Lawyers attend Winneshiek Medical Center Board of Trustees meeting to defend the need for closed door sessions of the board

Lawyers for Winneshiek Medical Center were among those attending a lengthy closed door meeting Thursday night.

The two representatives from the hospital's new law firm came from Cedar Rapids to read a statement at the start of Thursday's meeting.  The lawyers defended the hospital board's practice of holding closed door meetings, stating, "We close these (meetings) to have open discussion about preliminary matters."  The attorney stated that the Iowa legislature has recognized that community-owned hospitals would be at a disadvantage if their strategies were revealed in meetings open to the public.

Following the attorney's statement, the Board of Trustees voted to go into closed session for a lengthy discussion of what the lawyer termed was "a preliminary draft" of revisions to the hospital's Management Services Agreement and Physicians' Services Agreement with Mayo Clinic Health System.