Hospital Funding
Dear Editor: I am writing to ask that the Sentinel retract or clarify the statement in the article from the paper printed Aug. 31, 2017.
In the article on the front page, “Sitkans Offer Ideas, Questions on Health Care” it states: “The city has been subsidizing Sitka Community Hospital by about $1 million each year.” This is not true or factual and is misleading. The true statement is that the city collects a tobacco tax that the people of Sitka voted for, and then turns that money over to the hospital. Regarding the “about $1 million” approximately $700,000 of that comes from this tobacco tax.
I ask for transparency and factual statements in regards to all talks of an acquisition, merger, or sale of Sitka Community Hospital. Anything less would be ambiguous at best.
In moving forward, I implore the local media, Assembly members and the public at large to keep in mind that both facilities require taxpayer monies to stay afloat, as do most public facilities. Public health, safety and welfare come at a cost. However, striving for the best in all of these fields is worth every dime.
Jennifer Hovden, Sitka
Sitka’s Health Care
Dear Editor: It’s time to be positive.
I’ve watched and listened to the Assembly’s involvement in the Sitka Community Hospital situation for the last year and a half. Certainly the Assembly has the right and duty to oversee, evaluate, and hold the hospital accountable. It is the city’s responsibility – one of its largest assets, with one of its largest potential liabilities.
That important responsibility has been fulfilled, in my opinion. Now it’s time to give the hospital some space to pursue its mission, without a large question mark looming above its head.
After attending the community meeting at ANB Founders Hall Wednesday night, I felt affirmed by other community members. The sentiment I heard widely expressed can be summarized, I think, as follows:
1. Keep the hospital: its mission is intact, its economic engine is necessary, it is a core service of the city, our community wants cradle to grave health care under local control. And many expressed that consumer choice, with even a bit of competition is preferable to monopoly; and
2. Abandon the RFP process. Again and again, table discussion summaries showed a pervasive feeling that we’ve had enough intervention. The scrutiny has become counter-productive. While I sympathize with the Assembly’s frustration with pressing needs without a tax base that can handle them easily, I personally think that the answer is not to sell a city asset; it is to manage the asset in constructive ways. I was not alone in having that sentiment, based on the feedback I heard last night.
Many voices called for immediate relief from the uncertainty. As Fire Chief Dave Miller summarized, it will not be good for the cloud of indecision to continue for months into the future. The negative process can end right now. The hospital – and the entire community – will be better off. We have Rob Allen for at least seven more months – let him and his team demonstrate they have already turned the corner on many of the issues from the past.
There are pressing needs verbalized by the community Wednesday, which the cloud of indecision makes impossible:
Recruiting permanent care providers. Long-term commitments require stability, but they also foster it.
Finding the right solution to our birth needs. All the voices need to be heard, and from the evidence I’ve seen the community is solidly behind the introduction of nurse-midwife providers for a contemporary and cost-effective birthing experience. Birth isn’t a disease – it’s a necessary part of every healthy community. Let’s be sure we listen to the voices of the mothers on this topic in our community.
Implementation of scribes for doctors, which would increase their productivity and job satisfaction. This common-sense solution can also ease the transition toward the efficiencies that an electronic health record system will eventually foster.
Expansion of long-term care, and consolidation of the Mountainside and Oceanside clinics into a new facility that the hospital administration is showing can be funded by current and projected operating revenues, without any infusion of funds from the city.
I applaud the Assembly for constructing meetings that were well-designed for discussion. Assembly members were at most of the tables – they could hear what people were saying. What I heard coming from a majority of the folks who were gathered: the best health-care enhancing thing that the Assembly can do is let the hospital be the Community Hospital that Sitka wants, needs … and already has.
I am confident the clouds that currently surround our Community Hospital can quickly blow away.
Owen Kindig, Sitka
Visiting Sitka
Dear Editor: I saw in your paper a solicitation of feedback from visitors. I’m happy to share my impression and report I very much enjoyed my 3-1/2 days amongst the fine folks of Sitka.
Given all the elements of Sitka that interested me, I know that six hours off a cruise ship would not suffice. I flew in for 3-1/2 days of learning.
It was also my first experience with Airbnb. Sheila Finkenbinder was a refreshingly mature (remember, I’m originating in SF Bay area, land of children of all ages) and graciously accommodating ambassador for Sitka.
Folks were graciously accommodating from Sonny, my boat captain with Sitka Wildlife tours, to the church lady at the St. Peter’s bishop’s tea, to the hosts at Sheldon Jackson Museum, the Tlingit dancers, the postal employees who discussed my impression of Japan, the folks at the library who were so gracious in helping me keep in touch with my sister. The list would go on forever if I tried to thank everyone.
Wish you were close enough so I could pop up for long weekends.
Suzanne Hudson, California
