Clinic partnership may be in question

POLSON — Amid confusion, officials from both St. Luke Community Healthcare and Kalispell Regional Medical Center assure Lake County residents that they are still working in tandem to realize a new primary care clinic in Polson.

Jim Oliverson with KRMC said that St. Luke and KRMC are still working together to build the clinic and that the plans for site have not changed.

While the relationship seems cemented, the partnership is still subject to change.

St. Luke’s CEO Steve Todd said that his hospital is still looking into the opportunity of collaborating on the project. He said St. Luke’s has a long history of working with KRMC, but that St. Luke’s is evaluating what the partnership will include.

“For St. Luke, our biggest goal is to looking create win-win relationships with other organization to increase the access to care in our communities,” Todd said. “If we can create a win-win we will participate, if we can’t then we won’t.”

Todd said the project is in the final preparation stage and the two hospitals are working out the logistics of the agreement. Todd hopes they can both find a compromise that is a win-win-win, meaning KRMC, St. Luke and the community.

The new clinic was discussed in a meeting last November, during which KRMC president Velinda Stevens and the CEOs of both St. Luke and Providence St. Joseph addressed the community’s concerns, specifically that the new clinic would economically harm emergency services offered by St. Joseph in Polson. Stevens assured the audience that KRMC would ensure that Polson will not lose its emergency medical services.

Todd was in support of establishing relationships to expand care and to do what is best for the community at the meeting. His feelings on the matter have not changed.