Mercy Hospital Fort Scott announced Oct. 1 that it would close on Dec. 31, 2018.
The Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, Pittsburg, will then assume operations for the main clinic and convenient care at the former Mercy Hospital site.
Krista Postai, CEO of Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas answered the following questions from fortscott.biz
What is in concrete at this point?
“Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas will assume operations of the Mercy clinics in Pleasanton and Arma on January 1.
We will also transition the Mound City Clinic, now under the management of Olathe Health System, on January 1.
CHC/SEK will assume operations for Mercy’s Convenient Care and their main clinic in the hospital on February 1.
Hours of operation for all these sites will remain the same.”
Who will be the administration team that will be on site on Jan. 1 at Mercy Fort Scott?
“Administrative offices for CHC/SEK are based in Pittsburg where we originally started.
All of our clinics – and we currently have 11 through southeast Kansas serving 50,000 patients – have a local practice manager on site that oversees daily operations. We have hired one for the Bourbon County Clinics and one for the Linn County clinics.
So “administration” for us is defined as these six people – CEO Krista Postai, Senior Vice President Jason Wesco, CFO Douglas Stuckey, Chief Clinical Officer Linda Bean, VP/Human Resources Megan Fry and General Counsel Daniel Creitz – and they work out of a System Office at 3015 N. Michigan.
We also have management staff including a Director of School Health, Director of Operations, Pharmacy Director, Dental Director, Director of Behavioral Health, IT Director, Billing Director, etc. who provide support for all of our clinics and staff…they are located at various sites throughout the area and travel from clinic to clinic to oversee programs.”
“Amy Budy will be our Practice Manager.”
Which doctors have signed on to stay at this point?
“I’ve attached the picture we took yesterday of the staff at the main clinic in Ft. Scott who we will employ beginning Feb. 1.
This includes the physicians we have hired – Dr. Burke, Dr. Seals, Dr. Self and Dr. Gugnani. We have also hired Dr. Allen from Mound City who will cover both Mound City and Pleasanton clinics. We do not anticipate hiring any additional physicians.”
What services will you provide?
“We will continue to provide the services that have been offered by the clinics in the past.
Convenient Care will change its name to Walk-In Care – the hours and services will be the same.
At the main clinic, the same services will also be offered – primary medical care including obstetrics, lab, x-ray, immunizations, etc.
For most people, the only change they will notice will be the name on the building.
We also plan to continue to offer mammograms and provide space for specialists including the Cancer Center of Kansas.
We will also assume operations of the retail pharmacy next to the hospital clinic.
Once we make the transition, we’ll start looking at the addition of other services including behavioral health, addiction treatment and, eventually, dental care as we offer at many of our other clinics.
In the meantime, anyone needing these services will be referred to the closest clinic and, if needed, transportation provided.”
You said services fees will be income-based?
“All of our services are provided regardless of an individual’s ability to pay. We accept Medicare, Medicaid and all private insurances.
For those with incomes at 200% or below the federal poverty level, services are discounted. For example, a family of four with an annual income of $25,100 or below would pay $15 for a medical visit including lab and x-ray.
Special financial assistance paperwork must be completed annually and documentation of income provided and those with/or without insurance may apply.
For those with insurance, the discount is applied to the amount they owe after insurance pays. Also, for those on Medicare, the deductible is waived per federal requirements. For the financial assistance forms, go to our web page…www.chcsek.org