Memorial Hospital moves forward to help Herington

Nov. 2—Abilene Memorial Health System is taking an active role in helping residents of Herington following the sudden closure of that city's Hospital. The two most pressing issues is to help people retrieve their medical records, which are locked up in the building; and return some form of medical care to the community.

Employees of the hospital reported showing up to work on the morning of Friday, Oct. 6 only to be told that they were out of a job. The following Monday, the hospital put out an official statement announcing it would shutter its doors at the end of the week. That same day Emprise Bank filed an action to foreclose its mortgage on the clinic property in Hillsboro and to foreclose its security interest in certain personal property owned by the hospital.

"We are working on getting medical records released," said Harold Courtois, chief executive officer with Memorial Health System. "I think we're going to work in conjunction, potentially with (Morris County Hospital in Council Grove) to get those medical records released from the bank. I know Emprise Bank feels like they have a duty to get those released, so that's a good thing."

Memorial Health staff is also in the process of submitting paperwork needed to open a rural health clinic in Herington. Courtois said they have found a location and signed a three-year lease, but they can't get into the building until the end of November.

"The first of December, we should be able to get in there," he said. "We want to make a few improvements. We got to supply it with equipment but everything's pretty much in place. We don't need a whole lot probably one desk, three exam tables and then some equipment that we'll need to take care of people."

The clinic will be open Monday through Friday. Looking further in the future, Courtois said he supports Dr. John Mosier's desire to have an urgent care center in Herington. However, everything now is a work in progress and the priority is to return some form of medical care to the city.

The importance of having local medical services was evident with word that people have already moved out of Herington because of the hospital closing. Courtois said he knows of a few who moved to Frontier Estates, an assisted living apartment in Abilene, which is part of Memorial Health System.

"We're trying to work diligently and the state has agreed to help us fast track, as much as they can, our application for a rural health clinic in Herington," he said. "It's going take probably 90 days or more to get that rural clinic certified."

He has also been in communication with Senator Jerry Moran who also is offering to assist on the federal level.

The 855 form they must submit to open a clinic is nearly 100 pages long. That goes to the state for review and the state send it to the feds, he said. After passing a federal review it goes back to the state, which conducts a survey to ensure procedures are in place and the facility can perform six qualified tests on site.

"Then we'll be certified and we can start seeing patients," he said. "The next thing will be credentialing insurance payers for the clinic. I think that we can do it through the credentialing here."

In addressing questions Herington residents have raised about how they are supposed to pay outstanding bills, Courtois said he could only speak for the new clinic.

"We won't have any part of (former billing)," he said. "We'll just start with a clean state at our rural health clinic. Somebody's got to assume that debt I would think, I just don't know who. Maybe the hospital board knows what was going on with that but I don't know, they've not told anybody anything."

Pressing forward, Courtois said he hopes they will have something in place soon because the nearest health care facility to Herington is about 30 minutes in any direction.