The Boards of Directors for Southern Mono Healthcare District and Northern Inyo Healthcare District convened in Bishop on September 10, 2026, marking their second joint meeting this year. The districts, which operate independent hospitals and serve neighboring Eastern Sierra communities located 45 minutes apart, are actively building a working relationship. Both meetings were open to the public.
Discussions between the boards are centered on a fundamental question: how can two small, rural hospitals collaborate to ensure residents receive more of their healthcare services locally? It is important to note that the boards are not considering a merger of the two districts.
During the September meeting, board members and executives from both districts participated in small group sessions. These groups explored potential collaborative efforts, defined guiding principles for such partnerships, and identified which possibilities warranted immediate, closer examination. A consistent set of principles emerged from every group: prioritizing patients, ensuring mutual benefit for both districts in any collaboration, maintaining transparency, communicating before either hospital expands a service, and conducting legal counsel review for all initiatives.
Several ideas garnered significant interest for future collaboration. These included strategies to keep care local, the potential to add specialty services that neither hospital could sustain independently, shared education and training programs for staff and providers, making it easier for providers to work at both hospitals, and jointly recruiting providers to the region. The districts also agreed to study the feasibility of each idea together before committing to implementation.
Much of this work builds upon existing collaborations. The two hospitals already share education and training resources for their staff, previously partnered on a Regional Women’s Health Services CalRHT grant application, and lend supplies to one another when shortages occur. Additionally, nurses and providers currently work at both facilities.
Ryan Wood, a board member for Southern Mono Healthcare District, expressed enthusiasm for the initiative. “There is clearly a lot of enthusiasm, and we are not here just to check a box,” Wood stated, adding that “Everyone in the room really wants this to work. When we met in May, we thought we were planting a seed. It turns out the seed was already planted and is beginning to sprout.”
David Lent, NIHD board vice chair, acknowledged the existing spirit of cooperation between the communities. “I do think there is much more collaboration than many of us realize,” Lent observed. He added, “In our communities, there is more that unites us than divides us. The communication between the districts and the people doing this work will only continue to grow.”
As of now, no specific collaborative projects have been formally decided. Each proposed idea will undergo a thorough review for feasibility and by legal counsel. The executive teams from both districts will begin to tackle a few of these ideas incrementally. Each Board of Directors is set to receive a monthly update from its Chief Executive Officer, and the two Boards plan to reconvene for another joint meeting in January 2027.
