Northwest Healthcare Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Eddy paraphrased Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” for his theme promoting a cooperative approach to survive the flood of changes from health-care legislation.

“If health care for you is worth saving, you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone,” Eddy said Tuesday at a meeting of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce at the Red Lion Hotel.

Scheduled to speak about Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s $42 million expansion, Eddy focused mainly on the larger picture.

He borrowed cartoon character Maxine’s characterization of the reform process for perspective:

“Let me get this straight...We passed a health-care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a Treasury secretary who didn’t pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke. What could possibly go wrong?”

Eddy elicited a good laugh from the audience then said that all the talk of repeal is probably just talk. He said the avalanche of changes has begun rolling down the mountain, building along the way a stack of regulations the equivalent of a 12-story building.

“We are going to see health-care reform,” he said. “It’s incredibly important as we move from here into health care changes that we partner in this.”

Eddy said that Washington, D.C., won’t solve local problems. He called for cooperation instead of competition between hospital and hospital, physician and hospital, local governments and the hospital.

Eddy said the reform law brings a new set of rules that almost certainly require a new model to maintain in the Flathead Valley, where a Dartmouth Institute of Study documented “high quality health care with costs that rank among the lowest in the state and nation.”

He said he was brought in by President and CEO Velinda Stevens to work as her partner as Northwest Healthcare moves into the integrated medical model that brings physicians as well as community members into the administration of the hospital. He brings unique qualifications to his position.

Eddy, a former cardiothoracic surgeon, was a founding member of the International Heart Institute that once provided heart surgery in Kalispell as well as at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula. After a critical hand injury, he obtained a law degree.

 For seven years, he served as chief medical officer at St. Patrick. Eddy said he became dissatisfied when the hospital’s parent company began to exert too much influence, eclipsing local influence and control over the provision of medical services in Missoula.

“It is such a blessing that we have a local board,” he said.

Eddy was headed for Virginia Mason to play a similar role when he contacted Stevens for a reference but instead received an offer to help continue building the new integrated model, bringing more physicians and clinics into the Northwest Healthcare structure.

“Health care that is administered by a partnership of physicians and administration has the highest quality health care and the lowest cost,” he said.

Along with being chief medical officer, Eddy also serves as president of the employed physicians’ group. He said all the physicians who have joined the medical center in the last year chose to become employed or integrated, a term he prefers.

Since May 2010, Family Health Care, Northwest Family Medicine, Northwest Oncology and Hematology and Bigfork Medical Clinic also have integrated with Northwest Healthcare.

Eddy said integration allows physicians to govern themselves while working together with the administration to better patient care. New bundling of services instead of fees for each service in health-care reform demands efficiency at every level.

“We’re given a certain amount of money and we have to figure out how to take care of patients with that money,” Eddy said.

He said Northwest Healthcare has 99 lay people providing direction through various boards of directors, managers and trustees as well as advisory committees and other groups.

“St. Pat’s has gotten to the point where it has none,” he said. “We need you to bring us back to what the valley needs.”

Eddy drew a picture of the symbiotic relationship Northwest Healthcare has with the community with an annual payroll of $95 million from 2,300 employees in 78 departments. He calculates the community benefit at $33 million.

“You are a part of us and we are a part of you,” he said.

Eddy credited the board of directors with championing this as the best time for the surgical tower expansion with low interest rates and high unemployment.

“The hospital can help carry the valley through this fairly dark time,” he said.

In response to questions, Eddy said the expansion will take 22 months. He said the plan calls for reserved parking close up for patients, more distant parking with a shuttle service for employees and a valet parking service for the disabled.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.