A groundbreaking reality

A process that began little more than two years ago finally come to fruition on a warm October day in Saratoga. On Saturday morning, the groundbreaking for the much anticipated North Platte Valley Medical Center was held at its future location at the intersection of West Bridge Avenue and N. 13th Street.

The path to the groundbreaking was not an easy one for the Platte Valley Healthcare Project (PVHP), the Corbett Medical Foundation or Health Management Services (HMS). 

The PVHP, previously known as the Healthcare Sustainability Project Subcommittee, held monthly public meetings from December 2018 to October 2019 to discuss the process and share sustainability numbers with Saratoga residents. Even as these meetings took place, and potential locations were discussed, the debate over healthcare in the Valley found its way into multiple venues including the Saratoga Town Council chambers.

Additional hurdles came after the PVHP had selected a location for the proposed critical access hospital, only for the location to fall through. Fortunately, the donation of property at the future home of the North Platte Valley Medical Center came through in the nick of time.

Staff from the Platte Valley Clinic and Saratoga Care Center joined members of the PVHP, the Corbett Medical Foundation, HMS President Karl Rude, Wyoming Director of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wally Wolski and Michael Burke of HGFA Architects at the groundbreaking. PVHP Board Member began the groundbreaking by remarking on its significance for the Valley.

"A very historic event here in the North Platte Valley. We've all had one common goal; that is to maintain and improve healthcare in this Valley and this board has worked very hard to get that done along with other people," said Willford.

PVHP Chairman Will Faust had similarly lofty words for the event.

"We're here to celebrate the next great chapter in healthcare in our Valley. As we transition from the planning phase to the building phase, we look forward to a future where our community has local access to medical services that we've never had before. We're talking about 24-hour emergency services, advanced imaging and laboratory, hospital services and dedicated space for visiting specialists. All here in our Valley," said Faust. "We also look forward to maintaining and improving our community's care for our seniors. Improving our clinical services and physical therapy services. We look forward to providing residents, visitors and our providers with the most advanced and most up-to-date medical facility in our community."

Since the very beginning of the pursuit of a critical access hospital, the PVHP had made clear that it would technically be a 25-bed facility, 20 of those beds would be utilized for long-term care.

Faust added that the PVHP had raised $4.6 million that was needed for the 20 percent match for the USDA funding of the North Platte Valley Medical Center. He reminded people, however, that the fundraising was not complete despite having been approved for funding from the USDA.

"We've set an additional fundraising goal of $1 million to upgrade the planned equipment in the new facility and to improve the service lines that we're planning on having," Faust said.

Following Faust was Wolski, who was appointed as Wyoming Director of the USDA by President Donald Trump in July 2019.

"As we assemble here today on the future site of the North Platte Valley Medical Center campus, and on behalf of Secretary of Agriculture Mr. Sunny Perdue, I want to extend our congratulations to all the folks of Saratoga for bringing this critical access hospital into your community," said Wolski. "I want to also inform everyone that this is the very first critical access hospital that has been approved for federal funding in the entire nation during the recent pandemic."

Burke, in his speech, touched on the uniqueness of the North Platte Valley Medical Center and its inclusion of long-term care within the future facility.

"You look at communities across the country and this is even deeper in the groundbreaking side in the fact that it's combining long-term care with a hospital so that we can actually afford to build this building," said Burke. "You're going to be so proud of the hospital you have. It is not just a clinic. You needed a hospital. This group up here and many of you fought for that hospital and now you have it."

Additionally, Leroy Stephenson, the mayor of Riverside, and Greg Salisbury, the mayor of Encampment, were on hand to voice their support for the project. Stephenson, in his speech, recounted his time as a volunteer ambulance driver and the time it took between answering a call and reaching Saratoga on the way to Rawlins.

"To know that you guys are going to have an emergency access hospital here where people can come in a hurry like that and cut off that extra 45 minute drive to get to Rawlins is just phenomenal," said Stephenson. "Never, in my wildest dreams, had I ever thought that would be possible for communities this size. This hospital is going to be a foundation, a building block, for this Valley into the future. There is so much foresight going into this facility, it is just phenomenal."

Salisbury, meanwhile, remarked on the potential benefits the Valley would see by having such a facility constructed.

"The assets that we're going to gain from this is unbelievable. Not only for our health possibilities, but economic benefits that we're going to receive," said Salisbury. "It's just going to help the entire Valley and we're just so happy that this is going to happen."

Susan Foley, who has worked as a Nurse Practitioner for Platte Valley Clinic since HMS took over management in October 2018, also commented on the benefits that the North Platte Valley Medical Center would bring to the area and compared them to the struggles that her and her staff had gone through the past two years.

"This is a huge thing for healthcare in ways that I think a lot of people can never fully understand having not seen the other side; the frustration with not being able to get people to the care that they need in a timely manner, the number of people who have had to cancel important appointments with specialists because of weather and road closures," said Foley. "This is something that we've been seeing and dealing with on a daily basis."

The entire event and the culmination of the past two years could probably be best summed up in a message read by Willford from Senator Mike Enzi, "It's the people on the ground and the communities that dream the dream and they push them until they are a reality."