The Montezuma County Hospital District (MCHD) board decided, at their Jan. 11 meeting, not to renew the lease for Valley-Wide Health Systems at the Mancos Health Clinic. Valley-Wides lease expires in six months from Jan. 27, and will need to out of the bbuilding by then. The vote of the board was 6-0 in favor of non-renewal of the lease, with one abstention (by a woman who works in Mancos).
Gigi Darricades, CEO of the Valley Wide Health Systems, Alamosa, said Our primary concern is our patients, our employees and the community. We want our transition to be as seamless as possible.
The reason for the non-extension, according to Darricades, is that the board wanted to control our staffing.
that was the only issue that we didnt reach a resolution for.
She said they didnt want to give up control of how they run their business and thats why the lease was terminated.
The eviction was originally scheduled for Jan. 27, but the board gave Valley-Wide an extension, Darricades said. Its too soon to say what the employees will do, she added.
In a statement from the Montezuma County Hospital District (MCHD), Bill Thompson, chairman of the board, said, This action came only after trying since August 2011 to get a lease signed that would ensure a minimum standard for health care services to the members of the Mancos Community.
The statement went on to say that MCHD was unable to get Valley-Wide to commit to those principles through their lease, MCHD felt it had no choice but to look elsewhere for a tenant who would help them fulfill their mission.
The mission statement of MCHD is to assure high quality healthcare facilities for the community, Montezuma County, and the surrounding areas and to provide support and assistance in a manner which is consistent with a high standard of healthcare. MCHD offered to employ all of the staff that now work at the clinic, and will be working with various entities so that they can have one full-time doctor and one full-time mid-level (nurse practitioner) there. They also plan to retain all of the health benefits that are currently provided, the MCHD statement said.
We have the staffing, Darricades said. We dont want to close the clinic. We have worked very hard to keep the clinic open every day that its supposed to be open and to keep it staffed appropriately. The district felt they had a right to control how were staffed.
Kim Jaeger, the manager of the Mancos Health Clinic, said that the citizens of Mancos would have uninterrupted health care. However, she said that she wasnt sure, at this time, what that will be.
