CCMSD goes ahead with new hospital application

Should Crook County Medical Services District apply for CARES Act funding for a new hospital when there is still debate as to whether the community wants one? This question was raised at Friday’s meeting of the board of trustees while considering what to do with the completed application.

Interim CEO Micki Lyons asked for the board’s input as to whether the application for $55 million to build a modern hospital with single rooms and quarantine facilities should be submitted. There has been “conflicting information” as to whether the federal money distributed to Wyoming to respond to the COVID-19 crisis can be used for capital construction, she said.

“We have it ready to go,” she said, asking if the board would like to go ahead with sending the document to the State Lands and Investments Board (SLIB), which is handling the allocation of the funding. The district has already mailed in a separate application to obtain three ambulances using the funding.

“My personal feeling is that, if you don’t ask, they can never tell you no,” said Chairman Mark Erickson. Once the board knows whether or not the application has been successful, it can move ahead with making decisions.

However, Trustee Sandy Neiman felt differently, feeling that “the community is very against it” and pointing out that the district has no land on which to build it.

“It wasn’t decided by the people,” she said.

Erickson countered that it might be best to see if the district gets the money first and then go about deciding whether to accept it. If SLIB approves the request, he said, “Then we have to decide as a community what we want to do with it”.

“From what I have seen on it and read, yes, it is very conflicted,” he said of the information available about the funding.

However, he continued, it has taken a minimal amount of time to prepare the application and the cost of submitting it will be nothing more than the postage to mail it in. Lyons confirmed that there are justifications for the applications, specifically the issues achieving an effective quarantine that exist with the current facility.

“I think we as a board would be foolish not to at least ask to be considered,” Erickson said. He likened it to not buying a lottery ticket – you’re never going to win the jackpot.

The board passed a motion to submit the application, though not unanimously. However, the discussion then turned to the idea of preparing a second application for remodeling the existing hospital facility, which did meet with unanimous approval.

Erickson suggested that, if SLIB does not approve the idea of a new hospital, it might be possible to make improvements to the current building to improve the district’s response to a future outbreak. Lyons suggested waiting to hear the verdict on the first application and then preparing a second application based on the idea of upgrades that could be made from an infection control standpoint.

“Better to have options,” said Erickson. The board agreed, passing a motion to take this approach unanimously.