Information About McCall Memorial Hospital
Joining St. Luke's Health System
General Information
Finance
Governance
Quality & Service
General Information
Background and Process
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McCall Memorial Hospital was founded in 1956 by citizens of the community to provide high-quality primary health care. The initial funding for the hospital came from government grants and public contributions. The current Hospital Taxing District is served by a 7-member volunteer board of Trustees with 84 years combined service.
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The Board of Trustee’s primary responsibility is to assure that everyone living
in and visiting our area has access to high-quality health care. To fulfill this responsibility the board identified two possibilities:
• Remain an independent hospital district and face the possibility of a reduction
of services.
• Join an existing health system to reduce expenses through efficiencies and
enhance access to care and services. The Board of Trustees believes, after much research, joining St. Luke’s Health System is the best solution for our patients, our hospital and our employees.
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Changes in healthcare are making it increasingly difficult for independent rural hospitals to survive. Our balance sheets show decreasing reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid, shrinking cash reserves, and increasing charity care and bad debt.
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Going it alone as a small, rural hospital is very risky. A recent article in “Trustee” magazine titled “How Can Small Hospitals Survive” states: “Every small or rural hospital board ought to be looking at the opportunity or need for partnering with a larger organization.”
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We believe it is necessary to change the way we operate to continue offering the quality of health care our patients have come to expect.
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Payette Lakes Medical Clinic and its physicians joined St. Luke’s Health System in January 2010.
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All other local physicians working with our hospital would also be invited to join the St. Luke’s Health System.
Finance
Quality care requires long term financial stability
Local Investment retained
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Contributions from the McCall Memorial Hospital Foundation and Auxiliary and revenues from operations and the taxing district will stay in McCall.
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Buildings, property, equipment, and furnishings will remain assets in our community.
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A newly formed 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation will own and manage the
hospital.
Access to capital
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Maintaining a healthy cash reserve makes it possible to purchase new medical equipment, recruit physicians and weather uncertainties.
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Each year McCall Memorial Hospital invests more than $2,000,000 in capital equipment such as cardiac monitors, surgical equipment and fetal monitors.
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Joining the network would allow the hospital to access the positive credit environment which is available to St. Luke’s and greater debt financing flexibility relative to the funding of capital projects.
| McCall Memorial as a Stand Alone Hospital | FY2004 |
FY2009 |
PROJECTED FY2014 |
| Un-reimbursed Medicare and Medicaid, Bad Debt & Charity Care | $2,082,530 |
$5,662,495 |
$8,698,000 |
| Year End Cash Reserves | $6,054,508 |
$4,073,726 |
$1,328,000 |
Governance
Local control with system strength
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Local citizens form local hospital and taxing district boards
By state statute, hospital taxing districts must be comprised of only seven elected officials living in the district. This small number does not adequately represent our entire service area nor is it sufficient to distribute the significant workload. The new structure will allow us to include residents from our entire service area on our board.
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Local decisions
The hospital would be called “St. Luke’s McCall” and be a member of the St. Luke’s Health System. St. Luke’s Health System would be the sole member of
the new corporation, but the Board of Directors of St. Luke’s McCall would be comprised of local residents and one designee from St. Luke’s Health System.
The current hospital taxing district would have representation on the Board.
As a result, our local interests would continue to be well represented in all
critical decisions regarding the management, operation and expansion of our hospital.
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Local responsibility
Local contributions to the hospital and continued property tax support from the district would remain critically important. The taxing district was formed in 1984 to ensure everyone living in our area had access to medical care. Its importance, purpose and the need has not changed.
Since their beginning, McCall Memorial Hospital Auxiliary (1956) and McCall Memorial Hospital Foundation (1984) have contributed $2,007,610 and $2,844,739 respectively to local health care. Our hospital could not have reached its achievements without this financial contribution. We can not reach our future aspirations without their continued high level of successes.
The continued local philanthropy and tax support will help pave the way for our hospital to take advantage of St. Luke’s Health System’s positive credit position to finance critical capital maintenance and improvements for St. Luke’s McCall, rather than burdening the district’s tax payers with the cost of such maintenance and improvements.
As a member of St. Luke’s Health System, we must be financially independent based on our own operations and philanthropy, as other members of this system are required to be.
The $1.3 million dollars collected from the taxing district, 6% of total revenue, is essential to keep the hospital doors open.
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Providers: Working together in a health-network makes it easier for local and visiting physicians to coordinate care when patients are seen by multiple physicians and transferred between different care locations.
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Payors (insurance companies): St. Luke’s McCall would be able to accept a far greater number of insurance policies. More patients would receive beneficial in-network rates.
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Partners: McCall Memorial Hospital and our community benefited from an eleven-year management contract with St. Luke’s. A more formal relationship would expand our ability to share best patient care practices, medical technology, information technology, and education resources.
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St. Luke’s, the only Idaho based not for profit health system, is renowned nationally for its patient care excellence. St. Luke’s was included in the 2009 Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals in America. St. Luke’s is one of only 13 hospitals nationwide to have made the list seven or more times. Other repeat hospitals include the Mayo Clinic and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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We already enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with St. Luke’s and share
their mission which is “To improve the health of people in our region”.
Priority remains on personalized care
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Both McCall Memorial Hospital and St. Luke’s are well respected health care organizations guided by the philosophy of personalized patient care.
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What we cherish will remain the same: our same doctors, customized patient rooms, the same people who take care of us, maintenance of facilities, beautiful landscaping, our healing environment…
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Sharing evidence based care practices and evidence based protocols advance the quality of care for our patients.
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Alignment of care practices among physicians and between hospitals is shown to improve patient outcomes.
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St. Luke’s Health System’s vision: “St. Luke's Health System will transform health care by aligning with physicians and other providers to deliver integrated, seamless, and patient-centered quality care across all St. Luke's settings.
Best outcomes come from the best people.
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Joining St. Luke’s would create the efficiencies and cost savings necessary to maintain our hospital’s financial health and avoid reduction in services or staff.
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There would be no anticipated reduction in staff positions.
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Our intent is to provide our employees with the best benefits we can afford. Employees would be offered the comprehensive benefits package available to St. Luke’s employees including health insurance, retirement savings options, and paid time off.
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As part of a health system it would be easier to help staff continue to gain clinical expertise in areas such as orthopedics, obstetrics and surgical services.
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Medical staff in McCall could participate in world-class training and learning opportunities as part of the St. Luke’s Health System and access their extensive on-line medical library.
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Our hospital staff would have the opportunity to share best practices and care approaches with others in the Health System. Sharing of knowledge and experience would allow all members of the System to do the best they can for patients.
Community involvement in this process is very important to hospital leadership as
well as the Board of Trustees. Please email us or call at (208) 634-4061 ext 131 if you would like more information or if you want to share your input.