Hospital Board considers putting recruitment contract on ice

The Adams County Public Hospital District No. 2 Board of Commissioners and new East Adams Rural Healthcare CEO Corey Fedie weighed the possibility of tossing out their contract with Merritt Hawkins, a firm tasked with searching for and recruiting providers to EARH.

Fedie, who replaced the retiring Gary Bostrom as CEO in mid-June, told the board at the July 24 board meeting that he has been having some "very frank" discussions with Merritt Hawkins and that he is not very excited about the contract between the firm and the district. Fedie said that the initial contract was for $10,000, which doesn't include marketing fees.

In those discussions with Merritt Hawkins, Fedie was told that there were a total of four providers who might seriously consider coming to Ritzville and EARH for a site visit, out of a pool of about 2,300 potential providers. He explained that these were providers who would be interested in working at a hospital of EARH's size, in a rural area, at a critical-access hospital and with a family practice, among other things.

Fedie mentioned that he has been talking with several other recruiters about potential opportunities, where the recruiters would still collect a recruitment fee but the district doesn't have to have a contract with them. For now, Fedie said he doesn't want to move forward with Merritt Hawkins in the search for another provider, in case the district can find a recruiter that is offering a more favorable deal.

In the meantime, Merritt Hawkins has agreed to pause EARH's monthly payments while the district examines its options.

"I just don't want to shut [down business with Merritt Hawkins] yet, because they're a good company and I think we just got off on the wrong foot," Fedie said. The board signaled their support to Fedie to give him the ability to cancel the deal with Merritt Hawkins without first getting the approval of the board.

Currently, the district has one full-time doctor, a part-time doctor, two full-time physician assistants and a full-time nurse practitioner. Commissioner John Kragt asked Fedie how many more and what type of providers he'd like the district to have on staff.

Fedie told him he is initially focused on hiring another full-time doctor at the moment, which is what he was tasked with by the board when he was hired. Ideally, Fedie said, the district would be able to find a provider with a specialty in either women's health or pediatrics.

"So whether that's a pediatrician that's slowing down their practice that just wants to do a little family practice and pediatrics, or someone new out of school, or someone who has pediatrics as a subspecialty," said Fedie. "Is that a doctor or is that a nurse practitioner? I think I'm open to a lot of those options. But with our community growing and our schools getting fuller, that tells me that we need to be more connected there. That will be a really hard thing to bring to a small community, so it will take a while."

There have been a total of 2,152 provider encounters at EARH and district clinics through the first six months of this year, which is down 15.58% from the 2,549 encounters through the first six months of 2018. There have only been 24 provider encounters at the clinic in Washtucna so far this year, down 40% from the 40 encounters through the first six months of 2018.

A bulk of the provider encounters through the first six months of 2019 have been with the district's physician assistants. Of the 2,152 encounters, 1,366 have been with a physician assistant. District doctors have accounted for 403 provider encounters and visiting doctors have accounted for 245 encounters.