North Valley CEO says hospital will retain identity

North Valley Hospital’s chief executive says patients and employees shouldn’t worry about any sweeping changes at Whitefish’s hospital in the wake of a new affiliation agreement with Kalispell Regional Healthcare.

The hospital name will stay the same, the Planetree philosophy of care will remain, the hospital will keep its critical access status and no one is losing their job.

Jason Spring, CEO of North Valley Hospital, joined Kalispell Regional Healthcare President and CEO Velinda Stevens for a joint press conference April 7 to discuss details of the agreement that goes into effect May 1.

“Our boards recognized that a consolidated medical community made working together easier,” Spring said. “[North Valley and KRH] share the same population. This makes it easier to facilitate shared coordination, sharing electronic medical records, making sure we have the best information on every patient in the system. We think it’s the right thing to do for our community.”

Under the arrangement, North Valley Hospital will become an affiliate under the umbrella of Kalispell Regional Healthcare. The move approved by both boards on March 28 will integrate the organizations both clinically and financially. The hospitals will maintain their respective governing boards, but will create shared governance by having board members of each organization serve on the other’s board.

Combined, the hospitals will have about 3,300 employees on the payroll. Gross revenue annually will nearly reach $500 million when including the estimated $80 million from NVH and the $400 million from KRH.

Spring expects more growth at both facilities going forward.

“It’s a growth industry and we both, as facilities, have grown and you’re going to see even more of that,” he said. “At any given day we have a couple hundred job openings across the two hospitals. We think we’ll need more people through growth and we already have a shortage.”

“There’s not going to be layoffs,” he added.

North Valley will continue to employ its own staff, but under the umbrella of KRH, and some consolidation of employee benefits will occur.

Whitefish’s hospital has a longstanding approach to patient care through the Planetree philosophy. Spring says the facility will continue to follow those same practices going forward and that he doesn’t anticipate NVH losing its identity with the deal.

“We recognize that each hospital has it’s own culture and own philosophy about patient care,” he said. “They’re very similar, but we want to recognize and embrace both of those. Over time, we may share those best practices. But there’s no plan for Planetree to be eliminated [at NVH] or done at KRH. Just like we wouldn’t want Kalispell Regional to come to North Valley and say we’re going to do these things.”

Spring said patients should see the same level of care or better under the new affiliation. Both he and Stevens brushed aside the notion that fewer choices in the health care marketplace could drive up consumer costs.

“Just because we are in a system, doesn’t mean we still won’t push ourselves to be great, even against our sister hospital within the system,” Spring said.

He said having the ability to more easily share information should actually reduce costs for the consumer by removing duplications. Currently, the hospitals use two different electronic medical record systems. Streamlining of the records could take up to 18 months, Spring estimated.

“The competition factor really makes it worse today than it does make it better,” he added.

Stevens said patients will still have the same choices they have today.

“We’re not taking away any consumer choice on any service,” she said. “You can come here and have a baby, you can go there and have a baby. We’re not taking that away.”

“People who work on those units know [patients] have a choice and it keeps them sharp and on their feet.”

Ultimately, Spring said the governing boards of both hospitals are keeping an eye on how the affiliation works out. As part of the agreement, for the next five years, each facility will provide an annual report on the progress and community benefits of the affiliation.

“The board held us accountable,” Spring said. “They want us to provide a report to the community for five years. How did we do? Did we do things to save costs? Did we do things for quality? Is there still choice? Does the payer feel like this has been good?”

To learn more about the organizations, visit kalispellregional.org or nvhosp.org.