Raiter Clinic and Community Memorial Hospital to join forces

Community Memorial Hospital and Raiter Clinic will will join together as one organization as of Jan. 1, 2020.

Negotiations leading up to this partnership have been ongoing for many months, according to a press release from the hospital.

Through these talks it became clear that the combination of Raiter Clinic family physicians and Community Memorial Hospital’s family physicians and specialists would greatly strengthen healthcare in our community, and ensure patients are able to continue receiving their healthcare close to home

“We are constantly looking at how we can better meet the needs of the communities we serve, and we know that these relationships with physicians and other providers are a key ingredient to our future success,” said Community Memorial Hospital CEO/Administrator, Rick Breuer.

Dr. Jim Rogers, a Raiter Clinic physician, sees it as a positive move for everyone.

”We are excited to see our Raiter Clinic merge with Community Memorial Hospital,” Rogers said. “It has been a long time coming and we see it is a win/win/win for the Raiter Clinic, CMH, and for the communities we serve. We will now have a unified medical campus that has retained its local independence.”

According to the press release, many details of the new organization will be worked out during the next few months as individuals from both facilities strive to create a healthcare system in our community that builds upon what is already in place and with this new partnership take it to the next level.

In August, news broke in the Pine Knot News that Essentia Health Care is planning to open a Cloquet clinic at the site of the Driftwood Motel, opposite Walmart on the frontage road west of Highway 33. Essentia Health is a network of hospitals, clinics, and related health care facilities serving patients in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Idaho with a large hub in Duluth.

Look for more on this story in the Pine Knot News Sept. 27 issue.