Re: hospital merger

[Dan Schmidt <schmidt6@Turbonet.com>]

Kenton,
 The names of the Gritman Hospital Board are available from the hospital
administration. I am a GMC board member elected by the medical staff. I
would be glad to discuss the merger with you or anyone. I wrote a reply to
Mr. Fishers editorial and have electronically discussed it with him. I
expect the letter to be published two weeks from sunday on the back
page....I will attach it if you wish to read. I find it interesting that
Pullman says they will only consider one option for consolidation, that of
a brand new facility in the corridor to be built immediately, and Gritman
says we would be glad to discuss merger or consolidation or joint
governance or whatever, BUT we think the plan for a new facility is
economically unfeasible and we are opposed to it. And two editorials,
Fisher/LMT and Raquet/DN have decided that Gritman has said no to merger.
It is fascinating what people hear, and then what they say in response....
I agree that this decision by GMC board is against the conclusion of the
report by Quorum. I disagree with their findings.Dan Schmidt
**************************************************
	Jim Fisher,
	I write in response to your criticism of Gritman Hospital's recent decision
regarding consolidation. I am a Board member of Gritman Hospital and a family
physician in Moscow.
	I appreciate your attention to these recent issues. But, Jim, you're going
to have to
do more than read the headlines in your own paper to understand this issue.
The Gritman
Board decided that consolidation is a wonderful idea and we want to work
toward this
goal. The Moscow area primary care physicians agree. This has been true
since WSU's
president put the kibosh on consolidation talks six years ago. However, the
one plan,
supported by Pullman, one of three studied by Quorum, but only one of an
infinite
number of possibilities, that of a single, brand-new facility to be built
in the corridor in
the near future, was not supported by Gritman.
	Explain the business sense of this to me: we build a new facility, the
same size as
our current one with no change in income 3 or 5 miles west of the current
one for $40
million. How will this help reduce health care costs on the Palouse?
	But there are lots of examples of the detriments of competition. Recently,
Pullman started doing radionuclide tests. It got them some increased
income, but the
decrease in tests at Gritman made it no longer feasible to generate these
isotopes here on
the Palouse. Now both facilities send to Spokane for the isotopes, an
inconvenience, and
I hope not a threat to patient care. Silly, isn't it?
	I think Gritman and Pullman should cooperate and maybe eventually
consolidate.
And a hospital in the corridor may be in the future for us. But Jim, if
it's so simple what
explains the existence of St. Joe's and Tristate across the river from each
other? Sorry, the
answers don't come in 250 words and a headline. 
Dan J Schmidt, Moscow, ID
At 12:42 PM 11/24/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Dear visionaries:
>Can anyone shed any light on the proposed merger of Gritman and Pullman
>Memorial hospitals?   I was surprised that the two hospital boards
>responded so quickly to the consultant's report recommending a single
>hospital in the corridor.  Were there any public forums that I missed
>before the boards' decisions (Pullman endorsed a merger; Gritman opposed
>it)?
>Because of my opposition to any more commercial development along the
>current Pullman-Moscow Highway, I initially was skeptical of the idea of
>putting a hospital there.  But Jim Fisher's editorial in Sunday's
>Lewiston Tribune ("Gritman plays Microsoft when it should be Chrysler")
>has prompted me to reconsider.   If you haven't read this editorial,
>it's on line at:
>http://www.lmtribune.com/11211999/opinion/450886.htm
>
>I also discovered that the executive summary of the consultant's report
>is posted on the Pullman Memorial Hospital webpage.  You can download a
>version with graphics if you have Adobe Acrobat; otherwise you can read
>a text-only version.
>You can find it at:
>http://www.pullmanhospital.org/Quorum_Report.htm
>
>Even though both hospital boards have been discussing the idea for
>months, I'm concerned that there hasn't been enough opportunity for
>public discussion.   After reading parts of the report, I have a lot of
>questions about the continued viability of two hospitals.   I'd welcome
>responses from subscribers to this list who have any additional
>information or background.   Does anyone have a list of the Gritman
>board members?  (I couldn't find it at www.gritman.org)
>
>thanks,
>Kenton
>
>P.S. I noticed that the Vision 2020 archives on the moscow.com page have
>not been updated since Nov. 9.  Forgive me if this topic has been raised
>earlier and I missed any discussion.
>
>