Hope amidst the gloom

TOM HESS / Hungry Horse News

Last Saturday I had breakfast at Buffalo Cafe in downtown Whitefish with Jonathan Mercer, M.D., a Harvard-trained urologist in private practice who operates on patients at both North Valley Hospital and Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Mercer and I met to talk about North Valley's pending acquisition of new technology that will shorten hospital stays for patients who undergo a range of invasive and painful procedures, including examination of cancerous lymph nodes and reproductive systems.

Mercer said he and his family moved to Whitefish four years ago because his wife wanted to live in the northern Rockies. They looked at a number of locations in Colorado — Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Durango — but also Jackson Hole, Wyo., Bend, Ore., even Billings. They chose Whitefish because of its proximity to "a world-class ski resort, a world-class park and a world-class hospital right here, so you don't have to be flown by helicopter somewhere else to receive the care you need."

But then he said something that really caught my attention.

"If the economy turns around, Columbia Falls' future is sweet," Mercer said, because of natural assets like the Flathead River and the North Fork.

Mercer talks frequently with his mentors and friends in Boston and London, so he's already a national and international ambassador for northwest Montana.

It's word of mouth that helps North Valley attract talent. Jason Spring, chief administrator of North Valley, told me last month that it hasn't been difficult getting world-class physicians to consider a move to our valley. All that's necessary, he said, is to "pick up the phone," because so many well-trained specialists like what they see when they Google us.

What's also attractive, Mercer said, is that North Valley Hospital and KRMC do "a nice job right now trying not to compete. They compliment each other."

One example is the new equipment coming to North Valley — a da Vinci S HD surgical robot that's a generation newer than the ones already installed in Great Falls and Missoula. Mercer said specialists will encourage KRMC to acquire technology that North Valley does not plan to purchase.

Even so, Mercer gave North Valley high praise for getting the da Vinci S HD machine.

"The board and foundation have done nothing but be progressive, in a medical way," he said. "They've gone above and beyond getting the newest and best technology."

Patients want robotic surgery, he said, including Canadians who will pay cash for robotic procedures. They read about it online and in the Wall Street Journal and don't want to wait till 2011 or later for an appointment in their country.

Of course, it's not just Canadians who flock to North Valley. As I reported in the Hungry Horse News several weeks ago, North Valley Hospital sees more patients from Columbia Falls than from Whitefish, and Spring expects the gap to grow in the next few years.

Like Mercer, I'm optimistic about Columbia Falls and our surrounding area. Yes, the city is hurting, with the aluminum plant dormant, trucks sitting idle instead of making regular trips to Smurfit-Stone, 61 Burlington Northern Santa Fe railcars stored on local tracks (about the same as last year, according to BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas' and some local homeowners who have seen their most valuable asset slide into foreclosure.

But then I saw the new sign for Three Forks Grille go up on the Cosley Building, with electricians and Pepsi trucks parked in front, delivering goods and providing services. I checked on some of the merchants I featured in the Dec. 10 Hungry Horse News, and heard that Shops at Station 8 and Fashion Finds, for example, had a solid Christmas season. And I still see plenty of logging traffic through my office window.

Sometimes you have to get past the bad-news headlines on your computer screen (or even page A1 of this paper) and get out into the community to find reasons for hope.