Kootenai Health footprint growing

By CRAIG NORTHRUP

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai Health is expanding its reach across North Idaho.

The hospital said Thursday it has entered into a letter of intent with Essentia Health to eventually take ownership of St. Mary’s Hospital in Cottonwood and Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino.

The two hospitals received permission in February from Minnesota-based Essentia to seek out a parent company closer to Idaho. They found their choice in their backyard.

“Strong regional relationships are critical for rural hospitals to remain independent and survive,” Kootenai Health spokeswoman Andrea Nagel said Thursday. “Isolation puts rural hospitals at risk of closing their doors and leaving their communities without the health care and employment opportunities they need. This partnership is intended to strengthen health care in north-central Idaho and help ensure ongoing, quality health care in these communities.”

Jeremy Evans, executive vice president of Kootenai Health, said the letter of intent is just the first step in the process. The next step is due diligence.

“We’ll be working through and exploring different operating systems, different ownership structures,” Evans said. “That will take us well through the fall. And in that process, we will develop the final definitive terms of the agreement.”

Between two hospitals and eight clinics, Clearwater Valley and St. Mary’s employ about 400 workers, including 30 providers — doctors, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants and a general surgeon. If all parties agree, the earliest the two hospitals would join the Kootenai Health family would be Jan. 1, hospital administrators said.

“We’ve been with Essentia for years,” said Lenne Bonner, president of St. Mary’s and Clearwater Valley. “But it’s getting to the point that we really need to partner with somebody in the region. It’s just getting harder and harder to be so far away from a home base. That’s been the problem with Essentia coming out of Duluth: They can’t share the same services with us. They can’t send a specialist from one of their clinics.”

The biggest issue the two hospitals have faced, Bonner said, was a limited ability to share electronic medical records, a problem Kootenai Health could solve.

“We’re hoping this relationship will give us better access to services and information,” she said, “and that it will bring us more specialty care into our communities. We’re really excited and anxious about it; both us and Kootenai are.”

Kootenai Health is no stranger to that neck of the woods. It already has a management agreement with Syringa Hospital in Grangeville. Evans said he was excited about how Kootenai Health could help the two Essentia hospitals integrate into the surrounding medical community.

“As we continue to grow as a regional health system, our geographic reach has expanded,” he said. “Over 30% of our patients come from outside Kootenai County. Our philosophy is to help our partners maintain high-quality, accessible health care in their own communities, and in doing so, we hope to build trusting relationships in their hometown.”

Evans looks forward to what St. Mary’s and Clearwater Valley can bring to Kootenai Health.

“Clearwater Valley and St. Mary’s hospitals and clinics are very innovative and offer expertise in rural medicine,” he said. “As Kootenai grows as a regional medical center, their experience in rural medicine will be invaluable.”