EDITORIAL: Gooding gets a jump on its future with new hospital

Red-letter days don't come often in a small town, but today is one in Gooding.

It's the official opening of the North Canyon Medical Center, the $17 million, 50,000-square-foot successor to Gooding County Memorial Hospital.

Located near the junction of U.S. Highway 26 and Idaho Highway 46, it's an example of how rural hospitals can do things right.

For starters, hospital CEO Earl Fitzpatrick, his staff and board of directors went to the community to find out what kind of facility it wanted, and listened to enough citizens that the project had broad support before a shovelful of dirt was turned.

They created a nonprofit corporation, Partners In Healthcare Inc., to acquire $30 million in federal bonds.

Then the hospital hooked up with Boise-based St. Luke's Health System to work on tasks such as coordination of patient care and purchasing supplies at group rates. By leveraging the resources that St. Luke's can provide, North Canyon will be able to offer a much broader range of services than most small hospitals.

As a consequence, Gooding -- population 3,200 -- will have a hospital comparable to facilities in much larger Idaho communities.

In fact, North Canyon may be the model for small-town medical care across the state.

It could have turned out much differently. Depending on what happens with national health insurance reform, lower Medicare reimbursement rates might drive some small hospitals out of business.

Had the community stood pat with 40-year-old Gooding County Memorial Hospital, residents might have had no choice but to leave the county for health care. Now folks from other counties are likely to visit Gooding to go to the doctor or to have surgery.

Six thousand square feet will be dedicated to the expansion of surgical services, according to Fitzpatrick. North Canyon will have two advanced operating rooms to provide orthopedic, podiatric, urological, cosmetic, hand and general surgery.

For Gooding, this facility will be the centerpiece of an evolving community -- providing jobs and the opportunities for broader economic development.