• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Edgerton Hospital sheds management company

EDGERTON — After 12 years of leading Edgerton Hospital and Health Services, Brim Healthcare ended its relationship with the hospital Friday.

The hospital and management organization jointly announced the end of their contract in a news release delivered Monday, though the reasons remain murky.

“After a lengthy review of the future plans for EHHS, the two parties decided to end the relationship amicably in order to allow EHHS to pursue other alternatives,” the news release said.

Dorothy Gunderson, chairwoman of the Edgerton Hospital and Health Services Board, declined to comment further about why the future plans of the hospital no longer include Brim Healthcare. A Brim official also declined to comment.

Brim, a Tennessee-based company, has managed Edgerton Hospital since 1996. It employed the hospital’s CEO and offered support and management expertise, Gunderson said.

“They also knew how they managed other hospitals, and they gave you input from what worked in other places and what didn’t work,” she said.

Brim operates 37 other hospitals in 15 states, including eight in Wisconsin, the news release said.

Under the agreement between Brim and Edgerton Hospital, CEO Jim Pernau will remain in his position and become a direct employee of the hospital. Brim waived a non-compete clause in Pernau’s contract, Gunderson said.

Brim had little to do with Edgerton Hospital’s plan for a new facility, Gunderson said. Hospital officials announced in 2005 a plan to build a new hospital, nursing home and medical office building on Highway 59.

The hospital unveiled plans for the facility in November. At the time, officials estimated the hospital and exterior of the medical office building would cost $26 million. Officials did not have an estimated cost for the nursing home at the time, and they could not be reached for an updated estimate this week.

The hospital plans to break ground this summer after sewer and water lines are installed, Gunderson said.

For now, Edgerton Hospital will run without a management company, Gunderson said. She declined to say if the board is talking to other management or healthcare companies about a potential partnership.

“Right now, we will be going on our own, but that might change in the future,” she said.

Gunderson declined to say how much the hospital paid Brim for its services.