Letter to the Editor: Seeking Answers

To the Editor:
What is happening at Perry County Memorial Hospital?
Recently our hospital’s CMS rating has fallen from 4 to 1 out of 5. We have to ask what has happened to our hospital? Area hospitals such as Ste. Genevieve and Chester have maintained their ratings at 4 and 3, respectively. What has caused the demise of our hospital? The number rating depends upon patient satisfaction and financials.
To explain the low rating, I have heard the private board give reasons for this being due to
“Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.” I do not feel that service is poor, the people that serve us at the hospital are very dedicated. Perhaps to explain the PCMH CMS rating, consider the hospital has lost four major specialists. Three of these doctors were 20-year residents of Perryville with many friends and happy patients. These physicians were excellent and were an integrated part of the hospital. These doctors are now all gainfully employed making money for other hospitals. Their absence has caused many services and much money to be transferred to other hospitals and towns. Many of their patients and friends followed and or will follow these doctors. This may well be lost income for PCHM forever. Please help me understand why these physicians left after 20 years and at least why they weren’t replaced. I recently asked the hospital administration, “Why doesn’t the hospital adopt a working model of either adjacent hospitals?” The answer I was given, simply stated was that ‘The hospital CAN NOT be fixed.” Why has the private board and administration lost confidence in their ability to resolve issues? Officials at the hospital have issued the motto, “We can not look backwards, we have to look forward.” Does this mean we can’t learn from past mistakes? Solving any problem requires the history of the problem being dealt with effectively.
The Becker hospital report has placed 90 hospitals in the state of Missouri on the watch list for closing. PCMH is on that list, as well as 6 hospitals owned by Mercy. At a recent forum I asked, “Would any of these hospitals close?” Mercy officials just said “we will have to wait and see.” West Plains Missouri Hospital was also on that list. In recent years they have hired a new CEO, hired new doctors, and recently built a new $5,000,000 addition. They are currently profitable and no longer on this list. PCMH’s private board is near giving the hospital to Mercy and it is a large conglomerate, not even home-based in the state of Missouri. Why would we give Mercy control when their last takeover (very similar to PCMH) is on the list to be closed? What are we gaining by sending remaining funds out of state? With other area hospitals prospering, why is there no possible alternative than to give Mercy control?

The hospital began in the early 1950s when its founders convinced the county to pass a $5,000,000 bond issue. With volunteers, taxpayer’s input and dedicated employees this asset has operated at a profit and amassed a value of nearly $60,000,000 plus $10,000,000 in cash. Please, someone help me to understand why our hospital can not have a workable operations plan that will keep it under county control. Once the county loses control, we may ultimately lose the hospital. As Mercy has said, “We have to wait and see what happens.”
Yes, PCMH and 90 other hospitals made the list. Perhaps our hospital needs new management and more doctors. Perhaps we should just say let’s take some time and figure this out, maybe there is a plan, let’s not rush into this. Present all the facts to the county and ask for input from the unspoken voices: the taxpayers. I would like full financial disclosure without having to have a legal court fight.
My last questions: what unspoken words could explain the hospital’s decline? Only our hospital board knows. The board managed this decline. Why are they in such a rush to transfer the hospital? Hopefully not to foster forgetting the past in order to blindly go forward. Please keep in mind the people leaving the hospital are legally protected and not responsible for future losses to our hospital. I wish at least we had an elected body such as our county commissioners to make the final decision. The correct decision is to protect what we have.
I am confident the taxpayers will help resolve any issues and continue to support PCMH giving open dialog we desperately deserve.

Concerned,
Joe D. Hutchison D.D.S.
Perryville