McKenzie County Farmer - Latest News

Patrice Bumstead
Farmer Editor

Editors Note: This is a two-part series from our Window on Watford Segment with Scott Hennen and McKenzie Health CEO Pete Edis.

Scott Hennen on The Flag - KTGO Radio (AM 1090/FM 92.7) sat down with President and CEO of McKenzie Health, Pete Edis, last week during his Window on Watford segment. Throughout the interview, Edis provided updates on the rapid growth of the county’s rural healthcare system.
Scott Hennen: Talk about, from the day you walked in, you brought the vision, obviously. You said, we can take this to the next level. What are you most proud of over the last three years?
Pete Edis: Probably I’m proud of our team. I think we’ve got a great team that has embraced the idea of change and meeting the healthcare needs of our community, which are strong. And really they were unmet. If you ask any of my staff they’ll tell you that they work really hard, but the product of their efforts, is really, they’re very proud of.
Edis also stated that he was proud of bringing obstetrics back to Watford City after 20 to 30 years of not being capable of delivering babies. He noted that in the first year of having obstetrics, McKenzie Health delivered around 65 babies, and this past year they delivered 99. “This year we’re predicting about 150 babies,” he said.
“It’s a little unit. And we’ve actually even looked at what do we do if we need more space? How do we expand that birthing unit to accommodate if we’ve got more mothers than we do space? So we’ve actually, it’s a good problem to have - and it’s good for the community.”
Hennen asked Edis to expand on what services have been added to healthcare in McKenzie County since his arrival three years ago.
“We have 24/7 capabilities with general surgery. Depending on the day of the week, we may have ENT,  or have urology on call. I believe today is our first robotic-assisted urology procedure,” stated Edis. “We’re probably the only one [facility] in the state with this technology right now, specific technology for urology.”
Technological Advances
Scott Hennen: And technology obviously in the healthcare world, has just transformed. It’s amazing. The level of scanning and things that you can do - those are the kinds of things you do here now that you didn’t used to do, right?
“Absolutely,” replied Edis. “We are in the process of developing a cancer center. We’ve got a excellent oncologist and we’ll be performing PET Scans in the very near future here.”
He also informed Hennen that McKenzie Health also added a Cardiologist to its expanding network of specialists. And the cardiologist is currently developing a full cardiology service line.
Describing the general surgical abilities, Edis said “So these are things that just weren’t available. A few years ago general surgery, we perform pretty much all of the routine things that a general surgeon can do. If you need your gallbladder out, your appendix, you got hemorrhoids, you got, all those not so glamorous things that weigh you down and cause you problems, they can work on them.”
Medical Recruitment
Scott Hennen: How have you done what you’ve done, to take it from where it [McKenzie Health] was three years ago, to where it is now? Obviously you need providers, you need docs and nurses and if you talk to any healthcare provider anywhere right now, finding people is very tough and the recruiting that has to be done. You’re in a rural part of North Dakota, how have you staffed this up?
“It is a challenge to staff. Housing...is a huge concern, so getting staff is a problem. It definitely is a challenge, but we’ve had to get creative,” replied Edis.
“I never expected that I would be in the housing business as a hospital CEO. But I am, we have about 70 housing units and we need more, just because even our travel staff at times, we don’t have room for. So we’ve grown significantly.”
Expansion
“We’ve basically run out of space at McKenzie Health. It’s not a bad thing, but it is a little challenging. So we bought the ANOVA Clinic a few years ago. Recently, [we] bought one of the old bank buildings so that we can turn that into our oncology and infusion center.”
“We’re in the process of renovating an office that we’re leasing from Innovative Health...about 2,500 square feet where a child therapist will have occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy there. They’ve outgrown themselves at the Connie Wold Center, which is where our physical therapy currently is.”
Edis also mentioned that the hospital is in the process of constructing a small ICU.
“So we’re a critical access hospital. What does that mean? That means that we are limited to 25 beds. And the federal government pays us a little bit differently for those folks that are covered by Medicare. So they pay us on a cost basis.
“We also have a rural health clinic where we have family practice, family medicine and internal medicine. That’s another benefit of being under a critical access hospital. Where we get paid a little bit differently for that.”
He continued “And it helps us, there’s a lot of different rules that the federal government put in place to help us survive. But, I say this all the time when I said it to the county commissioners, I’ll say it again. Every time I talk about our health system, very few rural health systems make it without some sort of support from the community.
We’ve been really blessed here in Watford City, McKenzie County to have strong support. The city, the schools, county commissioners, our general public - just really have been very supportive.”
And great corporate partners too, right? Hennen asked.
“Yep, absolutely great corporate partners. ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Northern Fishing Tools, and the list goes on.”
In next week’s edition, The Farmer will have the conclusion to the Window on Watford interview with Pete Edis.

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