As Munson Healthcare embarks on a redesign in its core delivery systems, two Leelanau County residents are playing important roles in the historic shift.
They are Catherine Collins and Kyle Carr, M.D., who hold seats on the Munson Medical Center Community Healthcare Council.
“Leelanau County residents have always played a major role with Munson,” said Ed Ness, CEO and president of Munson Healthcare, a nonprofit organization. “They still do.”
Ness has been discussing what Munson calls its “vision for the regional transformation plan” with community groups, including recently with the Suttons Bay-Leelanau Rotary Club.
While the plan does not call for more physical facilities in Leelanau County, it does lay out a vision for enhanced virtual care access and fewer visits downstate for specialized care including for stroke recovery and heart surgery.
“We need to think differently about health care,” Ness said “It’s not about the hospital. It’s about where patients receive their care. Rather than drive to a hospital, patients may like to go on the phone. When they need a test, they want to easily find a parking spot, have their test and then learn the test result from home.”
It’s a transformation with roots in the shutdowns commanded in the COVID pandemic. Per a transformation plan outline, “Munson Healthcare will increase access to virtual care tools and access points to our system and optimize primary and specialty coverage.”
Per Ness, “More and more people receive care through the out-patient side. It’s not in a hospital.”
While the evolution seems a natural step as society gravitates to Zoom meetings and online dating, it brings financial advantages required for health care providers to get back in the black. Sixty percent of U.S. hospitals lost money in 2022, the last year for which statistics are available.
“Both our government and our patients are concerned about this, Part of the way to reduce cost is to provide care in a less expensive setting .,.. to make it more efficient. Our insurers are pushing that. They are saying that they’ll provide the same reimbursement regardless of where you provide that care,” Ness said.
With services and consultations available from more than one point of contact, navigating the health care maze won’t be easy.
Or will it? “Say you start in a doctor’s office, go to imaging, then through surgery, and then back to your community provider. One of our goals is to make that journey through our system clear and more coordinated. One way to accomplish this is to have a single medical file through the entire system. We hope to have that accomplished next fall, where your information will be with you on your journey through the health care system,” Ness said.
Munson recently opened its acclaimed Comprehensive Stroke Center, which Ness considers “one of the biggest breakthroughs in northern Michigan in my career. We are moving toward providing services like that so if people need a higher level of care we can do that here rather than downstate.”
Areas of higher needs that Munson does not anticipate treating include transplant surgery, severe burns, and pediatric intensive care such as is now provided by the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.
With 7,500 workers, Munson Healthcare is the largest employer in Michigan north of U.S. 10. It operates hospitals in Manistee, Cadillac, Grayling, Gaylord, Charlevoix, Kalkaska,, Frankfort and Traverse City.
While no statistics are available to determine if Munson is Leelanau’s largest employer, the field of “health care and social assistance” is the most common in the county at 18.6 %, according to the website DATA USA.
Back to those contributors to Munson with Leelanau roots.
“John Rockwood was a former CEO and lived on Glen Lake. Kathy Garthe was the administrator at Leelanau Health Center and stayed at Munson for a number of years. Jim Dutmers was chair of the board and lives on Glen Lake … there have been so many,” Ness said.
Megan M. Brown, chief marketing and communications officer, provided a more detailed list that includes the late Pauline Nielsen, Jay Hook, Dan McDavid, Nancy Fisher, Gil Bogley, Jack Snedeker, and Barb and Dudley Smith.
