Banner Health provides $1 million

WORLAND – Banner Health will provide $1 million in hospital equipment so Washakie Medical Center can redirect funds to finish building construction.

The hospital was previously $1 million over budget, and the decision comes as “opportunity to finish project the way it we want to,” CEO of Washakie Medical Center Jay Stallings said.

“This is a county project. Banner cannot fund money into a physical campus in any way, but Banner has decided to fund equipment,” Stallings said.

The funding of equipment will allow the county’s funds to be focused on building updates, Stalling said.

“We fully plan on providing that 1 million [over budget] through a million dollars in equipment purchase. That will free up a million dollars to ensure the level of vision for this community … We wanted to ensure we had some movement, or it we would have to go to tax payers for it, and that’s not going to happen,” Stallings said.

Washakie County Chairmen Aaron Anderson thanked Stallings and the hospital board for their commitment and efforts for making this happen.

“It’s a big deal. This is a lot of money, and this would be hard to come by in any other scenario,” Anderson said.

Stallings said Brad McCaslin, project manager for hospital construction, will decide what equipment Banner will buy for the hospital.

Depending on the cost of the piece of equipment, Stalling said it can be used for one big item, or it can be used for multiple items.

Commissioner Anderson, at Tuesday’s commissioner meeting in Worland, asked McCaslin and Stallings if the dynamics with the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) grant had changed because of Banner’s contributions.

In response McCaslin said as soon as they realized they were going to be a million dollars over they started down the path of proving the funding and started following three equipment packs: one that was going to be [purchased] within the project, one that would be purchased with the (SLIB) grant the hospital previously received and now the one that’s going to be purchased by Banner.

Previously, the county applied for a SLIB grant that would be used for hospital equipment. The county was awarded the grant for the amount of $840,000 in July 2015, according to County Clerk Mary Grace Strauch.

The grant will be used to purchase various hospital equipment such as sinks, ceiling mounted examination lights, an electric washer/disinfector and exhaust fans.

Hospital construction updates

McCaslin, project manager for hospital construction, gave his quarterly update about the hospital renovations to the commissioners

McCaslin updated the commissioners about the pending approval for bid packets 3 and 4. Bid packet 3 is for information technology (IT) cabling and furniture and bid packet 4 is for asbestos abatement. Total costs for the two packets were just under $1 million.

The bids were originally sent to McCaslin, who then sent them to Washakie County Attorney John P. Worrall and Banner’s Wyoming Attorney Rick Thompson to review on March 4. After their review, the bids were intended to be sent to the county commissioners on March 10, with the commissioner approving them based on Worrall’s OK.

The commissioners made two motions later on in the afternoon: one, to approve the bid packets and another to waive the bid packets fee. The motions were made after the board left per Worrall’s recommendations.