News File Photo The MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena is seen on March 28. MyMichigan Health, the Midland-based nonprofit that owns the Alpena hospital, is currently seeing better finances throughout its facilities, according to MyMichigan Chief Financial Officer Mike Rose, as hospitals increase onsite staffing.

ALPENA — MyMichigan Health, the Midland-based nonprofit that owns the Alpena hospital, is currently seeing better finances throughout its facilities, according to MyMichigan Chief Financial Officer Mike Rose, as hospitals increase onsite staffing.

Rose said during the transition in and out of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff numbers dwindled considerably which forced MyMichigan Health to rely on offsite agency staff to take care of patients.

He said about 250 agency staff members were hired throughout MyMichigan Health facilities, stating Alpena’s hospital had higher levels of agency staff.

“I don’t have any specific numbers for the Alpena hospital, but because of its geographical location, it didn’t have many labor sources to recruit from,” Rose said. “They needed to rely on agency staff, but with different efforts made around the area like partnering with local colleges and for a little bit we didn’t see too much impact, but now we’re seeing it pay in dividends.”

Rose also mentioned the emergent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and Regional STEMI Alert Program MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena launched back in October and said that the program was critical for the region to get as PCI and STEMI cardiology procedures could only happen at other hospitals hours away from the Alpena hospital.

According to MyMichigan Health, the programs have benefitted 21 residents in Northeast Michigan.

In April, MyMichigan Health signed an agreement with Ascension Michigan to acquire Ascension’s Saginaw, Tawas, and Standish medical facilities and to make them a part of MyMichigan’s system.

On May 8, hackers broke into 15 Ascension hospitals’ patient health records across Michigan, which cut staff from accessing electronic health record systems.

While the hospital chain remains threatened by cyberattacks, MyMichigan Health declined to comment, saying it could make the company a target for bad actors.

At this time, there is no emergent threat to the Alpena hospital regarding cyberattacks.

MyMichigan Health also named MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena President Mike Erickson as the future leader for the new medical locations in Saginaw, Tawas, and Standish on April 11.

While no replacement has been found yet for Erickson, he said that he, senior staff, and the local board for the Alpena hospital started looking at applications at the end of April.

Erickson will assume this new position and be replaced as the Alpena hospital president by a successor once the Ascension hospitals formally join MyMichigan, which is anticipated to be in early summer 2024.

Erickson said that, while he is proud of his work as president over the past two years, he hopes that the next leader will make even better improvements to MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena.