter of intent sets up a basic legal framework for the integration moving forward. With that in place, the hospital board, aided by legal firm Ice Miller of Indianapolis, will go into deeper negotiations with IU Health to iron out the final agreement. The goal is to have that agreement completed by early October, at which point a public hearing for mid-October will be advertised in The Commercial Review. The agreement will also be available for review in the county auditor’s office.
The basic framework calls for IU Health to assume all assets and liabilities of Jay County Hospital. As part of the transition, IU Health has committed to invest $12 million in “integration activities and preliminary facility improvements.”
For the first three years after the integration is complete, the Jay County facility would be governed by a new board of 9 or 11 members that will include the seven current Jay County Hospital Board members — Roger Locker, Janet Bantz, Bill Hinkle, Debbie Kummer, Brad DeRome, Littler and Miller. That board would then be dissolved and the facility governed by IU Health’s east central region board. That 15-member group would include a minimum of two members from Jay County.
In addition to the $12 million in IU Health investments, the initial board will retain all excess cash and payments for services rendered before the closing but paid for afterward. That money will be moved into a fund to be used for capital improvements as determined by that board.
Plans call for current hospital CEO Dave Hyatt to be named president of the new facility. (Because he is already an IU Health employee, Hyatt had recused himself from the steering committee process.)
The agreement also calls for IU Health to sustain Jay County Hospital’s current level of service. Hospital employees are slated to be retained with their current salaries and the same or similar benefits intact.
“Their intent is to operate the hospital with the folks here,” said Ice Miller’s Kevin Woodhouse, who presented the letter of intent to the board Thursday. “Over time, are they going to look at where there are opportunities to deal with some shared services and bring some added expertise … and types of things that a large organization can bring? Absolutely.”
He added that the hope is that the Jay County Hospital Foundation, which is an independent organization, would continue to support the new facility.
The public hearing in mid-October will include presentations from both IU Health and the hospital board, as well as the opportunity for members of the public to comment. The hospital board, council and commissioners, in that order, could then vote to approve the agreement. If approved, the goal would be for the integration to be complete no later than Jan. 31.
Thursday’s vote was the next step in a process that began in earnest in February when the hospital board decided to partner with Quorum Health Resources for strategic planning in the face of continuing financial losses for the hospital. Through the first nine months of fiscal 2017, the facility has had an operating deficit of nearly $5 million.
“We’d all seen the writing on the wall,” said Littler. “We’ve seen small, rural hospitals that have gone out of business or have gone to systems.”
A steering committee, which included the hospital board, local government leaders and hospital staff, was formed to look at options with guidance from Elizabeth Walker of Quorum. The hospital also got help from financial firm Deloitte to evaluate its fiscal stability.
“It was Deloitte’s opinion that while this hospital’s assets are considerable, the financial future of it was not sustainable, and that finding a partner … was the best possible outcome,” Walker said.
After a series of meetings with local leaders to help define priorities — those included expanding services and maintaining local and medical staff input — the committee began researching its options. It looked at some out-of-state possibilities, but honed in on the four major Hoosier health networks — IU Health, Lutheran, Parkview and St. Vincent — for strong consideration.
Members of the steering committee, which included the hospital board as well as physicians and representatives from county commissioners and county council, visited hospitals in each of those networks — IU Health Tipton, Dukes Memorial Hospital (Lutheran) in Peru, Parkview Whitley Hospital in Columbia City and St. Vincent Randolph in Winchester. They also met with leaders of each of those organizations.
The committee, which was then expanded to include all primary care physicians, heard presentations from multiple networks on June 27. Following those presentations, the group of nearly 30 voted unanimously to move forward with IU Health and asked the organization for an initial proposal.
That proposal was received about a month later, with details then being ironed out over the next few weeks to reach the letter of intent that was approved by both the hospital and IU Health boards Thursday.
In other business, the board:
•Approved an employment agreement with general surgeon Dr. Monzur Haque. He is currently completing his residency through Drexel University at Eastern Hospital in Pennsylvania. He is expected to join the hospital staff in June 2018 after his residency is complete.
•Appointed Lauren Gevart (physician extender) as a dependent allied health professional and Renee Green (nurse anesthetist) as an independent allied health professional. Reappointed Dr. Robert Robinson (emergency medicine, internal medicine and family practice) as active staff and Dr. Dariusz Bulczak (teleradiology) and Jonathan Schmidt (otolaryngology) as courtesy staff. Also accepted the resignation of Dr. Robert Brunk (emergency medicine).
Jay County Hospital Board voted Thursday night to sign a letter of intent to integrate with IU Health. The IU Health board of directors approved the letter of intent earlier in the day.
Hospital board president Dave Littler planned to notify hospital employees of the decision with an emailed letter at the conclusion of Thursday night’s meeting.
The integration of the hospital into the IU Health network, which is a not-for-profit organization, is still subject to final approval from the hospital board, Jay County Council and Jay County Commissioners.
