Photo provided BCSC and IU Columbus have signed an agreement streamlining college admission for local graduates to IU Columbus.
IU Columbus has found a new athletic trainer provider after a previous agreement with Columbus Regional Health came to an end last month.
IU Health will provide athletic training services for teams at IU Columbus, according to Director of Athletics Zach McClellan.
The trainer who previously provided those services under the umbrella of CRH — Tim Lappin — is going to continue doing so, but this time as an employee for IU Health.
“He stayed and kept his position, but just switched organizations,” McClellan said. “… He’s an incredibly important piece to what we’re doing here at IU Columbus.”
The arrangement is somewhat similar to how BCSC navigated the change. Although the district went with Franciscan Health, they were able to ensure McKensie Hurt, Michaela Swafford, Kate Cockerham and Chance Newkirk, who had been athletic trainers for BCSC teams through the agreement with CRH, would keep on serving their student athletes.
This comes after CRH in June announced plans to end its sports medicine program and close an affiliated practice at NexusPark, citing a range of external pressures on the hospital system. That also meant CRH would not renew contracts that provided athletic trainers to BCSC and IU Columbus.
CRH officials said a range of “outside pressures” influenced the decision to end the program, including reductions in government funding, changes to reimbursement rates, “a lot of uncertainty just with government legislation and administration in general,” among other factors that have added further pressure to an already challenging landscape in the healthcare industry.
The contract CRH had with IU Columbus ended on Aug. 21, but the agreement with BCSC is still in effect until Sept. 30.
IU Columbus Vice Chancellor and Dean Reinhold Hill told The Republic last week that the college was in the midst of negotiating an agreement with a potential athletic trainer service provider. McClellan pointed out that the arrangement will enable IU Columbus to have access to Big Ten doctors.
