The St. Andrews task force’s volunteers have begun to comb through Lincoln County Healthcare’s reports and financial statements. 

Last week, Andrew Twaddle found a recommendation in the consultant Navigant’s report and concluded that turning St. Andrews into an Urgent Care Facility is a temporary measure, planned to last no more than one year, after which time local doctors will be asked to extend their office hours. Patty Seybold posted Twaddle’s conclusion on the Register’s website on Saturday.

Via email, Lincoln County Healthcare CEO James Donovan and Board of Trustees Chairman Peter Mundy wrote that this was the consultant’s recommendation but not the board’s decision.

“Navigant developed hypotheses and recommendations for consideration throughout our process. Not all were accepted as presented and this was the case with their Urgent Care Center recommendation. Navigant’s recommendation was to have the Urgent Care Center for a defined period of time as a transitional model to get us to a walk-in component of our Family Care Center. 

“We did not accept this as it was felt the priority should be to stand up the Urgent Care Center and provide this level of care to the community. Future decisions will be based on the success of the Urgent Care Center,” Donovan wrote.

“That recommendation was rejected by the board,” Mundy wrote, “The plan is for an urgent care center and the Patient-Centered Medical Home, as we have discussed. There is no plan to move to a walk-in clinic at this time. Now, if the urgent care is not used, down the road things could change, but it is not in the plan.”