DCHS is a Michigan municipal non-profit corporation. It receives no tax dollars through a local millage and its future depends on our community staying local and utilizing the services we offer.

DCHS offers nationally acclaimed health care and a wide variety of specialty services. The current administration has successfully operated and grown our health system, doubling the medical staff and employment levels independent of a partnership since 1996.

Not unlike many smaller, rural health systems throughout the nation, DCHS is experiencing lower utilization, decreasing insurance reimbursements and competition for services that are creating financial hardships and are making survival difficult.

How can the public help? Show your U.P. pride and support your local hospital. Choose to utilize services that are conveniently provided right here in our town.

Spend your health care dollars locally. Money spent in this town stays in this town. It supports our local employees and their families, maintains and creates jobs within our community and keeps our 24-hour Emergency Department fully functional.

The list of “local” health care services provided by DCHS includes: emergency care; anesthesia services; aqua therapy; audiology; bone densitometry-dexa scanning; cardiac rehab; cardiology CT angiography-calcium scoring CT scan; convenient care clinic; diagnostic neurology-EEG and EMG studies; diabetes care; durable medical equipment; ear, nose and throat; family practice; general surgery/endoscopy; geriatric care; hematology/oncology; home health; hospitalist services/critical care; infusion center; laboratory services; internal medicine; nephrology/dialysis; mammography; MRI/X-ray; occupational medicine; OB/GYN; occupational therapy; ophthalmology; orthopedics; pathology; pediatrics/pediatric nephrology and cardiology; physical therapy; podiatry; pulmonology/pulmonary function testing; radiation oncology; sleep medicine; sports medicine-concussive and baseline testing; speech therapy; ultrasound; wound care and hyperbaric; urology.

You have the right to choose to keep your health care dollars in our community, dollars that support our families and help our local economy thrive. You have that right.

If your primary care physician tells you to go out of town for services, to see a specialist — general surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, ENT, urologist and others, lab work, MRIs — you have the right to say, “I support my local hospital, I support my local physicians, I support my local community and I choose DCHS.”

Please share this information with your friends and neighbors and join us on social media.

For appointment or scheduling information, please call 906-774-1313 or visit our website at DCHS.org or on Twitter at #ichooseDCHS.