decorahnews.com's Paul Scott: "Yes, but...."

On the one hand, Tuesday afternoon's news release from Winneshiek Medical Center was good news.

First of all, the news release stated explicitly that the board would discuss the Management Services Agreement and Physicians Services Agreement the hospital has with Mayo Health Systems.  It's the first time the topic of Thursday evening's board meeting has been explicitly written.  In fact, it's the first time in 20 months that ANY closed session of the board has been described as anything but for "strategic planning," a phrase that is no more useful for helping the public to understand what is being discussed than would be the phrase "We're making plans for the future."

Also, the news release stated explicitly that the board would not take a vote following the closed session.  State law says governmental bodies--the hospital agrees the WMC Board of Trustees falls under this category--have to give notice that a board might reconvene in open session to take action.  That's not what happened on August 3rd of last year, when the board adjourned into closed session, then came back into open session and voted to accept a financial settlement offer with Mayo Health Systems--after all the members of the public and news media had gone home because they did not know about an open session.

But progress is progress in keeping the public informed about what is happening at the hospital.

Now the task will be to continue pressing for openness:

1) If and when the hospital board meets to vote on an extension of its contracts with Mayo Health Systems, will the meeting notice state "Strategic planning," or will it state "to discuss the hospital's contracts with Mayo Health Systems"?

2) So far there has been no opportunity for public comment on the contracts.  Letting the public know what is going on is an important step.  Listening to the public's questions and opinions is even more important.

In case you're wondering what Iowa law has to say about letting the public know what's happening in closed sessions of governmental bodies, the following story discusses the regulations created by the Iowa Attorney General's Office.