Citizens gather for Platte County Nursing Home

On Saturday, nursing home residents, Banner employees, and concerned citizens gathered outside the nursing home wing at Platte County Memorial Hospital to show support for keeping the nursing home open. CBS news from Cheyenne was there to cover the event. A short news video is available here: http://www.kgwn.tv/_videos/pages/200810185747.html

Banner Health is cancelling their contract to run the nursing home citing uncontrollable financial losses from the nursing home side of the facility over the past several years. In cancelling the contract, the Hospital District Board has to decide how to best handle the situation. They could:
A. Let Banner run the hospital and close the nursing home.
B. Let Banner run the hospital and find another entity to run the nursing home.
C. Find another entity to run both the hospital and nursing home.
D. Have the county run the hospital and nursing home.

What seems to not be an option is to negotiate a way for Banner Health to continue running both the hospital and nursing home. Banner, it seems, is not interested in operating the nursing home at this point, under any circumstances. Option B would seemingly be the hardest to accomplish. The nursing home and hospital share operational departments such as food service, laundry, housekeeping, and maintenence. Utilities are shared as well. It wouldn't be easy for two companies to negotiate a plan to share the employees and operational expenses. Option D is unlikely...the county simply does not have the resources and expertise to run a healthcare facility. From my vantage point, this leaves options A and C. Both will cause quite a stir, neither are optimal choices.

Regarding the politics of all this, the one person that may suffer backlash from community frustration is democratic candidate Joe Reichardt. He is the only Platte County Commissioner that is up for reelection this year. Although the commissioners have input, the negotiations in solving this dilemma are between Banner Health and the Platte County Hospital District Board. There are several names in the hat for the Hospital District Board. On the ballot in November are Rick Bowen, John C. Bunker, Crystal (Boettcher) Gamblin, Lori Modesitt, and Chuck Witte. These are brave people for wanting to be involved (or wanting to stay involved) in all this mess. The current Hospital District Board states they are doing their best to resolve the issue. Surely there must be a win/win solution to the problem. Any suggestions?