Here & Now

Sen. Jeff Smith on Health Care Access in the Chippewa Valley

Frederica Freyberg:
Two hospitals of the Hospitals Sisters Health System in the Eau Claire area have officially shut their doors as of today. One whole month ahead of the already abrupt timeline originally announced in January. An additional 19 Prevea health clinics will close in April. An honor walk was held yesterday in front of Sacred Heart Hospital to commemorate those in the community losing their jobs. We turn to Democratic State Senator Jeff Smith of Brunswick for what happens now. And senator, thanks very much for being here.

Jeff Smith:
I appreciate the opportunity.

Frederica Freyberg:
So, first, the shock of the announcement, then the anxious anticipation of the hospital closures, now the reality. What’s this reality like in the community?

Jeff Smith:
It has been shocking. When that occurred, people were really taken by surprise. That’s one of the things that we’re really concerned about that a hospital system could close without warning or any — any seeming — any opportunities to try to help prevent that from happening, and it came as quite a shock.

Frederica Freyberg:
So from your understanding, how big of a job was it to transfer patients elsewhere and have EMS or ambulances diverted and all that pertains to patient care?

Jeff Smith:
Well, you know, in only two months’ time, 1,600 employees are out of a job. Over 40,000 patients have had their healthcare upended. Healthcare workers are up to 13% of Eau Claire’s entire employment so this is really a big deal. We have a Mayo system that’s also in Eau Claire, but they can’t quite cover all that and neither can Marshfield, which is also here. We’ve been in conversations with all of them to try to understand and figure out what they can do to expand some services, but we still haven’t come up with that long-term solution of where everyone’s going to be absorbed.

Frederica Freyberg:
What have you heard from your constituents about their experiences with all of this?

Jeff Smith:
It’s interesting, Frederica. We have, from the very beginning, gotten pleas from people, why can’t you stop this? There’s simply a misunderstanding that hospitals are under some sort of responsibility of the state or some sort of regulations that can prevent this from happening, and that’s the thing that I think really, really hurt people, that this couldn’t be stopped. It is a corporate decision and they have to make their decisions based on the losses that they’ve been taking.

Frederica Freyberg:
How have provisions for doctors and staff, for example, in terms of severance or job placement, been going to your understanding?

Jeff Smith:
From my understanding, one of the reasons for instance when they — I’ll start with when they first made the announcement, they made the announcement giving everybody the impression that it would be 90 days meaning from January 22 to April 21 that we would expect them to close. But they’ve already closed as of today, March 22nd, and partly because during that course of time, doctors and nurses have already been finding other positions in other areas and that’s really a big concern, that we may be losing that talent and skill outside of the area. So they’ve already been finding their places. I think that there’s been, of course, as we all know, a great calling for more doctors and nurses in — throughout this country. So it’s probably not that difficult for them to find their position, but we sure don’t want to lose them from western Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:
Has there been anything specifically done at the state level to help in this situation as some of your people have been asking?

Jeff Smith:
Yeah, there certainly has been. First of all, I’ve had conversation with all of the health providers over the course of time, trying behind the scenes to figure out what we can do as a state to help them to absorb the losses, but also the obvious public thing that everyone is aware of is that there were $15 million set aside a few years ago for this hospital. They never did get into that money, so we have made the right decision, very bipartisan decision to move that money back to the general fund and let — hopefully let the Department of Health actually secure that money so that they can grant that money to help make this happen, but unfortunately, the Republican majority has been dragging their feet. We’ve had a month now since we passed that legislation in the Senate and the Assembly and signed by the governor and yet we still are waiting to see if they will release that money at all. It’s unfortunate that we’re still waiting for that.

Frederica Freyberg:
What would that $15 million go toward?

Jeff Smith:
Well, originally the Republicans had only suggested, and this is where we come into the political problem we have, they suggested it should only go towards emergency capital improvements, but the — as I said, I’ve spoken to all of our providers and they’ve been asking for money to, for instance, expand urgent care, to expand obstetrics, because there was 900 — expected 900 births going to happen at Sacred Heart Hospital this next year. So other places need to expand that service. But also, more importantly, as we have already touched on, being able to secure the staff and to hire the staff needed. The money as indicated by the Republicans would not have been able to be used by that and that’s why the governor had to veto that part of the bill and open up the possibilities for our providers to be able to use that money as they see the needs that are presented to us.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. We leave it there. Senator Jeff Smith, thanks very much.

Jeff Smith:
Well, thank you.