Re: hospital care

[Dan Schmidt <schmidt6@Turbonet.com>]

 Thanks for the input Bill. I appreciate the perspective. One point. The
Troy High School is in a consolidated school district. The motivation for
consolidation was the same as the argued motivation in front of
Gritman/Pullman, that is, save money on administrative overhead. Does this
mean the White Pine district, which is now considering deconsolidating,
should have built a single facility before sharing administration and
governance? The question is so complex I'm not sure I can see the simple
solution. I agree that the public has valuable input...but six years ago
when this was being done in an open and publicly involved manner and a
university president made his wishes paramount....oh well, you know the
history.
	The problem I see is: Pullman board has their constituency, by statute.
And the Gritman Board(of which I am one) has their/our percieved
constituency... and the two aren't fully shared especially geographically.
The two communities are really very similar, but each sees the other as
different. Same with Troy/Deary... Is this a dark aspect of human nature?
It is much easier for the doctors, who have much less geographic
affiliation to see the solution, as did the Quorum consultants who are
geographically affiliated with Memphis, Tenn. Does this reflect on
Troy/Deary and their geographic "pride"? And, is this pride of place bad?
Do we lose something when we let go of it? I see it as a sign of fear...But
of what?... Oh well, thanks again for your thoughts. Dan J Schmidt
At 12:43 PM 12/26/99 PST, you wrote:
>	I recently spent 5 days at Gritman Medical Center getting my broken leg 
>renovated.  It was an opportunity to discuss hospital consolidation with the 
>people directly involved--and a chance to think about what was right about 
>the care I received.
>	I was very impressed with the quality of care offered.  Family physicians, 
>surgeons, specialists, and nurses all discussed and negotiated about the 
>best possible choices for me.  I benefited from the collective intelligence 
>and experience of a community of caring professionals.  That interaction was 
>strongly facilitated by the physical proximity of those people: they all 
>worked at Gritman together.
>	If the local surgeons decide to build their own surgical unit on the 
>Moscow-Pullman Highway, that professional interaction will be lost, or 
>severely limited.  Profits may rise, but it sure seems to me that the 
>quality of care offered will suffer.
>	However, just because the local surgeons have the power and the financial 
>clout to build such a facility, does not mean they want to.  It was pretty 
>clear to me that the surgeons were using their power to push the Pullman and 
>Moscow hospitals to negotiate seriously about collaboration.
>	To those who will handle negotiations for hospital collaboration in the 
>future, I offer free advice (worth, as they say, every penny).
>First, think long term.  Short-sighted, parochial thinking limits 
>creativity.  The status quo is not an option.  A new way is needed.  Don't 
>be bound by the keep-our-hospital-at-any-price thinking.  That same kind of 
>tunnel vision is what is keeping the kids at Troy in a condemned school 
>building.
>Second, be public.  Using public forums in Pullman and Moscow, involve the 
>community in the negotiations.  Enough with the "board members know it all" 
>syndrome.
>I hope that sincere negotiations, keeping the long-range good of the Palouse 
>residents at heart, will result in a creative middle path of collaboration 
>that eliminates costly duplication of services and administration while 
>providing the facilities that foster a real community of care for those of 
>us who rely on the hospitals.
>BL
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