Hospital might offer child care

If it proceeds, service would only be offered to Ely-Bloomenson staff

Like many other employers in the Ely area, a lack of child care options and a housing crunch have hindered Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital’s efforts to attract and retain staff.

The organization could soon take matters into its own hands, at least on one front.

Hospital administrator Patti Banks confirmed this week that EBCH might start a child care operation as soon as this fall.

If the initiative proceeds, it would only be for children of hospital staff.

“We’re working on licensure,” Banks said Monday, during a wide-ranging interview that covered an assortment of issues facing the hospital. “It would be day care as a benefit. That’s how it’s different. You do have to be employed here to use the service.”

Banks said that an initial survey showed that as many as 15 employees might take advantage of the service, which she added “would equate to about 25 children.”

“How we’re licensed would then be contingent on our staffing,” said Banks. “There are other options for day care and one thing people need to remember when you’re looking for day care services there are lots of options. When we open, somebody still might choose a different option that might work for them.”

If all goes as anticipated, the hospital’s child care service could begin in September.

EBCH has purchased the former Rural Living Environment building near its campus, and that facility would house the childcare operation.

Banks said EBCH is taking steps to address the child care issue as part of an effort to retain its workforce.

“We don’t think it’s about competition but recruiting and retaining,” she said. “What is concerning is when there is a situation and you know we’ve lost a good employee because they have to quit or have to move.”

The Rural Living Environments building is currently vacant and could house the child care operation and could be converted in the future for other uses - even housing.

“We could look at providing other services or the housing part we talked about,” said Banks.

Banks and Jodi Martin, the hospital’s communications and marketing team leader, indicated that Ely’s housing shortage was so severe that one hospital worker set up a camper in the EBCH parking lot for several months last year.

• Ely’s independent, privately- owned hospital posted a profit during the 2023 fiscal year, and showed substantial growth both in surgeries and radiology procedures.

The hospital posted operating income of $369,120 on total revenues of roughly $30.8 million.

On the heels of that growth, Banks indicated that EBCH is “trying to look at patient demographics and services we offer and to be able to expand more on those service offerings.”

One is the expanded cardiac rehabilitation service that is profiled elsewhere in this edition, and Banks added that EBCH is looking at services “where you might not necessarily need to come to the hospital but we can still follow up and offer guidance outside of the hospital.”

She added that the Covid-19 pandemic changed how health care is presented and resulted in a change of approach to health care delivery.

“It really made gaps that were probably already there, but made those gaps bigger,” said Banks.

One of the resulting changes has been more of a focus on outpatient service, as well as preventive measures, which Banks said “sometimes that also means looking at meeting dietary needs so somebody doesn’t develop Type 2 diabetes.”

Several years ago, hospital officials talked up a multi-million dollar expansion project that was to include construction of a new building for various services and a potential community health and wellness center.

Those plans have faded but Banks said “we have paused on a building expansion but we have not paused on looking how to meet the needs of our patients.”

• This week, hospital board members were to get the first look at a comprehensive study of the region’s ambulance service issues.

Banks said it’s not yet clear to what extent the results will be made public.

“Once the board sees (the results) we will make a decision as to how they are presented out,” said Banks.

She pointed to the potential for confidential data in the study, but noted the participation of neighboring communities and units of government, and indicated that any recommendations weren’t yet available.

“We don’t know any of the recommendations they are going to make,” said Banks.

Banks also cautioned that state lawmakers are unlikely to fill the funding gaps of rural ambulance services, given that a legislative proposal calling for more than $120 million in state funding was countered by Gov. Tim Walz with a plan to allocate about $16 million, with $6 million of that set aside for new innovative options.

“They’ve been very loud and clear that there will be minimal funding,” said Banks. “I think there will be some monies available, but it was made very clear tome that they are looking for change... It’s clear we need to figure out a different way to work together, because this is just not sustainable as it is right now.”