Hi Line Retirement Center to become an Assisted Living Center

Hi Line Retirement Center to become an Assisted Living Center

I feel that it is my obligation to inform you on the many changes that are taking place at Hi line Retirement Center. We are in the process of retiring our nursing home license and applying for an Assisted Living license. This will be a most difficult transaction for some and will go unnoticed by others in our facility. We ultimately in the next 60 days will need to help find a new home for probably ten to twenty of our more acute care residents and will need to qualify many others for assisted living. The Hi Line board is saddened by our failure to make the retirement center financially stable but because of the expense of locums (rent-a-nurse), servicing a large debt and low Medicaid reimbursement we have not been able to do so. After giving it a go for over a year after the loss of our CEO, CFO and COO we have now voted that we could not with all good conscience proceed any longer at ‘kicking the can down the road' by incurring more debt and allowing for more strife. We don't feel that the county would or should entertain raising the $300,000 to $400,000 per year that would be needed and this would not solve our nursing shortage. We do wish to thank the good folks that have donated over $400,000 allowing us the opportunity to build accurate financials for several months to be able to accurately evaluate if Hi-Line could survive on its own.

We feel that by morphing to an Assisted Living Center it is not only the best but the only option that we have at this time short of the closing of our doors. Our hope is that this action will minimize the impact on our residents and employees, and also our Phillips County Hospital, local suppliers and of course our community. As an Assisted Living Center we will be able to retain about twenty local full time employees, and we foresee our new Center with 40 or more residents. This change may offer both us and our Hospital some new revenue possibilities, and also allowing for the opportunity to serve our community for future needs for we now anticipate having a full wing or there about vacant after converting our acute care rooms to single occupancy for assisted living.

We want to thank the Phillips County Hospital board for their continued support threw all that we have been going threw, they have been outstanding and if I dare say “an angel from Heaven" by walking beside us.

In conclusion, we are optimistic for our future and feel secure that we have "looked under every rock" for options. We feel our biggest challenge, now is asking for the public to be understanding with all that has and will continue in the next few months and support the building up and the healing process. Our prayers are that our community will continue to support our center with our many local residents that call it 'home' and our employees that care for your family and friends!

Sincerely,

Rick Mikkelson

Hi-Line Retirement Board president