Clinic Treasurer Letter to the Editor 4-30-18

(Editor/GG: The Treasurer of the West Custer County Hospital District (the “Clinic”) responded to some points made at last week’s Liberty Rocks Forum on rural health care. It is too long to print so we placed it here on our website for our readers. Facebookers have seen it posted by others in multiple community groups.)
There are a few points in her letter that need to be addressed.
1. Transparency: The Board meeting dates are not printed in the two local papers. Posting notices in the courthouse and town halls doesn’t cut it. For the last four years, the Clinic Board has never advertised vacant board positions in either paper. They have been filling the vacancies with their buddies. No transparency there.
2. The mill levy passed in 2014 for EMS was sold to us as funding to provide for a second ambulance. Period. EMS grosses around $600k to $700k a year from their billings which should be enough for the first crew. Even with the new $280,000 mill levy, we still don’t have a reliably available second ambulance. There have been numerous times lately when Flight for Life or an outside-the-county ambulance had to be called. There was no second crew available. This is a disgrace. Just talk to the Sheriff’s Office or listen to the scanner. A major reason a second crew is not available is that the majority of EMS live OUTSIDE the county. Why? All the local EMS employees left or were fired over the last six years or so, mostly due to management issues.
3. By any reasonable measure, the Clinic has way too much administrative overhead for an entity of around 18 people. Not even close. We need doctors, not bureaucrats.
4. The Treasurer stated that somebody made a comment that “The clinic will not suture a patient.” We have had multiple people come to the Sentinel who have been denied sutures for simple cuts because they did not have an appointment.
5. There are no doctors. The Treasurer attempts to use a doctor from up north who comes here THREE DAYS A MONTH to say they have a doctor! Give us a break.
Time for a change, folks. Doctors Mohr and Bliss are willing to come back if a new board is elected. And that’s a good start for a new, patient centered clinic.