McDonough County might soon be without ambulance service. But the head of McDonough District Hospital is hopeful something can be worked out.
The hospital has contracted out the service with Lifeguard Ambulance for around eight years.
But MDH President and CEO Bill Murdock said the hospital recently gave Lifeguard a 45-day notice that it plans to end the contract on May 3.
The contract just went into effect on January 1. What changed between then and now?
“Part of it is because the way this contract is structured is the longer it goes, the more subsidy that they require, and it’s beneficial for us to unravel this sooner rather than later,” Murdock said.
He said the contract would have cost the hospital $3.1 million over five years, and that the hospital is receiving “not a penny” from the state or federal government to provide ambulance service.
Murdock also said the hospital signed the contract because it felt backed into a corner — they didn’t want the community to be without ambulance service, despite ongoing financial challenges.
“MDH is in a precarious situation being a rural, independent hospital where we’re financially challenged, and looking at all of our non-core services, is what’s really driving this,” Murdock said.
He said the hospital is also closing its sleep lab, and looking at other services that might not be a core part of the hospital’s mission.
He said the hospital still faces headwinds. It’s operating at a deficit and staffing shortages have been more common since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, reimbursements are falling short — for example, Medicare is paying the hospital just 83-cents on the dollar.
“I would say we’re not stable yet. This is one of the other things we’re considering to get stable so we can be here as an independent hospital for a long time,” he said.
There is still time between now and May 3 to prevent the loss of ambulance service. Murdock would like the city of Macomb and the county to help out financially.
“We’d like for community leadership to step up and own it, and we’ll partner with them on that,” he said.
Murdock said the hospital has been in touch with another ambulance service they had not talked to previously, and MDH is awaiting their contract proposal.
In addition, he said Lifeguard is open to renegotiating the contract and they will be submitting another proposal.
Murdock said MDH received COVID and PPP funds, all of which were spent on the hospital’s workforce. MDH has 550 employees with an annual payroll of $60 million. He said there are currently 23 vacant positions.
He said the hospital has been looking at the possibility of asking voters for financial support.
Murdock said that in 1984 a previous MDH administration ended a tax levy that helped support the hospital. He said the hospital could once again seek revenue through a tax levy, but he said it would be a three-year process to get a referendum on the ballot, get it approved, levy the tax, and start collecting the revenue, which doesn’t help with the short-term financial challenges.
A county board resolution from 1970 calls for the hospital to provide ambulance service, but Murdock said that’s superseded by a 1981 resolution that said the county would purchase a new ambulance on an annual basis for the hospital.
“They breached that agreement because they didn’t provide us with an ambulance. We would have sold it to subsidize the management of it,” Murdock said.
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