The Campbell County Board of Commissioners has approved an agreement that allows the local hospital to affiliate with a Colorado-based hospital system.
Commissioners had previously voted down a different version of the agreement that would affiliate Campbell County Health with UCHealth in Colorado.
In the new agreement, UCHealth will not be able to compete with Campbell County Health during the agreement and up to a year after the contract ends.
The hospital came under fire from the commissioners and community after presenting the idea originally. Hospital board members say they did a poor job of educating officials and the public.
"Your administration stepped up and has given us much of that information that we needed along the way to be able to make a well-versed decision," Commission Chair Bob Maul said. "Is it a cure all? I don't think there's any cure-alls about anything anymore. But it's surely going to be a good step. And we absolutely cannot afford to lose our Campbell County Hospital."
But Maul said there is still work to do.
"I think that we need to take a separate major major look at our financial issues. We need to make sure that we follow this thing through and we do what is only right to get these other problems fixed because if we don't, anything we can do with UCHealth is pretty much for not anyway, he said.
CCH says they will now begin the process of affiliation with a start date set for September 1.
