Dr. William McKinnon, Grand Forks, column: Altru strives to be employer, provider of choice

By William McKinnon

GRAND FORKS -- It is unfortunate that Dr. Jerry Smith of Doctors Hospital does not know the history behind the Doctors Hospital demise or the history of health care delivery in our community ("Nothing healthy about GF's hospital politics," column, Page A4, April 20).

The implication in his column is that Altru Health System is a large, greedy, uncaring organization, not interested in the quality of care it provides to the greater Grand Forks community and region and one that wants to monopolize and stamp out competition.

Smith also alleges employee mistreatment and intimidation if found to be involved with the competition.

Smith should review the history of health care delivery in our community, which has always been patient-centered, nonprofit medicine.

Altru is the culmination of a merger of the previous two hospitals (Deaconess and St. Michael's), the medical staffs of the former Grand Forks Clinic, the Valley Medical Clinic and a few independents in the community. The dream was to join forces to elevate quality and not duplicate services and to centralize the delivery of care for our community.

That dream, with the help of a few who donated the land that is Altru's current campus, was realized. A testimony to that is the recent affiliation with Mayo Clinic, in which Altru Health System was chosen to be the first affiliation in Mayo's health care network.

I have been in practice in emergency medicine for the past 20-plus years with the Grand Forks Clinic/United Hospital and subsequently Altru Health System and have been affiliated with the greater Grand Forks regional health care delivery system at several levels dating back to the late 1960s and 1970s.

I also have practiced medicine outside of North Dakota but returned after discovering that the health care delivery system in Grand Forks is second to none.

Altru Health System's simple but all-encompassing mission is improving health and enriching life for the patients we serve, and I guarantee Herald readers that this is our focus on an hour-to-hour and daily basis. So in response to the implications and allegations in Smith's recent column, they could not be farther from the truth.

Altru Health System welcomes competition; in fact, we are surrounded by it. "Greediness," "uncaring," "disinterest" and "monopolize" are not part of our vocabulary, and we do not mistreat or intimidate our employees. To the contrary, we constantly strive to improve on the care delivered by our system and to be an employer of choice.

This negative press will not in any way deter us from our mission. If any of these implications or allegations had any truth to them, do you think the Mayo Clinic would have chosen Altru Health System for affiliation?

We continually strive to improve our care as a patient centered institution.

Again, it is unfortunate that Dr. Smith would comment without knowledge of our history and mission and make accusations that cannot be substantiated.

Dr. McKinnon is a practicing emergency medicine physician, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine/Urgent Care Services and medical director of regional operations with Altru Health System.