Chip Broadhurst, a former LRGHealthcare board member, is launching a grassroots effort to save the health system.

LRGH was facing high debt and revenue problems even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced an end to profit-generating elective procedures and the furloughing of 600 employees.

Outpatient services were scaled back to create capacity for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients. The emergency department and critical care services remain open.

The health care system, which includes Lakes Region General Hospital and Franklin Regional Hospital, is hoping to find a larger partner organization, which can bring the resources that will allow it to put its financial house back in order.

Broadhurst said in a full-page ad in the Daily Sun that, despite an infusion of $5.25 million from a state emergency fund, LRGH’s hopes for survival are based on finding a partner.

“Without a partner, health care as we know it in the Lakes Region will disappear and we’ll be left with the two urgent care centers at the Belknap Mall,” he said.

It can only help the health care system, and its search for a partner, if the community stands up in force to stress the importance of the institution and to support the providers and employees who have been furloughed, he said in an interview.

“Any partner needs to know the community supports our people and our system,” he said.

Regional hospitals across the nation have been beset by financial problems, and some have gone out of business.

Payments from government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid don’t begin to cover the costs for providing many medical services, and many of LRGH’s patients are on these programs. Other patients have no coverage.

LRGH has been seeking a partner for well over a year.

President and CEO Kevin Donovan said the system has been working diligently on efforts to find a partner. He has not revealed the names of any potential companies that might be interested.

Broadhurst said he is not privy to discussions involving potential partner organizations, but said Concord Hospital is an institution that already has some ties to LRGH.

“It would be a large bite for Concord, but if you’re sitting on the Concord board, one of the things you’d love to know is that the community really cares, which is why we’re doing this thing,” he said. “You’d also want to know that this thing is affordable and can continue to provide care, perhaps under a different operating model locally.”

If LRGH were to close, Concord Hospital would see a large infusion of patients from the Lakes Region in any case, he said.

“Lakes closing would not be a good thing for Concord.”