Pact With Hospital Firm Near Struggling Shoshone Medical Center Expected To Hire Quorum Health Resources Llc

The nation’s largest manager of nonprofit hospitals will be hired to run Kellogg’s Shoshone Medical Center.

The East Shoshone Hospital board expects to sign a contract next week with Quorum Health Resources LLC, board chairman Jerry Cobb said on Friday.

For all of its strengths - updated equipment, a strong group of contract physicians - the hospital is strapped for cash. It will take three to six months to start turning a profit, Cobb said. “Meanwhile, money is very tight.”

Quorum employee Dan Smigelski has been interim administrator for the past month, while the company prepared its proposal to operate the hospital. He will remain during the search for permanent chief executive and chief financial officers.

Smigelski was not available for comment Friday.

Quorum Health Resources manages more than 200 hospitals nationwide, including Gritman Medical Center in Moscow.

The company’s size made it appealing, Cobb said.

“They have a lot of resources … and the ability to move quickly.”

The hospital board voted unanimously Thursday evening to sign the three-year contract with Quorum. The move came nearly one year after a contentious vote to oust administrator Bob Morasko and his small company, Med Management Inc.

Morasko had aggressively improved hospital equipment and hired doctors, but was criticized for incurring a large short-term debt and for conflicts with some staff members. He recently took a job in Ely, Nev.

The decision to change administrators deeply divided residents of the West Shoshone Hospital District and led to the August recall of four hospital board members.

Quorum Health Resources will charge the hospital $187,500 a year, not counting administrators’ salaries.

Shoshone Medical Center’s problems were actually an incentive for Quorum to come on board, Cobb said. If the company turns the hospital into a thriving operation, he said, everyone will know that, too.

ABOUT QUORUM Quorum Health Resources LLC manages 200 hospitals nationwide, including Gritman Medical Center in Moscow, Idaho. It is a subsidiary of Quorum Health Group Inc., which has 21,000 employees in 40 states. Quorum Health Group received national attention as defendant in a lawsuit filed by a former employee. The Montana man charged the company on behalf of the federal government with reaping illegal profits from Medicare. Quorum has denied the charge.