Dorgan Visits Harvey Hospital As Part Of Rural Health Care Tour

DORGAN VISITS HARVEY HOSPITAL AS PART OF RURAL HEALTH CARE TOUR

(HARVEY, NORTH DAKOTA) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) toured St. Aloisius Hospital here early Wednesday morning, to talk with health care providers about the state of health care delivery in rural North Dakota.

Dorgan makes periodic stops at rural hospitals around the state to visit with health care professionals about what they are seeing, and the special challenges hospitals in rural communities face.

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will soon take up the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations bill, Dorgan said he particularly wanted to hear a local assessment of how well hospital staffing needs are being met.

"We're going to be funding programs that train a lot of health care professionals, and I want to learn more about any special staffing needs of rural hospitals and what we might do to better meet those needs," he said. Nurses, he noted, are in particularly short supply at hospitals in many rural communities.

Dorgan said he also wanted an assessment from local health care providers about how the $10 billion in Medicaid program cuts required by the budget the Republican majority in Congress voted to require, and which Dorgan opposed, will affect the local area. "I expect there will be a pretty vigorous debate about how exactly those cuts are going to be made and I want to be ready to make the case in the strongest possible terms for strengthening Medicaid, rather than weakening it and rolling back access to needed health care, particularly in rural communities," he said.

http://dorgan.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=240266