“When the dust settled, they are here for Hoosiers,” said hospital board member Patrick Miller. “That’s their focus. That’s their goal. And that’s what we’re about too. …
“We felt very comfortable moving down this path.”
Jay County Hospital — a name for the facility under the IU Health banner has not yet been decided on, though IU Health Jay was floated Thursday as a possibility — would join IU Health Blackford Hospital in Hartford City and IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie in the network’s east central Indiana region. IU Health currently operates 19 hospitals, also including Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
IU Health site visits to Jay County Hospital are expected to begin next week.
The letter of intent sets up a basic legal framework for the integration moving forward. With that in place, the hospital board, aided by legal firm Ice Miller of Indianapolis, will go into deeper negotiations with IU Health to iron out the final agreement. The goal is to have that agreement completed by early October, at which point a public hearing for mid-October will be advertised in The Commercial Review. The agreement will also be available for review in the county auditor’s office.
The basic framework calls for IU Health to assume all assets and liabilities of Jay County Hospital. As part of the transition, IU Health has committed to invest $12 million in “integration activities and preliminary facility improvements.”
For the first three years after the integration is complete, the Jay County facility would be governed by a new board of 9 or 11 members that will include the seven current Jay County Hospital Board members — Roger Locker, Janet Bantz, Bill Hinkle, Debbie Kummer, Brad DeRome, Littler and Miller. That board would then be dissolved and the facility governed by IU Health’s east central region board. That 15-member group would include a minimum of two members from Jay County.
In addition to the $12 million in IU Health investments, the initial board will retain all excess cash and payments for services rendered before the closing but paid for afterward. That money will be moved into a fund to be used for capital improvements as determined by that board.
Plans call for current hospital CEO Dave Hyatt to be named president of the new facility. (Because he is already an IU Health employee, Hyatt had recused himself from the steering committee process.)
The agreement also calls for IU Health to sustain Jay County Hospital’s current level of service. Hospital employees are slated to be retained with their current salaries and the same or similar benefits intact.
“Their intent is to operate the hospital with the folks here,” said Ice Miller’s Kevin Woodhouse, who presented the letter of intent to the board Thursday. “Over time, are they going to look at where there are opportunities to deal with some shared services and bring some added expertise … and types of things that a large organization can bring? Absolutely.”
He added that the hope is that the Jay County Hospital Foundation, which is an independent organization, would continue to support the new facility.
The public hearing in mid-October will include presentations from both IU Health and the hospital board, as well as the opportunity for members of the public to comment. The hospital board, council and commissioners, in that order, could then vote to approve the agreement. If approved, the goal would be for the integration to be complete no later than Jan. 31.
Thursday’s vote was the next step in a process that began in earnest in February when the hospital board decided to partner with Quorum Health Resources for strategic planning in the face of continuing financial losses for the hospital. Through the first nine months of fiscal 2017, the facility has had an operating deficit of nearly $5 million.
“We’d all seen the writing on the wall,” said Littler. “We’ve seen small, rural hospitals that have gone out of business or have gone to systems.”
A steering committee, which included the hospital board, local government leaders and hospital staff, was formed to look at options with guidance from Elizabeth Walker of Quorum. The hospital also got help from financial firm Deloitte to evaluate its fiscal stability.
“It was Deloitte’s opinion that while this hospital’s assets are considerable, the financial future of it was not sustainable, and that finding a partner … was the best possible outcome,” Walker said.
After a series of meetings with local leaders to help define priorities — those included expanding services and maintaining local and medical staff input — the committee began researching its options. It looked at some out-of-state possibilities, but honed in on the four major Hoosier health networks — IU Health, Lutheran, Parkview and St. Vincent — for strong consideration.
Members of the steering committee, which included the hospital board as well as physicians and representatives from county commissioners and county council, visited hospitals in each of those networks — IU Health Tipton, Dukes Memorial Hospital (Lutheran) in Peru, Parkview Whitley Hospital in Columbia City and St. Vincent Randolph in Winchester. They also met with leaders of each of those organizations.
The committee, which was then expanded to include all primary care physicians, heard presentations from multiple networks on June 27. Following those presentations, the group of nearly 30 voted unanimously to move forward with IU Health and asked the organization for an initial proposal.
That proposal was received about a month later, with details then being ironed out over the next few weeks to reach the letter of intent that was approved by both the hospital and IU Health boards Thursday.
In other business, the board:
•Approved an employment agreement with general surgeon Dr. Monzur Haque. He is currently completing his residency through Drexel University at Eastern Hospital in Pennsylvania. He is expected to join the hospital staff in June 2018 after his residency is complete.
•Appointed Lauren Gevart (physician extender) as a dependent allied health professional and Renee Green (nurse anesthetist) as an independent allied health professional. Reappointed Dr. Robert Robinson (emergency medicine, internal medicine and family practice) as active staff and Dr. Dariusz Bulczak (teleradiology) and Jonathan Schmidt (otolaryngology) as courtesy staff. Also accepted the resignation of Dr. Robert Brunk (emergency medicine).
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