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CASPER, Wyo. — Memorial Hospital of Converse County is moving forward with plans to establish a new emergency department at Summit Medical Center in Casper, despite setbacks in securing public financing to purchase the building.
According to reporting by the Glenrock Independent, the Converse County-owned hospital intends to add a 24-hour emergency department to its existing 16-bed surgical facility on Casper’s east side. The expansion is estimated to cost between $4 million and $10 million and will require the hiring of 60–70 new staff members across multiple departments. CEO Matt Dammeyer hopes to advance the project this summer.
Before breaking ground on the expansion, MHCC must first finalize the $29.2 million purchase of the Summit Medical Center building at 6350 E. 2nd St., which it currently leases. The hospital has faced a series of hurdles in securing low-interest funding for the acquisition over the past year.
Last October, the Natrona County Board of Commissioners effectively buried a request to issue tax-free municipal bonds for the purchase, which hospital officials estimated would have saved them $10 million over two decades. Then, in February, the Natrona Collective Health Trust denied a separate loan request, citing a legal agreement that prevents the trust from funding direct competitors of Banner Wyoming Medical Center.
Bob Kayser, chairman of the MHCC and Summit board, told Oil City News on Friday that the organization is undeterred by the rejections and will pursue conventional commercial financing to complete the purchase.
“We are going to get the financing necessary to buy the building,” he said.
Kayser said that while Banner Health has actively lobbied against MHCC’s funding requests to minimize competition, expanding Summit’s services will ultimately benefit Natrona County patients by providing them with more medical options.
“There is plenty of room for two groups providing emergency service,” Kayser said. “Do you want to create a monopoly on emergency services and deny the people a choice of where they should get their services?”
Phone calls to Banner Health went unreturned as of publication.
However, Natrona County officials pointed to lingering uncertainties regarding the hospital’s expansion plans as the reason for denying the bond request. Commissioner Dave North cited a lack of comprehensive information as a primary reason for the county’s reluctance to approve the financing.
“My personal feeling was that they just didn’t have all the needed information that we would have had to have had to approve it, and there were… a lot of questions that weren’t answered,” he said.
When asked about the potential community benefits of adding a new emergency department to Casper’s east side, North maintained a broad perspective on the local healthcare landscape.
“I think there’s always room for improvement no matter which sector you’re looking at or which area you’re looking at,” he said.
