LCCHC finances could delay groundbreaking of new hospital

CHELAN – Chelan County Public Hospital District #2 (Lake Chelan Community Hospital & Clinics)  held a Special Board Meeting at the hospital board room on Feb. 11, to hear a presentation by Quorum Health Resources (QHR).  QHR ''provides industry-leading healthcare consulting, management, and educational resources to help hospitals and health systems better serve their communities.'' according to their website and the hospital is considering a three year contract with them. Attending were hospital board members, Jordana LaPorte, Mary Signorelli, Phyllis Gleasman (board chair), Fred Miller and Mary Murphy, new CEO George Rohrich, CFO Mike Ellis, hospital staff and community members.
QHR representatives David Yackell, Regional Vice-president, and Eric Jones, Associate Vice-president, gave a overview of their services and gave a report about the current financial health of the hospital and clinic.
The board learned that they could build the new hospital (groundbreaking is planned for this spring), but in the hospitals current financial state, they could not afford the monthly mortgage payments of $100,000 to pay back the USDA loan. The payments would start after construction is complete late in 2021.
QHR has presented solutions to fix and improve the financial condition of the hospital for $15,000 a month, for the next three years.
The board tasked Rohrich to negotiate the pricing with QHR and bring that to the next board meeting.
The board also tabled until the next board meeting the decision to either move forward with the planned groundbreaking this spring or delay the project until the hospitals finances improve.
The next meeting of the hospital board will be Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 1:30 p.m. in the hospital board room at the hospital. The public is welcome to attend.