Clarification of hospital statistics

Ms. Picket’s letter to the editor in last week's Independent Record deserves a follow up to clarify a few statistics she included in her letter.

The board, medical staff, and public are not considering building a 16 bed hospital. The actual number will probably be 10, with two additional OB/delivery rooms.

The management company (Health TechS3) fees are considerably less than the $750,000 quoted by Ms. Picket, and those fees include not only the management services and CEO salary, but ancillary services such as recruitment of professionals who work in our hospital.

Community Health Needs Assessments are required by the Affordable Care Act every three years. We have completed two of these in the past and are currently working with the community on the new assessment due in 2016. For any details or questions you can contact John Gibbel at the hospital.

The board, hospital management, staff, medical staff and the public are all well aware of the trend towards outpatient management of health issues. That is a major focus of the new hospital facility plan. We have had two public meetings to discuss those plans and are looking forward to hosting another towards the end of February. The public participation and ideas are more than welcome at these meetings. It is their health care, hospital and community’s future that’s at stake.

Bill Williams