The St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic health system is entering talks with officials at Fairview University Medical Center Mesabi over ways to collaborate on the Iron Range. This Mesabi Daily News story shows the perspective of health care officials in Virginia about the possibility. I kind of get a “Poland 1939” feel off the article, but maybe that’s just the East Range perspective.
If any sort of merger or ownership change happens to the Hibbing hospital that would be pretty big news. The Fairview/Mesaba Clinic system is the largest employer in Hibbing, which like most Range towns is increasingly reliant on its medical community for economic security.
A few months ago I heard on MPR that the state of Wisconsin was short 600 physicians, overall. Hospitals blaming other entities for lack of physicians is stupid. Blame that state governments for not opening more spots in the medical schools. We are importing a large percentage of physicians these days. That’s not a racist statement; it is a statement of fact.
On another note: SMDC is also having some problems with its “public” right now because of coldly and callously shutting down their home care division in Duluth with no prior notice or discussion with the department managers or the patients served. There is no other agency in Duluth who does the type of work their home care unit does. The laid off workers, some with 20 years of employment in a highly specialized field, aren’t sure what they will do now. Some of these positions take 6 -7 years of college to obtain the necessary degrees and credentials. SMDC isn’t following their own “values” and “mission” statements.
SMDC has always had problems with it’s, “missions and values”, just look at how they treat their employees.
I have heard of cases, (in Hibbing), where management eliminated positions, resulting in the layoff of the worker in that position. After the the cut union worker was forced to bump another less tenured union employee out of a job, an newly titled position was then created for a relative of managements. The job duties were exactly the same as the original position that was cut, just a different title with more pay.
Nepotism found a way to run around the union…
Now this being said, it would still hurt the job situation in Hibbing if Hospital and the SMDC Clinic were to combine.
I just heard this exact news about the home care dept, just before reading it here. What are these patients to do?? These hospitals send you home as soon as you can take food and stand up on your own. This is all getting very scary.
The people who are losing their jobs are in physical therapy and occupational therapy for home bound patients, so their not going to going into the PT departments. Many of these patients are severely handicapped children who are mandated to get services. They may get dumped onto the school district to provide the care…like any school district needs more expenses, but it is a mandate.