NO EMERGENCY: Lawmakers explain failed effort to save Ontonagon E.R.

ONTONAGON, Mich. (WJMN) — This past winter may have been a mild one but in Ontonagon a storm was brewing Ontonagon County Emergency officials tell us they first started hearing about the possible closure of Aspirus Ontonagon Hospital over the winter.

This is part 2 of our reporting on the event. If you haven’t already, take a look at part 1.

They say employees were questioning whether to purchase property or make long-term investments in the community, having known for some time that their hospital was under performing.

These rumors got the attention of the sheriff and the emergency 911 director Mike Kocher well before the closure announcement Kocher calls to Aspirus we’re not being returned until Kocher asked for state representative Greg Markkanen to intercede. Kocher says Aspirus then told Markkanen, along with Ontonagon Sheriff Dale Rantala and Kocher himself, that the rumors were false.

“We were told that that was a bad rumor, and we are not spread that 5 6 days later after we had one of our elected officials call lost my wrist to ask about that rumor, he was also told that it is false onion will not close by 6 days later we all officially got the notice that on tonight would be closing within 60 days,” said Kocher.

Announcing the permanent closure of Ontonagon’s emergency department just days after assuring everyone that it would not close does not sit well with lawmakers and local officials. I caught up to state Senator Ed McBroom on his way to work in Lansing, he says lawmakers were misled.

“As as little as two weeks prior to the announcement of the closure they urged you to not to proliferate any rumors as they called it that the hospital would close.” “As a matter of fact, representative really very frustrating because they clearly relying at that point yeah, they have not been acting in good faith at this point,” said McBroom.

the announcement of the closure in part reads quote… “in addition to the improvements to Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital, Aspirus will transition Aspirus Ontonagon hospital to a rural Health Clinic, which will provide services that better match local needs in a community that has changed dramatically in recent years. Effective April 20th, 2024, hospital and emergency services will be replaced by a robust Suite of outpatient only Services the community depends on currently. Aspirus Ontonagon Hospital serves just one inpatient today on average, some days there are no inpatients.”

This press release was the only information released to the public and was taken down from their website soon afterward. No further comment was ever given.

Local 3 has reached out to Aspirus dozens of times for their input with no luck, they have never gotten back to us.

According to State Senator McBroom, Aspirus was in a tough spot when it came to their Ontonagon property. As the press release indicated the hospital was underperforming due to dwindling patient numbers and the high cost of bringing in doctors and nurses to staff the emergency room.

“There are many times where many days where the hospital didn’t see people in the emergency room, didn’t see people and they were spending nearly 2 million dollars a year on flying doctors in so that they were available. So I understand it was a difficult situation, but you know why did they continue to tell everybody they were going to do a big expansion there? Why couldn’t they have done some additional notifications what about reaching out to this new federal program for Rural emergency departments? when we finally did manage to have a conversation about this and Congressman Bergman was able to get them to the table we we’re told that we were not eligible for that but they didn’t really provide us with a lot of understanding of why what changes do you need to see in this so that you would be eligible but there didn’t seem to be a genuine interest at that point so it’s very frustrating because I want to be understanding of the impracticalities they were experience they never operated it as a partner they never reached out for any Partners in the community the state or the federal to help figure this problem and this is what’s really frustrating particularly in light of some of the economic activities that we are seem to be on the cusp of with Highland copper and white pine to not have this facility there able to take care of people is a major entrance towards future economic development in that area as well as just a hindrance too good at overall healthcare for the people who live there,” said Senator McBroom.

What’s at issue is the abrupt turnaround of Aspirus’s commitment to Ontonagon. Just two years ago Aspirus pledged 15. 8 million dollars to build a brand-new hospital and emergency room in Ontonagon, the pace of the closure, giving only 60 days’ notice of closing, the lack of communication and the denials by Aspirus when asked if a closure was imminent. Four weeks after the announced closure, after repeated attempts by local officials to set up a meeting with Aspirus fell on deaf ears, US Congressman Jack Bergman stepped in and began appearing on the written request for a meeting. Sure enough, Aspirus was then willing to set up a meeting with Sheriff Rantala, Mike Coker and the president of Aspirus’ U.P. operations. The meeting yielded very few answers, however when asked about the denials about closing, according to Coker, Aspirus said the decision to close the hospital was made the day before the announcement, on a Sunday. Another question that was answered was why they had not sought R.E.H. status or Rural Emergency hospital designation, a federal program designed to assist rural hospitals in keeping their emergency rooms open. Aspirus claimed Ontonagon Hospital did not qualify for this program but failed to explain why.

And so, Ontonagon is left without a hospital and critical care facility, a lot more questions, no real answers, a frightened community, and an hour’s drive to the nearest emergency room. A ribbon of asphalt filled with uncertainty.

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