In less than a month, Gooding County Memorial Hospital should be under new management.

Assuming, of course, that the courts agree.

A survey sent to all Gooding County residents last month found 86 percent of respondents support creating a new nonprofit entity to manage the county-owned hospital, a move that would allow hospital officials to pay for a new building without dumping the cost on taxpayers.

The survey was the last input hospital officials were waiting for, and its locally elected board signed the contract for the nonprofit on Tuesday morning, Gooding CEO Earl Fitzpatrick said. The nonprofit could be created as soon as Nov. 27, the date the St. Luke's Health System Board - which has helped the Gooding hospital through the process - will meet to consider the deal.

Only 20 percent of county residents returned the surveys, Fitzpatrick said. But to the hospital, that was a lot - Fitzpatrick had only expected to hear back from 10 percent of the county. The feedback, he said, showed that a month of hearings and outreach in the county had left most people feeling they knew everything they needed to about the proposal.

"I think the idea was very sound to start with," Fitzpatrick said. "That always makes it a very easy discussion."

The St. Luke's board seems to agree. Devan Johnson, the system's director of regional services, said he doesn't see at this point any reason the board would not sign the contract, especially after seeing the community support for the issue.

But it's still an odd deal. No other critical access hospital in the state has tried creating a nonprofit from a hospital district, and the hospital board discussed the idea with lawyers for several months before taking it public. Those discussions, Fitzpatrick said, left him sure the courts will approve the nonprofit.

At the earliest, a hearing will be scheduled for late December or early January to give the hospital time to put notices in area media.

"I'm not really nervous," Fitzpatrick said about the hearing. "Really, just for me, it's a formality we're going through."

That may be why the hospital is already looking at land in Gooding and a new name for the proposed new building. Most timelines for construction and fundraising won't be set until after the hearing, Fitzpatrick said, but officials could select the land to build on within the next few weeks. The hospital will need a new name to avoid conflicting with the county hospital district, which will still exist, he said.

Officials are being careful not to take any steps that couldn't be reversed after the hearing, just in case the court rules against the hospital. If that happens, Fitzpatrick said, the hospital board has no backup plan other than to dissolve the nonprofit and return to the way things were.

"We would have to start from scratch and try to find a different solution," he said.

If the survey is accurate, that could disappoint many in the county. Most of the 14 percent of survey respondents opposing the move said they didn't know enough about the plan, Fitzpatrick said, and few seemed to oppose it once they learned all the details. Those who did support it - 56 percent "strongly" and 30 percent "somewhat" - cited expanded health care services and the ability to keep the hospital in the community as attractive parts of the deal.

Nate Poppino can be reached at 735-3237 or npoppino@magicvalley.com.

Last we knew: Gooding hospital officials proposed creating a nonprofit to manage the hospital that would be able to borrow money for a new hospital building. The latest: A county survey showed residents like the idea, and the hospital board signed the contract papers Tuesday morning. What's next: St. Luke's System Board will have to approve the contract, after which it will be submitted to a judge.