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Show f " Jack-Straws. By Jack Wallis I , E, since the county announced it entered into an agreement to sell " Uintah County Hospital to Hospital ration of America, a great deal of interest has been generating '"the issue. 1 Poup of citizens has organized tWng the sale and many residents '' confused on the issues and others e been given inaccurate inflation. in-flation. J1 county proposes to sell the .'M wause it does not have the s available to expand the '"yto the point where it can be w at a profit and serve the in-population in-population growth forecast for area. Porting to HCA the local hospital x expanded to a 100-bed facility k can become a profitable MW.Fr the past three years the ' 'J , s bcen subsidizing the more than $250,000 a year. iff studying the reasons for the ' MtlfS 8t H0SPital and Ct! ccsts wil1 probably 21 Meditation, the com-d com-d hlTv. ecided the selling OP"011 j st method of Providing " medical services to the county H least et to the taxpayers. icS'l!1KCorporation of America has V,i i( the county hospital and the needs of tne com- s 10!?bed capacity and ,earl 8 million in the facility. W" t0 Sellin8 to HCA has 3cha Ver issues such as: HCA 3 moJl Reasonable rates to get Wifit Ck' il wil1 leave the I fin brin make il Pitable, or tiside,,!8 m Staff members from S,i5ute the quality of kUIu 'I16 county conv fL ,,. e hosPital board, the 'M L mg the hospital to a A, J. "vat organization such as Vitals fa,dy owns over 191 '"sons outweigh any of the uen for not selling the Should the taxpayers be constantly faced with the problems that malpractice suits, recruiting doctors, collecting unpaid bills, and meeting federal Medicare standards bring? Is the county qualified to make the right decisions in operations that require large staffs of lawyers, accountants, purchasing agents and technical people only found in large hospital chains? We think not. When it gets right down to the bottom line the question we must ask is, "What kind of a medical facility do we want?" Should it be just a first-aid station, a primary facility or a tertiary facility. Should it be large enough for our growth needs or should we continue to ship our patients out to larger facilities. If we sell to HCA and the hospital is expanded and services -increased, it will naturally cost more for local medical services. But these costs should be no higher than in other comparable facilities. If HCA should get out of line with their charges, patients would soon start going to other facilities not as convenient, but less expensive. We have no way of knowing for sure how HCA will operate its hospital in Vernal when the sale is consumated. HCA has been successful in its expansion ex-pansion into the hospital ownership and operation field over the U.S. and several foreign countries, and we expect ex-pect they can do the same here in Vernal, Utah. A public meeting will be held under the direction of the State Comprehensive Com-prehensive Health Planning and Development Board in the near future before the hospital sale can become final. At this meeting we hope the questions will be asked concerning any doubts persons may have concerning the future medical facilities and costs under HCA ownership. Until this official public meeting is announced, we would suggest that politicking against the proposed sale be calmed down to fact-finding from those who are qualified to give honest and accurate information. |