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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Two health entities in central North Dakota are being recognized for collaborating in an effort to improve their bottom lines.
The Sakakawea Medical Center in Hazen and the Coal Country Community Center in Beulah have been chosen to receive the "Outstanding Rural Health Organization" award from the National Rural Health Association. Although the two flagship medical entities operate separately, the 18,000-member association is honoring them as it would a single institution.
The clinics have experienced financial healing since coming together as the country's first hospital-clinic combination about four years ago, the Bismarck Tribune (http://bit.ly/1K7uCpd ) reported. They've gone from collectively being 2.2 percent in the red to having an 11 percent net profit margin.
They now have the same chief administrator and two mutual members on each of their boards, which share resources, training and health care providers. The infighting that characterized relations for so long isn't there anymore, said clinic board president D.J. Erickson.
"Health care is constantly shape-shifting, and now it's all about prevention. It's cool to be able to do that," hospital board chairwoman Christie Obenauer said. "No one is on an island. As a community member is diagnosed with something, there's the involvement of more people."
Cooperation between hospital and clinic can help prevent redundancies in care, Obenauer said, such as both having $500,000 CT scanners.
"Nobody else is doing this right now. Now, they're seeing that this could be a model," Obenauer said.
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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com
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