RAPID CITY, SD — At a meeting late this morning, Monument Health and Rapid City Medical Center officials addressed the press, announcing that they had finalized a letter of intent which confirmed recent rumors of the two organizations would be uniting over the course of the next three months.
“The landscape in healthcare is changing a lot, not just nationally but locally. And you know, when we discuss this, we realize that. Similar to Monument, we’ve got deep roots in this community.” said RC Medical Center CEO Jay Hammerquist, “We’ve got a long history here, and our Partners decided this made a lot of sense given all the factors in healthcare that are going on right now”. Hammerquist confirmed that while this decision has been in the works for some time now, the recent announcement of Sanford Health’s intending to build a medical center in Rapid City was noted as a factor which lead to the decision, as well as the growing number of independent clinics in Rapid City.
While this merger is expected to see the departure of some physicians on staff at the Medical Center, the transition should be fairly measured over these next months with other members of staff gradually transitioning to using Monument Health systems. Paulette Davidson, President and CEO of Monument Health spoke on potential staffing changes, and wished to reassure patients and staff alike, saying “For as long as they plan to work and practice medicine, the caregivers and the teams that have been involved with supporting our physicians at Rapid City medical center, we welcome everyone. Believe me when you look at the workforce, we need everybody that’s interested in being part of what we do every day to stay”.
The organizations will merge over the next 90 days, headed by a physician-led transition team, and hopes that the transition will be relatively quick and painless. It should be noted however: As this transition occurs, the medical center will be transitioning to utilizing Monument Health’s policies and procedures. Monument Health’s website states that it accepts all insurance providers, however it may still be worthwhile for patients to ensure that medical services are still covered as the merger continues, however Monument says that patients should not notice much change over the transition period.
