Skiff approved to join Mercy

Approval for Skiff Medical Center to dispose of all assets, including real property to Mercy Medical Center was approved by the Newton City Council Monday.

A public hearing was held with Skiff CEO Brett Altman and Mercy President Bob Ritz speaking about the affiliation between the two medical facilities only hours after the Skiff Board of Trustees approved the purchase agreement with Mercy during a closed session at its monthly meeting.

With approval from both entities, Skiff is just one small step away from complete approval to become a Mercy hospital. Skiff CEO Brett Altman anticipates Catholic Health Initiatives will give the final approval by the end of the week.

“The Mercy Board has approved it, the Skiff Board has approved it, the City of Newton has approved it, so only thing left is the final approval from Catholic Health Initiative,” Altman said. “We don’t anticipate any problem with that. As far as we and Mercy Des Moines are concerned tonight did make it official.”

The effort to affiliate Skiff with Mercy has been months in the making with the hospital going through rigorous due diligence before the approval. Altman said the hospital did wait until the last minute before turning to affiliation and that it was lucky to be the only hospital was looking at when the process started. Had Skiff been third or fourth in line and it had to get through the next couple of years, it could have been problematic.

“There is a lot of pride in keeping a hospital local and having local control but there are times when, the way of the business world today, you need to partner with others to be successful,” Altman said.

For the time being, Skiff will continue to operate under the same name, but Altman did not rule out a name change in the future. He then introduced Ritz who told the history of Mercy Medical Center and spoke about what being a part of Mercy will do for Skiff.

“Iowa Heart is one of our affiliates. Iowa Heart would like to bring Iowa Heart Center to Skiff Medical Center,” Ritz said. “I think should we receive the support tonight we already have a location in an office building to do that soon.”

He said that affiliating is not about Mercy wanting to bring more people to them, but to keep people local. For an example, he said that if a person were to go to the emergency room at Mercy now they would probably have to wait for an extended time before being helped. He said that with Skiff available, people can remain in the community and use local facilities.

“We are proud to be partnering with Skiff Medical Center,” Ritz said. “This is not a time where health care can be predictably stable in any way. We are going to give it our best shot.”

Skiff currently employs 340 people with a payroll of $17 million. Mercy has already invested close to $1 million in the hospital both in dollars and people and with the affiliation will put another $7 million in capital infusion into Skiff over the next seven years.

A transition date of July 1 is still planned to finalize the merger.

Council feedback on the decision was positive with Council Member Craig Trotter saying it was wonderful and he is glad Mercy is coming in. Council Member Noreen Otto agreed giving praise to the affiliation team and those at Mercy. She related Skiff with the city, being that it is a tweener hospital.

“In so many ways that is a parallel of all the challenges our community is facing. We are really in this in between where we aren’t a rural community but not a true urban community, we are sort of right in the middle geographically and characteristically,” Otto said.

Council Member Lin Chapé served as an ex-officio board member and said it was a learning experience but had nothing but compliments for the local staff at Skiff.

“The harmony that went on between Skiff and Mercy was great because the due diligence was not easy,” Chapé said. “I commend our local staff for their patience and their pursuit in terms of things they had to deliver. With true conviction I feel that this a marvelous win for us.”

In other business:

• Public hearings were held on all three bond issues and all three were passed to take additional action for the issuance of them.

• Council approved amending the residency restrictions for city employees with no restrictions requirements for all city employees, except for the city administrator and department directors.

• Additions to the Speedway-Prairie Fire Economic Development Urban Renewal Area Plan and North Central Urban Renewal Area Plan were approved.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com