Archive for Thursday, January 8, 2009
TMH officials discuss Told clinic
January 8, 2009
Craig — The fate of Craig Medical Center, the family clinic operated by Dr. Thomas Told until his recent departure to Denver, hangs heavy on The Memorial Hospital, officials said Tuesday.
During the commission meeting that morning, TMH Board Chairman Melton Sullivan and George Rohrich, TMH chief executive officer, explained their position in regard to the hospital acquiring the clinic or the possibly 2,500-person patient load.
The men said there is no done deal.
The hospital and the clinic have a "verbal contract," Rohrich said, though he did not give an idea about what the verbal agreement entailed. He added that the deal may not work out.
At the moment, Sullivan said the hospital is in a "gathering of information" stage. TMH officials signed a confidentiality agreement with Told, so they could not give specific terms involved in any existing deal.
Barry Bergman, TMH chief financial officer, also is looking through the medical center's books to determine its financial assets, Sullivan said. The business' last valuation was in 2007, which is too old to use.
Sullivan said the first step toward any deal, however, is to recruit a family doctor to staff the clinic.
No deal can be done without a doctor, he said, adding that the notion that TMH now is responsible for all the clinic's former patients is not true.
Although hospital officials are "very concerned" about what might happen to the clinic's patients - especially given the fact that Moffat County had too few family doctors before Told left, and now one fewer - the clinic's patient load is beyond the scope of what TMH can do, Sullivan said.
The situation is tough now because Told was unable to recruit a replacement physician before his departure, Sullivan said.
The hospital knows first hand how tough it is to recruit physicians, he added. It took three years to find a new general surgeon. Although TMH has been able to recruit a new family doctor - Dr. Andy Hughes, who plans to arrive in February - he is expected to be an employed TMH physician.
Sullivan said it is not known whether Hughes will take over Told's practice.
If Hughes is not interested and there are no other doctors coming to town, Sullivan said TMH is not looking to buy office space. If the hospital purchases Told's clinic, it will be because there was demonstrated value and a community interest.
However, Sullivan stressed, the primary concern is what will happen to Told's former patients.
Moffat County residents have to be able to see a doctor, he said, and TMH will do what it can to make sure that happens.
Told was unable to be reached for this story, but his wife, Molly, said she had not heard "these kinds of things" from hospital officials before Tuesday. She added that the medical center was moving forward as though Hughes planned to continue the practice upon his arrival.
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8 January 2009
at 10:03 a.m.
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lonelyone (Anonymous) says…
Oh Boy! This is not looking to good for the home team!
8 January 2009
at 10:36 a.m.
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blueyes (Anonymous) says…
I will have to say that this is a really tragedy that The Memorial Hospital is string a long the people of Craig. Dr Told did a lot for the community of North West Colorado and TMH. This is how you TMH repay a man nice. I bet that you THM did not tell Dr Told that you had the old care clinic at TMH vacated by all the THM staff so that you, THM could put the new DR in there and not have to deal with DR Tom Told clinic. That in its self is very sad. OH is this shocking not from what I have seen by the upper management of THM. But what really hurts is that the board of TMH has laid down on this we have all know that DR Told was retiring at the end of the year. THM needs to put there effort into bring in family doctors and less in there new hospital that is old news the health care needs of Craig and North West Colorado need the utmost attention now. Just do it.
8 January 2009
at 11:46 a.m.
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selket42 (Anonymous) says…
I don't quite understand why everyone is so down on TMH. Dr.Told knew for quite some time that he was leaving the area, and it would seem to me that part of the responsibility to his patients was to do a little more perhaps, to find a physician to take his place. 2500 people, more or less is quite chunk of our areas population for other clinics to try to absorb, when the other clinic doctors are booked by their own patients. The people of Craig need to try to figure out why it is so hard to get any qualified people to relocate to this wonderful area.
8 January 2009
at 12:19 p.m.
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nikobesti (Anonymous) says…
selket42 is correct. TMH, Moffat Family Clinic and Craig Medical Center have all been trying to bring in very much needed new doctors for the last several years. No one wants to move here—they make peanuts here compared to big cities. We just need more doctors. I don't care who they work for or which building they work out of.
8 January 2009
at 6:41 p.m.
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CindyLou (Anonymous) says…
Let's all not forget that the Hospital has been telling everyone for months that they were buying Dr. Told's clinic. I have been to two function where there head guy said it from his own mouth. If they promised Dr. Told and the community they were taking over the clinic why would Dr. Told need to find a doctor to replace himself? This is another example of how the hospital treats the community like mushrooms - Keep us in the dark and feed us crap! If I were Dr. Told I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of the hospital's mouth, becuase all we here from them are half truths and false statements.
8 January 2009
at 9:10 p.m.
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xrsareus (Anonymous) says…
Why don't we use the old hospital for a clinic??? It would be a little big, but they could tear down the oldest part of the old hospital, still be connected to the VNA and have more needed parking. Why buy another building when they all ready have one. Or do they other plans for the old hospital when the new on is ready???
8 January 2009
at 9:53 p.m.
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Patrick (Anonymous) says…
Instead of talking wishfully about who we would really like to leave (TMH management), we should work on finding good doctors to come here and work in our new hospital. Wait, I'm sorry, the first thing I would do is fire all of TMH's management and start building a winning team in that area right now now. Then when we find good doctors they will stay. Isn't that why we are building the hospital? If so, TMH's management needs to go before we will have good health care in this area. Other wise we will just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
9 January 2009
at 12:08 a.m.
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highway1340 (Anonymous) says…
this is a truly interesting topic = I would like to hear more = who out there has some facts on this? somebody has to be in the know = please provide more information if it is available on what is actually going on = please, no rumors.