DEXTER'S HOSPITAL SEEKS SURVIVAL TACTIC

Trustees of Dexter Memorial Hospital announced recently that they are seeking to affiliate with a larger institution outside their immediate service area. This comes after years of financial decline and is another piece of evidence of the trend toward mergers and affiliations that is sweeping through the health-care industry.

Time was when a small community hospital could just go along as it always did, focusing on catering to the doctors who practice within its market area and the patients admitted for treatment. This state of affairs, so long taken for granted, is rapidly passing away, especially for small community hospitals such as Dexter Memorial. These small hospitals are in a struggle for their very survival. They will either adapt to the new realities or close their doors.

Hence the move toward affiliation. The hospital board has sent requests for proposals from about 10 health-care systems, a move that reflects concern about the hospital's financial condition. In April, the hospital's annual audit showed a $440,000 deficit.

Dexter Memorial's board president, Jerry Dorton, said, "The board believes affiliation is necessary to the hospital's viability. We will be seeking a health-care affiliate capable of meeting the important health-care needs of the community with an unwavering commitment to superior patient care." Hospital administrator Randal Tennison said the directors intend to increase, not cut back, the services provided by the hospital.

It is a virtual certainty that any attempt to provide such increased services couldn't be accomplished without the affiliation board members are seeking. Caught in a downward financial spiral, hospital officials are doing what countless other of their peers across the nation are doing: seeking affiliation with larger outside entities.

Change is the only constant in health care today. As trustees of Dexter Memorial Hospital are finding out, standing pat is the path to extinction for small community hospitals. There might be those among us who wish it weren't so, but we can no more fulfill that wish than we can stop the tides from coming in.