Letters to the Editor 2-12-15

Cost of ER
Editor: First, sincere thanks to Rollie Atkinson for his investigative reporting as to the issues facing both small hospitals generally and Palm Drive in particular. We are all entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts. Thanks for getting those facts on the table so they can be reviewed and analyzed. They suggest the following:
Rounding up from the 945 true emergency room visits last year to 1,000, the proposed $8 million charitable contribution cost of opening the hospital works out at $8,000 for each patient and the $2 million annual cost to be met from charitable giving to stay open comes in at $2,000 each. All this to meet needs that are already being met by other hospitals since Palm Drive closed.
Those are charitable dollars, which would/could otherwise be going to support our local schools and other nonprofits like the Sebastopol Community Foundation, Student Global Embassy, Land Paths or the Laguna Foundation, to mention just a few.
Columbia HCA, the former owner of Palm Drive, concluded over 15 years ago that, despite have the advantages of group buying and being included in health care plans, Palm Drive was not a viable business proposition. Nothing, even with the parcel tax, etc, since then has proved them wrong.
If even half of those homes with “Open Our Hospital” signs in front of them had gotten their health care from doctors who used Palm Drive, I suspect that it would still be open. It seems much easier to put up a sign than to change health plans.
If Mr. Smith and his colleagues truly believe that their model will work, then let them set up a for-profit or benefit corporation, raise the money from investors and run it as a for-profit operation, not one that requires both parcel tax revenues as well as large charitable contributions made to the detriment of other viable nonprofits in our community.
I doubt that they would be able to find such investors since the “business plan” here calls for new investment money each year.
It would be great if Palm Drive, and other hospitals like it, were economically viable in our current world. But they are not and continuing to throw good money after bad won’t change that.
Richard Power
Sebastopol
Levelheaded analysis
Editor: I appreciate the levelheaded report by Rollie Atkinson regarding the cost of opening the Palm Drive ER (“What is the true cost of reopening emergency room?” Feb. 5).
He debunked the notion that people died because we didn’t have an ER. Some of the people upset by the closing implied that those who closed the ER, and later those who had serious questions about proposals to reopen it, didn’t care about people dying. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Another interesting point made is that the failed, money losing ER was led by none other than Dr. Powers, recently elected to the District Board. The people upset at the closing said the hospital was mismanaged. Let us hope Dr. Powers can do a better job of leading the District than he did leading the ER.
Perhaps the people leading the good effort to open the hospital have actually benefitted from the criticism and we can come out with more robust services. The question still remains, is the emergency room sustainable?
Brenda Nichols
Sebastopol
Willing to pay for ER
Editor: I live in Guerneville and these are the taxes I don’t want to pay because I don’t think I will ever need the services they fund:
1. Fire: I’ve never had a fire at my house and I don’t plan on having one;
2. Elementary school: I’m nearly 70 and I’m not expecting to get pregnant again;
3. Any taxes that pay for roads on which I do not travel;
4. Federal tax: More than 50 percent of our federal taxes go to the military and I don’t hate anybody enough to start a war against them;
5. Local park and recreation district: I only visit state and county parks, so I’m willing to pay for those;
6. Any portion of the county tax that pays for public transit: I don’t use it.
But, I don’t mind paying $155 a year for my local hospital, Palm Drive. I’ve used it happily three times and I’d choose it over corporate medicine any old time again.
Lois Pearlman
Guerneville