‘Most’ employees of Baker City hospital should keep jobs after merger

Catholic Health Initiatives and Trinity Health announced plans

Wednesday to merge St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City and two

other regional hospitals into a single system with the Saint Alphonsus

Regional Medical Center in Boise.

Amy Dunkak, director of communications at St. Elizabeth, said

officers with Catholic Health Initiatives, which owns St. Elizabeth,

and Trinity Health, which owns St. Alphonsus, signed a letter of intent

to combine the four hospitals in Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho into

a single local system.

“From our perspective, we are really excited about the opportunity for telemedicine and visiting physicians. It will enable us the opportunity to expand our services,” Dunkak said.

The letter of intent sets in motion a process for transferring three Catholic Health Initiatives hospitals – St. Elizabeth, Holy Rosary Medical Center in Ontario and Mercy Medical Center in Nampa, Idaho – to Trinity Health, a Michigan-based system of 45 hospitals, including St. Alphonsus.

According to a press release, after a period of time for a due diligence assessment of both systems, the next step would be execution of an agreement to create a new regional health system made up of the four hospitals, and that a transfer of the three Catholic Health Initiatives hospitals to Trinity Health could occur within the next several months.

Dunkak said the letter of intent grew out of meetings and discussions over several months between the board of directors, senior officers and staff from the four hospitals, Dunkak said.

Employees at St. Elizabeth Health Services were called in for meetings Wednesday and Thursday and told about the pending merger, Dunkak said.

“We wanted to give our staff an opportunity to digest the information before it got out to the media,” Dunkak said. “Our goal is to answer questions and address concerns as they come up.”

It’s not clear how many jobs could be cut as a result of the merger.

According to the press release, “The ongoing discussions will have no effect on current operations. If the facilities combine, all facilities will remain open and it is expected that most employees will continue in their positions.”

St. Elizabeth Health Services employs about 230 with an annual payroll of more than $14.5 million and total revenue of nearly $27.3 million in 2008.

Dunkak said net income reported in 2008 was $239,518, up from $126,350 the year before, which was a change from several years of operating in the red.

Over the past couple of years, Dunkak said, St. Elizabeth Health Services has gone through a major reorganization, including staff reductions in some areas, which helped improve the hospital’s financial operations and move net income from negative to positive.

Recently, due to several factors including an increase in urgent care and outpatient services offered by area doctors’ clinics, Dunkak said St. Elizabeth Health Services has seen a decline in emergency room visits, but that drop in revenue has been offset by increasing revenues from its long-term stroke and heart attack recovery program, along with increased visits to its sleep center.

All of the hospitals involved in the planned merger are non-profit Catholic institutions, and Dunkak said the agreement contained in the letter of intent should be referred to as a change in sponsorship, rather than a sale.

Dunkak said there won’t be any immediate effect on staffing at St. Elizabeth.

“Truly at the end of the day, St. Elizabeth Health Services here in Baker City is a hospital dedicated to the community, and that hasn’t changed,” Dunkak said. “Our sense of community is unwavering. It doesn’t matter who our sponsor is, we are here to take care of patients and promote quality care.”

“Combining the strengths of our three hospitals with Saint Alphonsus appears to be the best strategy for the future of our health care ministry,” said Kevin Lofton, president and CEO of Catholic Health Services in the press statement.