5 July 2018 — 1947 mdt

How much should we trust Kalispell Regional Healthcare?

That’s a fair question, an important question, and the question on many minds in the Flathead. On 3 July, both the Daily InterLake and the Flathead Beacon published stories reporting the details of accusations that KRH overpaid some physicians. The 91-page complaint, which had been under seal for a year, was released and can be downloaded from the Beacon’s website.

Thus far, the alleged improprieties are financial, not medical. There are no reports that the case has compromised the hospital’s quality of care. But as tensions mount, and as stress builds on on the physicians named in the complaint, common sense tells us that the probability that stress induced medical mistakes could be made increases. That does not build trust.

Neither does the hospital’s determination to say as little as possible, no doubt the advice of KRH’s attorneys as well as the natural inclination of bureaucrats under seige to go into laager and respond to inquiries with four words: “No comment,” and “Trust us.”

Reclaiming the community’s trust, if not admiration, requires KRH’s completing two tasks. First, the legal mess must be sorted out, settled, explained, and followed by steps to lessen the probability it will occur again.

Second, KRH’s empire building must be put on hold. Too much money has been spent too fast, and with, from what I can see, too little justification. Although adding new medical capabilities may improve medical care in the Flathead, adding those capabilities adds more employees, and gives more responsibilities to KRH’s executives, who can therefore demand higher salaries and more perks, such as golden retirement plans. In government and nonprofit bureaucracies, executives have no stock options — but they do have the option of feathering their nests by building larger empires. Is that what happened here?