Community conversation, leader roundtables, senator support: A look back at Devils Lake’s health care story

DEVILS LAKE, N.D. — Devils Lake is positioned to be a leader in rural health care as North Dakota vies to earn up to $1 billion as part of the Rural Health Transformation Fund, part of the federal Big Beautiful Bill, said Sen. John Hoeven.

He credits the changes to health care in Devils Lake not just to city and health care leaders, but to the community itself.

“At the end of the day, this was the community that got this done,” said Hoeven, R-N.D. “And I hope other communities look at that. … And they cared about everybody. They didn’t leave anybody beside or behind.

On Monday, Jan. 19, Devils Lake celebrated the acquisition of the CHI St. Alexius Health Devils Lake Hospital by Altru Health System, which purchased it from CommonSpirit Health. The planned transition date is March 1. The celebration came four years after the conversation surrounding the region’s health care was kicked up by a letter — published in newspapers as an op-ed — from then-Mayor Dick Johnson.

In the years since, health care in Devils Lake has been the topic of numerous conversations, town hall meetings and roundtables featuring health care leaders and elected officials.

During Monday’s celebration, Hoeven referenced the Rural Health Transformation Fund. The Legislature was in special session this past week considering how to appropriate funds from the program. Hoeven said each state receives $100 million a year for five years through the fund, which makes up $25 billion of the total $50 billion within the fund. The other $25 billion is competitive, and states must apply. North Dakota has already been awarded an additional $100 million this year, something Hoeven said the state plans to continue with the goal of receiving a total of $1 billion over five years.

Hoeven said North Dakota has a chance to do better than other states because of a fiber optic network put in across the state, including rural areas, which means, “when it comes to telehealth medicine, we can do things nobody else can,” he said. The state’s network of critical access hospitals is another strength. Hospitals like the one in Devils Lake are a model for rural health care, he said.

“We can now work to build on that network in a way that I think is going to become a model for the country, and if we meet our benchmarks and do all these things, it enables us to attract health care, to leverage our health care,” Hoeven said. “And of course, that relates to Devils Lake, because they’re positioned to be part of the leadership in rural health care to make it happen.”

The possibilities in Devils Lake represent the latest health care-related news for the community.

During the Jan. 19 event, Johnson’s contribution to the health care conversation was recognized by both Hoeven and current Mayor Jim Moe.

“I know how hard you worked on this project for a long time and stayed involved,” Hoeven said to Johnson. “And of course, you live and die with this community.”

Moe thanked Johnson alongside other community and city leaders.

“Thank you for the incredible amount of time and effort you put into your advocacy efforts,” he said. “On behalf of Devils Lake and the Lake Region, we owe you a depth of gratitude. This has been an effort that predates the four years that I’ve been working on this.”

In Johnson’s January

2022 op-ed

, he said he had often commented, “if our community were the patient, it could be said the community is on life support, or maybe code blue.”

Johnson asked if the city’s hospital was meeting its mission as a designated critical access hospital. The hospital and clinic being owned by separate entities – CommonSpirit and Altru, respectively – was detrimental, he said. The conditions of hospital facilities and a lack of staff at both buildings were other issues he raised.

In a

subsequent interview

with the Grand Forks Herald, Johnson clarified his critiques were with leadership, not with the health care professionals working in the city.

“It’s very important to make note that we’re not critical of the staff at either Altru or CHI,” he said. “Those people have been doing a heck of a job for what they had to work with.”

Before Johnson’s letter, there was some activity among different health systems to possibly step into Devils Lake. In January 2021, Essentia Health and CommonSpirit announced they had signed a letter of intent for Essentia to acquire CommonSpirit facilities in Minnesota and North Dakota, including the Devils Lake hospital. However, in May 2021, the Bismarck Tribune reported the two weren’t able to come to an agreement and negotiations had ended.

In July of that year, Altru

sent letters

to Devils Lake residents declaring its intent to “remain in the area for the long term” and hosted a

public listening session

about the importance of health care in the city. Altru Chief Clinical Operations Officer Meghan Compton had told attendees during an event that Altru was in a financial position to purchase the hospital if the opportunity came. In December, the health system signed a

letter of inten

t to purchase 50 acres of land for a future hospital facility in the city.

In March 2022, the offices of Hoeven and Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., both confirmed the senators had

been in communication

with Johnson about health care. In October that same year, the city of Devils Lake, Altru, Essentia and the Spirit Lake Tribe signed a

letter of intent

to work together on a new medical campus for the community.

Hoeven came to town in August 2023, holding a

roundtable

to hear community concerns and push for forward momentum. CHI staff asked for more community support, such as from social work and the police. Hoeven was critical of CommonSpirit for not speaking with him about the state of the hospital and not attending the roundtable.

“At some point, it says something to the community if they don’t show up,” he said at the time.

Tim Bricker, president of CommonSpirit’s Central Region, answered the call when he came to Devils Lake in October to talk with Hoeven and other local leaders. In the meeting, he said he could see the issues at hand and wanted to help, though it could take some time.

The next month, Devils Lake

held two

town hall

meetings to get more resident feedback about health care. Community concerns included dialysis availability, quality of the emergency room, lack of a surgeon and psychiatric care and how long it has taken to make changes (since then, the hospital has made

upgrades

to the emergency room and the Altru clinic has opened a new

outpatient dialysis

unit). Residents also discussed worries about people leaving town for areas with better health care and commended the hospital’s nurses and doctors for what they have been able to accomplish for the community.

Following two more roundtables involving Hoeven and Bricker in

November 2023

and

February 2024

, Devils Lake and Altru made the

announcement in June 2024

that Altru would be acquiring the city’s hospital.

The step forward was a dream come true for Johnson, who said he “

couldn’t ask for a better outcome

.”

Altru needed to complete a six-month period of due diligence before ownership could transfer. It also needed to reach out to the Vatican.

As CommonSpirit is a faith-based organization, the Devils Lake hospital needed to be removed from the Catholic registry by an

office in the Vatican

and Altru needed permission from the Vatican to officially acquire the facility. While Altru waited for the Vatican’s response, it hired

Tanner White

to serve as CEO of the Devils Lake hospital, announced in May 2025.

White, a native of Ellendale, North Dakota, previously worked with South Dakota-based Avera Health. There, he held a number of leadership roles, including vice president of network operations, liaison between Avera Health and several critical access hospital boards; director of therapy services; and regional manager of philanthropy.

Getting

involved in the community

is important to White, he told the Herald.

“I spent 14 years in Aberdeen (South Dakota) and I’ve been involved in all different sorts of committees, from the chamber to local golf course board to everything in between,” he said. “Going to the Devils Lake region, I think it’s important to get myself involved in those boards and committees, so I look forward to jumping at those opportunities as they present themselves.”

Altru announced in December that it had received approval from the Vatican.