The Cook-Orr Health Care District has responded to some of our community's concerns. The following text is from a response given to another district township that raised some similar concerns in summer 2015.
1. Why are we levied on our taxes for the hospital?
• The Cook Hospital and Nursing Home is owned by the District. The hospital is a Critical Access Hospital and is certified as a Level 4 Trauma Center.
• Your township is a member of the Cook-Orr Health Care District. The District is a governmental entity formed legislatively in 1988. The district took over control of the hospital and nursing home in 1990.
• The Legislature realized unless communities utilized a shared tax base in a cooperative manner, rural hospitals and nursing homes would fail to keep their doors open. In fact, according to the Omaha World Herald, at least 50 rural hospitals have closed in America since 2010. An additional 283 rural hospitals are on the edge of shutting down, with 35% currently operating at a loss. The National Rural Health Association indicates that more closures have occurred in the last two years than the previous ten years. Over twenty-one nursing homes in rural Minnesota have closed in the last ten years, depriving seniors who need professional care the benefit of living close to their family and friends.
• Each township in the District elects a representative to serve on the Board of Directors. Board members act as accountable stewards for all the district health care resources. The Board sets the direction and monitors the progress of the organization for the benefit of local citizens.
• The mission of the hospital is providing the highest quality primary health care.
• The mission of the nursing home is providing a safe and home-like living environment through values of dignity and compassion for our residents, promoting independence, fostering support of family and relationships, while nurturing the human spirit.
• Rural Minnesota is getting older, sicker, poorer, and more disabled. In fact, well over two-thirds of our Cook patients have Medicare or Medicaid coverage. We lose money treating Medicare patients, and we lose a lot of money providing care for Medicaid patients, so you can see that fees collected for services provided do not cover the actual cost of operating the hospital. Recruiting skilled doctors and nurses, purchasing modern medical equipment, maintaining computerized medical record systems and the physical building for that matter, are substantial fixed costs not entirely covered by fees collected for services provided. Although we are a small hospital with 14 inpatient beds and 28 nursing home beds, we still need expensive medical equipment and expertise. Consider portable MRI, CT scanners, ultrasound machines, stat radiology reads, blood analyzers, a working pharmacy etc. that the big city hospitals can more easily afford to provide through larger volumes of commercial patients. The levy keeps the doors open.
2. What are the ramifications if we don’t want to be levied?
• A township may only leave the District if the purpose for which the District was formed no longer exists and there is no longer any indebtedness. The hospital and nursing home cannot exist without the levy and will have a level of indebtedness as long as it operates. The purpose for which the District was created, i.e., to assure the operation of the hospital and nursing home still exists.
• Indeed, the levy spread across a large geographic area helps assure the successful operation of the hospital and nursing home and is absolutely vital to their survival.
3. What are our township’s benefits?
• We provide emergency room, inpatient, outpatient, adult day care and nursing home care. If you or a loved one suffered a stroke for example, emergency care would be provided in the emergency room. There are certain treatments for strokes and other emergencies, such as heart attack, where the outcome is dependent upon the treatment being administered within one hour of the onset.
• If rehabilitative care was needed in the short run, you could receive that at the hospital in the physical therapy department and stay close to home.
• If long term care was required (nursing home) wouldn’t you want that care to be close to family and friends with excellent coordination of care with the local physician, physical therapist, nursing staff, and pharmacy all under one roof at the nursing home? Would you otherwise be able to visit your loved one daily if they were further away?
• The hospital has a helipad to rush patients to Duluth or elsewhere by helicopter when time is of the essence and lives are on the line.
• The District Board authorized helping recruit new responders by paying 100% of the tuition for anyone in our District that was interested in taking the course and supplied 50% of the cost of anyone taking the EMT course again.
• Another important benefit includes jobs provided at the hospital and nursing home. When a rural hospital closes, local businesses are adversely affected. Cook Hospital and Nursing Home is the largest employer in the area.
• The St. Louis County Economic Impact statement from 2010 shows that the Cook Hospital and Nursing Home has a 16 million dollar impact on the area.
• Yet another benefit to your township is that residents can have doctor visits, labs, x-rays, CT/MRI and even colonoscopies right here.
• Easy access to quality care improves the health of the community especially for those folks unable or unwilling to travel a long distance for health care.
• Most folks understand the hospital’s many benefits to the community. A Community Health Assessment Survey conducted by the National Rural Health Resource Center in Duluth was sent to 800 residents of this area. A full 71% of respondents said that they themselves or a household member had received hospital care in the past three years. That care took place at the Cook Hospital for 33% of that group. In fact, 82% of respondents to the survey indicated that local health providers and services are “very important” to the local economy. Also, 17% indicated that the hospital is “important” to the local economy and only 1% of those surveyed thought the hospital is “unimportant” to the economy.
• There are many more direct and indirect benefits to the District, but these are some of the more important.
The bottom line is that the hospital is used most often for illnesses and injuries in situations where the sooner the patient is treated, the more likely it is that there will be a positive outcome, even a lifesaving outcome. There are fixed costs we bare as a community, to assure these services are available. That is the purpose and mission of the Healthcare District; owned and operated by member townships such as yours. It is all about readiness to provide medical care to you, your family, friends and neighbors. Pooling resources makes it all possible.
1. Why are we levied on our taxes for the hospital?
• The Cook Hospital and Nursing Home is owned by the District. The hospital is a Critical Access Hospital and is certified as a Level 4 Trauma Center.
• Your township is a member of the Cook-Orr Health Care District. The District is a governmental entity formed legislatively in 1988. The district took over control of the hospital and nursing home in 1990.
• The Legislature realized unless communities utilized a shared tax base in a cooperative manner, rural hospitals and nursing homes would fail to keep their doors open. In fact, according to the Omaha World Herald, at least 50 rural hospitals have closed in America since 2010. An additional 283 rural hospitals are on the edge of shutting down, with 35% currently operating at a loss. The National Rural Health Association indicates that more closures have occurred in the last two years than the previous ten years. Over twenty-one nursing homes in rural Minnesota have closed in the last ten years, depriving seniors who need professional care the benefit of living close to their family and friends.
• Each township in the District elects a representative to serve on the Board of Directors. Board members act as accountable stewards for all the district health care resources. The Board sets the direction and monitors the progress of the organization for the benefit of local citizens.
• The mission of the hospital is providing the highest quality primary health care.
• The mission of the nursing home is providing a safe and home-like living environment through values of dignity and compassion for our residents, promoting independence, fostering support of family and relationships, while nurturing the human spirit.
• Rural Minnesota is getting older, sicker, poorer, and more disabled. In fact, well over two-thirds of our Cook patients have Medicare or Medicaid coverage. We lose money treating Medicare patients, and we lose a lot of money providing care for Medicaid patients, so you can see that fees collected for services provided do not cover the actual cost of operating the hospital. Recruiting skilled doctors and nurses, purchasing modern medical equipment, maintaining computerized medical record systems and the physical building for that matter, are substantial fixed costs not entirely covered by fees collected for services provided. Although we are a small hospital with 14 inpatient beds and 28 nursing home beds, we still need expensive medical equipment and expertise. Consider portable MRI, CT scanners, ultrasound machines, stat radiology reads, blood analyzers, a working pharmacy etc. that the big city hospitals can more easily afford to provide through larger volumes of commercial patients. The levy keeps the doors open.
2. What are the ramifications if we don’t want to be levied?
• A township may only leave the District if the purpose for which the District was formed no longer exists and there is no longer any indebtedness. The hospital and nursing home cannot exist without the levy and will have a level of indebtedness as long as it operates. The purpose for which the District was created, i.e., to assure the operation of the hospital and nursing home still exists.
• Indeed, the levy spread across a large geographic area helps assure the successful operation of the hospital and nursing home and is absolutely vital to their survival.
3. What are our township’s benefits?
• We provide emergency room, inpatient, outpatient, adult day care and nursing home care. If you or a loved one suffered a stroke for example, emergency care would be provided in the emergency room. There are certain treatments for strokes and other emergencies, such as heart attack, where the outcome is dependent upon the treatment being administered within one hour of the onset.
• If rehabilitative care was needed in the short run, you could receive that at the hospital in the physical therapy department and stay close to home.
• If long term care was required (nursing home) wouldn’t you want that care to be close to family and friends with excellent coordination of care with the local physician, physical therapist, nursing staff, and pharmacy all under one roof at the nursing home? Would you otherwise be able to visit your loved one daily if they were further away?
• The hospital has a helipad to rush patients to Duluth or elsewhere by helicopter when time is of the essence and lives are on the line.
• The District Board authorized helping recruit new responders by paying 100% of the tuition for anyone in our District that was interested in taking the course and supplied 50% of the cost of anyone taking the EMT course again.
• Another important benefit includes jobs provided at the hospital and nursing home. When a rural hospital closes, local businesses are adversely affected. Cook Hospital and Nursing Home is the largest employer in the area.
• The St. Louis County Economic Impact statement from 2010 shows that the Cook Hospital and Nursing Home has a 16 million dollar impact on the area.
• Yet another benefit to your township is that residents can have doctor visits, labs, x-rays, CT/MRI and even colonoscopies right here.
• Easy access to quality care improves the health of the community especially for those folks unable or unwilling to travel a long distance for health care.
• Most folks understand the hospital’s many benefits to the community. A Community Health Assessment Survey conducted by the National Rural Health Resource Center in Duluth was sent to 800 residents of this area. A full 71% of respondents said that they themselves or a household member had received hospital care in the past three years. That care took place at the Cook Hospital for 33% of that group. In fact, 82% of respondents to the survey indicated that local health providers and services are “very important” to the local economy. Also, 17% indicated that the hospital is “important” to the local economy and only 1% of those surveyed thought the hospital is “unimportant” to the economy.
• There are many more direct and indirect benefits to the District, but these are some of the more important.
The bottom line is that the hospital is used most often for illnesses and injuries in situations where the sooner the patient is treated, the more likely it is that there will be a positive outcome, even a lifesaving outcome. There are fixed costs we bare as a community, to assure these services are available. That is the purpose and mission of the Healthcare District; owned and operated by member townships such as yours. It is all about readiness to provide medical care to you, your family, friends and neighbors. Pooling resources makes it all possible.