This spring Mineral Community Hospital will no longer offer assisted living service in Mineral County.

“This is a terrible decision we had to make, but the hospital needs to provide services that the community really needs,” said the hospital’s CEO, Ron Gleason. “Financially, we just can’t keep the facility open for such a small number of people.”

At the beginning of the year, Mountain View Village had seven residents. However, four residents have either passed away or moved, leaving only three.

“At an occupancy of three, it has become necessary to discontinue this service,” Gleason said in a letter sent out on Dec. 28. “At this level of occupancy, we are projecting that the assisted living operation will lose more than $100,000 for the year ended June 20, 2017. Discontinuing this service affords us a better opportunity to retain the remaining services we provide.”

As of midnight, on February 28 Mountain View Village will close and return its assisted living license over to the State of Montana.

The facility has a maximum occupancy of 14, but it hasn’t been at that level for many years, Gleason said. It’s averaged seven or eight residents since he started in Nov. 2014. The hospital board of directors made the decision to close it on Dec. 15.

“We need to use the money to maintain the rest of the services needed in our community, like emergency services and long-term care. We just can’t afford to lose that kind of money,” he said.

The $100,000 are direct costs the hospital would lose. This amount does not include indirect costs such as overhead and administrative costs. Those add another $60,000 to $70,000 to the expenses. Budget expenses that Medicaid does not pay for with assisted living. However, Medicaid will help pay for those expenses for hospital purposes.

There are long and short-term plans for the building space. Short-term plans are to use the rooms for travelling staff, such as nurses and certified nursing assistants. Since the hospital has a staffing shortage, they need to utilize travelling personnel. The space will also be used for administrative staff and storage. Long-term plans are still being discussed with the possibility of moving specialty services into the building.

Long-term patient care will remain a part of the services. Since Mineral Community Hospital is a critical access hospital, long-term care patients can stay in 25 “swing beds” which are available. These are for long-term care patients, which includes elderly patients. The hospital is not licensed as a nursing home, but it is similar to a nursing home setting. Gleason said this is one advantage a critical assess hospital has over larger facilities.