Open letter to hospital leaders
EDITOR: To the Palm Drive Health Care District Board of Directors:
I was one of five people appointed to serve on the first Palm Drive District Board by then-Supervisor Mike Reilly. I worked with many, many people in this community to pass the bond and two parcel taxes to “Save Palm Drive” and I gave many hours to that effort.
We were full of hope and optimism then and believed that a small community hospital was needed here and could be sustained by our community. But we were wrong and many of us who were involved in those early efforts now know that. The hospital isn’t needed by enough people nor can it be sustained with the resources we created for that purpose.
To your credit, you have tried valiantly to respond to the pleas of well-meaning staff and community supporters who will not give up on a doomed enterprise. But you have listened too little to those who understand the healthcare landscape and can see its future. Consultant after consultant and administrator after administrator have spelled it out clearly to you – in this era of rapid health system change, hospital consolidation and competition, and intense pressure for cost-efficiency, Palm Drive Hospital (now SWMC) will not survive.
In ignoring this counsel, you have sanctioned the waste of district resources, entangled us in legal problems and refused to consider alternative strategies to accomplish your mission of “access to quality, compassionate health services responsive to the needs of the district.”
In getting to this point, the district has exhausted the goodwill of taxpayers, short-changed its creditors and continued to fail in the service of an impossible goal. It must stop. This board must acknowledge that district voters did not pass a general obligation bond and two parcel taxes to end up with a mountain of debt, two bankruptcies, a failing and underutilized hospital and a future entirely dependent on an alliance with a for-profit drug testing company 3,000 miles away.
I am asking this board to do the right and difficult thing now: accept and acknowledge that the needs of our community no longer align with the needs of the hospital or SWMC. Further, I ask that you take two actions: first, refuse to remove the financial firewall between the district and SWMC and second, immediately issue a Request for Proposals to identify, if possible, a suitable and stable health care provider to purchase or lease the hospital facility and utilize it to offer a range of “quality, compassionate health services responsive to the needs of the district.”
And, if no responsible provider is willing to step up to this challenge, sell the facility and use the proceeds to pay down debt and promote more efficient and cost-effective community health programs that can benefit all of our citizens.
Barbara Graves, former district board member
Sebastopol
4H thanks
EDITOR: Thank you to everyone who came to the 4H Achievement Night on Nov. 4, the main awards and recognition night for Sonoma County 4H.
Around 150 members and guests helped support and celebrate the year’s accomplishments. The seats were packed and a successful night was had.
Over 100 awards were presented and another 100 members and other adults were recognized. We presented Star, record book, and officer awards, proficiency recognition, and the cookie decorating and baking contest winners.
The All Star Leader Award was presented to Rex Williams, Friend of 4H award went to Tractor Supply of Petaluma, and Judy Ludovise was recognized for her over a dozen years of service. This year’s theme was Ohana because 4H is a family; each club was asked to make and bring a surfboard that represented their club’s family.
Ariel Scholten
Sebastopol
Hospital a life saver
EDITOR: After the devastating fires that terrorized Sonoma County as well as Napa County, two of Sonoma County’s major hospitals were closed due to fire and smoke.
A week following the fire, my heart and lungs mysteriously filled with fluid. While we still don’t know the reason for my malady, the fact is this: I was rushed to Sonoma West hospital where I received potentially life-saving oxygen, monitoring, CT scan and medical care.
Kaiser hospital was still closed and only part of Sutter had opened just the day prior. Sonoma West hospital was on overload caring for patients, doubling them up in patient rooms as well as in the ER area. Many patients were referred to San Francisco hospitals and beyond for further care. Nurses and ER tended me throughout the night. When it was determined that I needed to have my lung tapped there were not beds available in Santa Rosa at either Sutter or Memorial. By some miracle, Sonoma West kept me overnight until a bed finally opened up the following day at Memorial.
While I was in the ER at Sonoma West, there was a child with appendicitis, a young man having a psychotic break, a woman having a serious heart issue and many others cared for by the excellent staff at Sonoma West throughout the night.
Here is the question … where would myself and other Sonoma County residents have gone? We need our community hospitals. We can’t count on three hospitals all in the same area to always be there for us in disastrous times. I think that we have experienced the unexpected. When will the next disaster strike? I for one do not want to face the future without our community hospital, Sonoma West Medical Center.
Jane Krensky
Sebastopol
