Access to health care is tough in a rural community

Perhaps Mr. Williams could supply the exact numbers to clarify the issue about how much the hospital spends on management and CEO wages.

The point is, how can we manage our hospital without the expensive overhead and administrative fees? In our neighboring community, the company leases the hospital, and these fees are paying for the 15-year construction bond. There are options, and the board needs to explore them.

The hospital’s community assessment in 2013 was on obesity. The news was hardly news to anyone. One third of Americans, and Thermopolis residents, are obese. A better assessment would be how can we prevent obesity?

My personal assessment of the state of health care in Thermopolis is a result of 20 years of caring for someone with a brain injury. When I look around, I see other people with the same problem: needing help, and there few resources for us. Children with disabilities have even fewer opportunities. There is a huge gap between need and services, and the hospital could be bridging that gap.

People move away from communities with limited health care. You have to take care of the people who live here. Several previous board members, and members of the community, such as the PAC, have approached the board to look and listen to what we are asking. For some reason, our requests are taken as affronts, rather than an honest attempt to improve health care services in this community.

None of us are getting any younger, and it is the future of our health that we are concerned about.

Health care providers in Thermopolis are struggling to do their best. These are crazy times with Obamacare, and everyone is feeling the crunch. It would soften the blow to have a cohesive unit that combined resources and expenses, so the providers could deliver services instead of crunch numbers.

Access to health care is tough in a rural community. If people have to travel, they often don’t make their appointments. An advantage of living in a small-town is that we can build what we need, making it a community effort, where everyone benefits.

It is not true, “if you build it, they will come.” First, you have to build what they want.

Carol Pickett