TOP STORY: In the wake of resignations, hospital board president says, "Trust Us."

Winneshiek Medical Center Board president Ben Wyatt has been getting questions since last Wednesday's announcement that Chief Administrative Office Dan Werner resigned--the latest in a string of high-profile resignations.

But Wyatt tells decorahnews.com that the hospital is headed on the right track.  He says hospital board members understand that tremendous changes are happening in the health care industry.  He says the hospital board is making plans for the next ten years and beyond.  "If you're not preparing for that, you're not going to succeed," he says.

Wyatt says hospital officials have calculated the turnover rate of personnel at WMC.  11 percent of employees have left the hospital during the last year.  That compares to a national hospital turnover rate of 25 percent a year.

Wyatt declined to discuss the reasons for Werner's departure, but said that doctors who have left have done so for a variety of personal reasons.  Doctors act in their own self-interests, says Wyatt, and will move on to another job if it offers the options they're looking for.  The Winneshiek Medical Center board, on the other hand, must work at keeping itself a viable health care system.

That's especially tricky given what's happening nationally with health care reform and cuts in Medicare reimbursements.  Wyatt says Winneshiek Medical Center has a strategic plan that calls for greater efficiencies and for taking advantage of demographic trends that will have more area residents needing health care services in the years to come.