Kalispell Regional Healthcare and North Valley Hospital have created a joint task force to explore further collaboration between the two hospitals.

It’s premature to say whether the study of how best to deliver health care to Northwest Montana and the Flathead Valley will result in a merger, both hospital administrators said.

“We’re looking for the right way to develop a valleywide system,” North Valley Hospital Chief Executive Officer Jason Spring said. “That wouldn’t necessarily mean a merger... We feel like it’s important for us to be transparent in this process with our community and our staff.”

Kalispell Regional Healthcare President and CEO Velinda Stevens said collaboration between the two health-care facilities has been ongoing for years. The formation of a joint task force is a way to determine if there are other ways the two hospitals can work together.

“The [Kalispell Regional] board hasn’t approached or voted on a merger. This is just very preliminary,” Stevens said about the study under way.

A press release on Monday acknowledged the joint effort comes at a time when hospitals not only locally but across the country are challenged by increasing costs to deliver quality health care while complying with increased regulations.

“It has become apparent to the governing boards that North Valley Hospital, Kalispell Regional Healthcare and the communities they serve can benefit from some form of collaboration to deliver quality health care even better than they do today,” the release stated.

As the task force develops recommendations, one of the goals is to preserve each hospital’s unique business model, cultural identity and community philanthropic support base.

“This is not really anything new,” Stevens said about the collaboration between the hospitals. “We’ve been helping out each other all 17 years I’ve been here.”

Joint efforts include the recruitment and sharing of physicians, including hospitalists, anesthesiologists, radiologists, surgeons and a variety of other specialists and clinical staff. The two hospitals also share services such as nuclear medicine, cardio/pulmonary rehabilitation, cardiac testing and telemedicine.

Spring noted that just this week Kalispell Regional is starting an extension of its cardio-pulmonary rehab program that will be offered in Whitefish.

“Most of what we do, Kalispell does, too,” he said. “They tap into using us as an access point for things we don’t do. When we send patients to Kalispell, that relationship is in place already.”

North Valley Hospital is a critical access hospital, certified under a set of Medicare Conditions of Participation that are different than an acute care hospital. Among the critical access requirements are stipulations that the hospital can have no more than 25 inpatient beds and must maintain an average length of stay of no more than 96 hours for acute inpatient care. The limited size and short stay length for critical access hospitals encourage a focus on outpatient care and referring other conditions to larger hospitals, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Stevens said Kalispell Regional routinely helps out not only North Valley Hospital but also other critical access hospitals in Conrad, Cut Bank, Shelby and Anaconda.

“They come to us to ask for help, mainly to provide doctors in specialties,” she said.

Kalispell Regional and North Valley also offer joint education and training to medical providers and staff and have worked on efforts to facilitate electronic use of health-related information.

“It’s a true partnership,” Spring said. “We share physicians, we recruit together... we share services like laundry. We have our laundry done [at Kalispell Regional].

Financial resources for smaller hospitals are an ongoing challenge, Spring acknowledged.

“Things get incredibly tight, especially with big capital projects and new systems. Those are some of the ways we hope to work together,” he said. “It’s going to get tougher as we go forward for the financial resources of a small hospital without being part of a larger system.”

The federal Affordable Care Act also is putting pressure on hospitals’ delivery systems, he added.

Kalispell Regional Healthcare task force members include Curtis Lund, current board vice chairman; Dr. Gwenda Jonas, current board chairwoman; Muffie Thomson, former board chair; Henry Ricklefs, board member; and L. Peter Larson, former board chair.

North Valley Hospital representatives are Penni Chisholm, immediate past board chairwoman; Steve Stahlberg, current board chairman; Jane Karas, current board vice chairman; Dr. Suzanne Daniell, board member; and Lin Akey, past board member.

Lund will chair the joint task force. The group will meet on a regular basis and expects initial recommendations by the end of the year.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.