Somebody needs to say 'Whoa!' to
hospitals' race
By Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: The spending race
between what is now Sanford Health and Avera Health has been growing
by gigantic proportions. How and when this race started is hard to
tell. Both institutions have invested in hospitals across the state,
making both mother hens, so to speak. They have also been in a
building frenzy for many years. What was the first expansion is hard
to say since there have been so many at both institutions. Since
then these two competitors have been hard at it to see which one can
outdo the other.
ABOUT THIS TIME many years ago
Bill Howe lost both of his legs in a corn picking accident. I was
hired the next summer to help get his cattle rounded up for a sale.
Blossom was the name of the horse I had to ride in the process. Now,
good, old Blossom loved to run and didn't like to stop so the
mechanism to get that nag under control took about three "Whoa's,"
the last one being quite intense and perhaps with an expletive being
thrown in.
Anyway, when those two hospitals,
located in that town near Harrisburg, started competing with their
expansion plans, I wondered how long this would go on. It appeared
both institutions had deep pockets seeing how they were gobbling up
most of the other hospitals both in South Dakota and across our
borders. I guess that may have been when I thought of Blossom, the
horse that had a hard time following directions. According to
Webster, "whoa,: both then and now is "used as a command to stop."
Is there anyone out there who can say "whoa" to that hospital race,
or at least ask them to slow down?
There are several ways to call for a
stop. Back in my youth it took an intense "Whoa!" along with perhaps
an expletive. As far as saying "whoa," the naming rights race came
to a head recently in a poll in that paper in that town near
Harrisburg. To some it was almost a clarion call. With more than
2,000 people casting votes, 82.1 percent of the people said Avera
went too far in sponsoring the Parade of Lights this year in that
city. This has also been expressed by various bloggers.
ITıS PRETTY HARD to argue against
such a percentage. Was this bit of the battle another signal that
things are way out of hand between these two so-called "non-profit"
hospitals?
More than one eyebrow went up when Sioux
Valley attached its name to the University of South Dakota Medical
School. A few more went up, I'm sure, when Sioux Valley changed its
name due to a $400 million donation by Mr. Sanford. Not to be
outdone, well, maybe a little, Avera will be giving $15 million over
the next 10 years to South Dakota State University. All of this has
been in the names of research and improved patient care.
Both hospitals have spread their
influence to many hospitals in South Dakota and out. It is hard to
fault that if it brings better patient care to these hospitals. At
the same time, it seems when one hospital developed a special
section, or a new building, the other had to follow suit. I'm sure
this has been good moves to both hospitals, but I must ask, "Is
there no stop to this?" Patient needs and staff needs must also be
considered by both of these hospitals. As a blogger, who claimed to
be an employee of one of these hospitals, said, "Enough is enough!"
MOST OF US probably have little
or no concern about these expansion projects at the two hospitals
but when these so-called non-profit institutions appear to be
spending their dollars frivolously such as buying into a parade of
lights that has little or nothing to do with improving health, one
wonders if there shouldn't be an attempt to lower costs of health
care?
A lot of people don't think much of
bloggers who don't sign their names to what they write. Still, their
messages are often echoes of others. Here is a brief smattering of
what they are saying:
"As a former Avera employee, I still
keep in contact with my former co-workers. One of the topics we
recently discussed was the renaming of the Parade of Lights. General
consensus is that the majority of the employees are just as unhappy
with the renaming of it as those who aren't employees."
"The hospitals have been very busy
lately. A lot of the floors have been working short-handed. The
nursing staff sees this money going to parades, while at the same
time they're telling the staff, 'Sorry, we just don't have the
budget to hire more nurses.' No wonder they're upset."
And "....The names of the hospitals are
getting so long it would be next to impossible to fit them on the
line of a check blank."
The bottom line, maybe like Blossom, the
horse, they aren't hearing any of those "whoa's" yet. Something a
bit more intense might be what is needed. But what that might be is
the big question....
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and
recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a
lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the
U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
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