It was a welcome cash injection, but far short of the
$2 million cure doctors had requested.
Rehberg is a member of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriation subcommittee, and included in a broader funding bill the $350,000 for an expanded Eureka clinic. His measure still has to pass the full House and Senate, but Rehberg is confident the money will be made available.
“These funds,” the congressman said, “will help provide Eureka with the resources necessary to continue to provide quality care.”
For the past seven years, Whitefish-based North Valley Hospital has maintained a staff of two doctors and one physician assistant at a rural outpost in Eureka, 50 miles north of town and near the Canadian border. It's cramped quarters there - 1,900 square feet to serve 1,000 or more patients each month.
Last spring, NVH completed a new $26 million medical campus in Whitefish, and although hospital management did not request taxpayer money for that project, they did secure a federal loan.
That massive project was barely complete when management broke ground in Eureka, hoping to open an 8,000-square-foot facility by early fall 2008. Until now, NVH has covered the cost of that
$2 million project through its in-house operational income.
But in March, when Rehberg made a house call to the new hospital in Whitefish, management used the opportunity to request the full $2 million from taxpayer coffers.
Monday's announcement of $350,000 is short of that mark, but Rehberg spokesman Bridger Pierce noted his boss was “going to keep fighting for anything more that might be available.”
The money, hospital management said, will help expand not just buildings, but also services - obstetrics, urology, cardiology, orthopedics, physical therapy and ultrasound imaging, for instance. A full-time laboratory will be added, as will a mobile CAT scanner. Hours will be extended, as well.
“We're just thrilled with Congressman Rehberg's help in securing these funds,” said Carol Blake, executive director of the North Valley Hospital Foundation. “The additional dollars will be a big factor in our ability to expand the clinic and increase the quality of health care we can provide.”
Eureka has traditionally been an underserved area in terms of health care, hospital administrators said, where new patients might wait a month or more to secure a first meeting with a physician.
Once the expanded facility is up and running, NVH hopes to add a third physician in Eureka to provide faster service.
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