Josh Tinkle, acting president and CEO of Northern Arizona Healthcare, spoke at the Mingus Mountain Republican Club luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 14, to discuss NAH’s place in the community and the services it offers.
Tinkle started his lecture by apologizing for the level of service NAH has provided over the past few years, and explained that NAH is a nonprofit health care system that reinvests its revenue back into its employees, facilities and care. He said 24% of the patients NAH sees are considered financially disadvantaged, and NAH spent $125 million on care for patients who would not have been able to afford it otherwise during fiscal year 2021.
Tinkle then distinguished among four levels of service in health care:
- Primary care is services that are accessed on a fairly regular basis, such as internal medicine, therapy and imaging. NAH wants to bring access to that level of care closer to home.
- Secondary care involves acute level care, emergency care and others. This is usually further from home.
- Tertiary care includes Level 1 trauma care and specialties like neurosurgery. These practices are usually located in larger metropolitan areas. Flagstaff has a Level 1 trauma facility, which is the only center of its kind north of Phoenix in the state.
- Quaternary care is extremely specialized care involving procedures like organ transplants and experimental surgeries. There are only four facilities for this level of care in the state.
Tinkle said NAH’s goal for the Verde Valley is to invest heavily in both primary and secondary care and continue to expand those services within the valley, ensuring they are accessible for residents.
Tinkle debunked a rumor that the Verde Valley Medical Center was closing, stating that NAH invested $12 million in VVMC last year for infrastructure alone and would not have done so if they were planning on closing the facility.
Tinkle also rejected the idea that further investments would not be made in the Verde Valley campuses due to the cost of the new NAH facility in Flagstaff. He pointed to new providers being brought to the Verde Valley, including electrophysiologists, general surgery specialists and GI specialists.
Addressing the rate of provider turnover, Tinkle said that they are back to where they were about 18 months ago, with NAH recently having added eight new providers in the Verde Valley. He observed that the hardest spot to find providers for is Camp Verde.
Tinkle stressed that NAH needs the ability to grow. He called the new Flagstaff medical center an investment for the region that will provide residents with a higher level of care without making them travel to Phoenix.
A member of the audience questioned Tinkle about the hospice house. Tinkle clarified that a hospice requires 14-20 beds to function properly, whereas the hospice house has only 10 beds and was never opened or licensed as a hospice house.
“Have you ever seen a 10 bed assisted living facility?” Tinkle joked.
He added that the hospice house lost about $5.5 million over five years and only took care of 550 people, which is considered a small number by healthcare standards. Tinkle anticipates that NAH will lease the facility and have another company run a hospice or assisted living facility on the site.
NAH is currently putting together a master services plan for the Verde Valley that will decide what services are needed and where to place them, and encourages community input.
