City plans to work with county to find health care solutions

City officials are putting plans in motion to address the impact of the city losing its hospital by the end of the year.

City Manager Dave Martin talked to the Fort Scott City Commission Tuesday about working together with Bourbon County officials on potential solutions after Mercy Hospital Fort Scott officials announced Monday plans for the hospital to close by Dec. 31.

“We appreciate Mercy’s years of service,” Martin said. “They have a lot of hard working doctors and nurses … we have a lot of good things going on in the city. And when something like this comes, you can crawl under your shell, or work to move forward.

“We feel it’s unfortunate. We anticipated this coming,” he said, adding that working toward the future is “a process.”

Martin said he, Director of Economic Development Rachel Pruitt and Community Development Director Robert Uhler have been contacted by some people about the future of services currently provided by Mercy. He emphasized the need to work with the county on the future of health care in the community.

“We want to partner with the county to save health care here,” he said. “We’re working on a fast timeline.”

Martin said he has talked with Mercy Hospital Fort Scott President Reta Baker about working to support “employees in question” at Mercy. He also talked about the ambulance service, and said one possible solution being researched is the city taking over that service.

He said the county is responsible for the ambulance service, which is supported and subsidized by the city. The city provides the infrastructure for the ambulance and its crew. Martin said he has been told the ambulance service would end within 180 days.

“As a city, we could possibly take that over and make that work with the county,” Martin said. “Right now, we’re just gathering facts and plan to work with the county. We’re interested in that, but we don’t know if it’s the best thing. We don’t know. But we’ll try to make it work for both entities.

“We’re trying to understand our costs and role.”

During discussion later in the meeting, Mayor Jolynne Mitchell said “it will take our whole village and community to overcome what we’re facing right now.”

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