County leaders will soon commission a study to decide what to do with Mount View Care
B.C. Kowalski/City Pages
Charge RN Lotti Drake runs an IV for a patient at Mount View Care Center Tuesday. County officials will be commissioning a study next month in order to decide how to manage the nursing home going forward.
Center, the county’s nursing home, in the wake of a new agreement that ends the kerfuffle with North Central Health Care.
The study, expected to go out in early January, will look at whether the county should keep the nursing home, change it in some way or get out of the nursing home business altogether. Marathon County Administrator Brad Karger says the study is expected to cost between $50,000 and $75,000.
The review comes in the wake of a new contract with NCHC, which ended a year-long dust-up with the three-county organization. County leaders in February voted to explore ending its contract with the organization that provides state-mandated health services on behalf of Marathon, Lincoln and Langlade counties. But after considering options that ranged from the county forming a new department to contracting for each individual service, county leaders from Marathon, Lincoln and Langlade negotiated a new contract with the organization that adds clearer performance standards and expectations. That contract was voted on Tuesday night by all three county boards, past City Pages’ press time.
Part of those negotiations called for Mount View Care Center, currently operated by NCHC, to fall under county control instead. In addition to the study, the county could form a new committee that would also look at needed renovations. County leaders last year said no to funding a $12 million renovation project at Mount View — that figure is now expected to be closer to $15-16 million.
The county’s Health and Human Services Committee Monday recommended the county board adopt the board with seven members — five of which are county board members and two citizen members.
A committee would need to get up to speed quickly, says County Board Chair Kurt Gibbs. “If we do this wrong, it could cost millions,” Gibbs says. “This could be the third largest department in the county.”
