Future of Clinic and Sanctuary Programs at stake

by Dennis Rahm

Lake Chelan Community Hospital continues to wrestle with its financial health in hopes of moving forward with the construction of a new hospital. The hospital commissioners will hold a special board meeting on Friday morning to perhaps make some tough decisions on how to move the project forward, including the potential elimination of existing departments.

Hospital CEO George Rohrich said “we discussed a lot of things at last week’s board retreat that amounted to a strategic intervention. One of the key topics was what are the decision points to undo the pause on the hospital replacement project”.

Rohrich said improving the financial situation is what has to be accomplished and that how and when is what needs to be determined

Possible elimination or significant changes are being considered for both the Clinic and the Sanctuary department as a means of improving the hospitals financial picture.

The clinic, according to Rohrich, has been losing money since it was purchased in 2015.

The commissioners will also be examining the viability of continuing to operate the Sanctuary, which is an inpatient facility specializing in the treatment of chemical dependency.

Rohrich explains the Sanctuary program is well respected and does make a profit. However, because of reduced medicare reimbursements operation of the program results in a negative financial impact overall.

The hospital’s special board meeting to evaluate current service lines will start at 10:00 am Friday. Rohrich said official board decisions could be made during the session.

LakeChelanNow will audio stream the meeting live starting at 10:00 am.