Sioux City Journal

Judge says Wagner IHS emergency room can close

Posted: Monday, August 06, 2007

SIOUX FALLS (AP) -- A federal judge has reversed an earlier decision and ruled that the emergency room at the Wagner Indian Health Services Clinic should be allowed to close.

In September, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol of Sioux Falls granted a temporary restraining order to keep the ER open after the Yankton Sioux Tribe sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Indian Health Service and several top officials.

The lawsuit protested the government's plan to close the emergency room, change it to an urgent care facility and reduce the hours and levels of service. The non-Indian Wagner Community Memorial Hospital emergency room would not be able to take up the slack if the IHS emergency room closed, the tribe argued.

The IHS initially proposed closing the emergency room in 1994. The tribe got the federal court to issue an injunction and order the government to tell Congress about the impact of closing 24-hour emergency room services at the Wagner IHS facility.

A report was submitted more than three years later but did not delineate the specific impact of the emergency room closure. Several proposed deadlines to close the emergency room have come and gone since then.

Piersol has filed a judgment in which he dismissed the tribe's lawsuit and vacated the temporary restraining order.

He wrote that the Yankton Sioux Tribe failed to prove that the IHS violated the tribe's due process rights or that closing the emergency room would violate the trust relationship between the tribe and the federal government.

The judge also disregarded an argument by the tribe that funding trouble is behind the decision because the IHS intended to close the ER before that issue arose.

Since Piersol's ruling, South Dakota's three members of Congress issued a news release indicating they sent a letter to the head of the Indian Health Service, urging him to keep the emergency room open.

Story Comments

anon wrote on Aug 15, 2007 2:40 PM:

" This Judge has been far more supportive to the YST than anyone has ever expected any Judge to be. All criticizing persons should review the past court decisions related to this issue. He has been more than fair to the YST on this issue. Keep in mind - the YST will still have access to an ER. There will be a need to adjust to seeing a doctor during regular hours, and only using ER services when there truly is an emergency. When the visits to the Wagner Community hospital are emergencies, they will still receive the healthcare they need, and IHS will pay for it. The real issue may be whether the criteria established for determining whether the situation is an emergency or not (thus authorizing IHS to pay for the ER services) are too narrow. Also, the director of the Wagner Community Hospital should be interviewed so people will have her assessment as to whether the hospital will be able to handle the influx. There has been no substantiated reasoning provided for the statements that claim that the hospital will be unable to meet the needs of the YST. "

Yankton Mama wrote on Aug 12, 2007 2:17 PM:

" If you're very sick, you'll probably be ok cuz you can go to the Community (white) hospital. But if you get in a car wreck or beat up look out cuz the Community Hospital is not in any way prepared to handle the case load this is going to create. They are not a trauma facility AT ALL. Their nurses don't even know where things are in the cupboards over there and they don't have the technology training or experience. The IHS ER is waaaay better equipped. And besides if the IHS can't afford our ER how are they gonna afford the Contract Health cases that result because of no ER???!!! Even limited hours aren't going to help matters because when it becomes a limited urgent care facility no ambulance will even be able to take patients there either. What's going to happen to happen to our people that depend on the Wagner IHS for health care??? "

Concerned wrote on Aug 7, 2007 12:39 PM:

" So what happens now? If i break my leg after hours and i just suppose to wait until the next day to be see? what if my baby becomes ill. That's OK though right considering its the only hospital we tribal members have. "

ml wrote on Aug 7, 2007 11:13 AM:

" They should close the ER the judge is closes to and uses. May be then he might be concerned. "