by Mari Radtke
MercyOne announced late Friday July 26 that it would be making a number of changes to its available facilities and services in O’Brien County. A press released emailed to “O’Brien County’s Bell-Times-Courier” stated, “By the end of September, MercyOne Paullina Family Medicine and MercyOne Sutherland Family Medicine will consolidate with Primghar Family Medicine, which will remain open.” The letter went on to say, “MercyOne Primghar Medical Center will close.” The mission of MercyOne is to provide high quality care. “We will focus our resources on clinic care to continue MercyOne’s Mission to provide high-quality patient care while adapting to the community’s needs.”
MercyOne is the nation’s first Critical Access hospital.
Kiana Johnson, Executive Director of O’Brien County Economic Development Corporation (OCEDC) responded to the closure immediately. She is working to pull together affected citizens to explore options for the communities to retain as many of the services and employees as possible, and find use(s) for the facilities. “Local job retention is important. Nursing, lab, maintenance and other jobs are important,” said Johnson. “Lots of questions remain,” she said of the undertaking to retain or restart as much of the activity as possible.
MercyOne Health Services in Livonia, MI is the owner of record of the hospital property, the former wound care center, the Primghar clinic, and an out-building on the complex. They also have a contract for another out-building. These properties are currently exempt from property tax. According to O’Brien County Assessor Seth Postma, “Depending on their use and ownership and other considerations at the first of the year, that may change or stay the same.” MercyOne rents clinic facilities in Sutherland from Jim and Colleen Johnson and from the City of Paullina in Paullina. The Johnson’s could not be contacted for comment. City Clerk Michelle Wilson verified the monthly rent at $500 per month, plus utilities. Both properties are and will remain taxable under current ownership.
Sheriff Bruce Devereax expects that emergency room use will be what has the biggest impact on jail operations in O’Brien County. “We have a nurse practitioner, or similar come in every other week. Maybe we’ll keep that, I don’t know yet. We’ll find out more as we go.” He also said that he verified with federal marshalls that it is not required to have a hospital in the town where there is a federal prison, which is part of the O’Brien County jail.
Spokesperson Eve Lederhouse verified the closures in Primghar, Paullina and Sutherland are permanent. When asked about patient options “for continuing care at a MercyOne location that is most convenient to them” [the patient], Lederhouse replied, “We will look at the patient and their needs.” The process to transfer care and will be one-on-one with the patient and consider what each patient needs. In an effort to clarify comments in the press release, Lederhouse said when asked about “impacted colleagues will have the opportunity to transfer to other positions within MercyOne…,” there may be other positions at Primghar Center but she “could not discuss HR publicly.” She also declined to comment on the number of affected employees or the local payroll.”
Another source guessed about 10 employees would be retained at Primghar.
Lederhouse could not comment on the future of the property. “No one can answer that. It is unknown right now.”
If the closure is complete it is currently unknown how other businesses in each community will be affected.