A modern, comprehensive hospital is a primary component of a progressive community.
A local medical center provides up to date health care, from emergency attention for spontaneous health concerns to diagnostic tools that quickly pinpoint health problems to treatment and care for a wide variety of illnesses.
The staff at Allen County Hospital has met those needs since the first patient walked through the door 58 years ago, and continues to do so today. But, all could do better in an upscale hospital, one with something as simple as having doors in patient rooms large enough to accommodate modern wheelchairs.
That is only one of a litany of design and age-related problems the Register will report about in the lead-up to a Nov. 2 referendum to decide sales tax funding for a new hospital.
Health care on the cutting edge is, without reservation, the primary goal.
ECONOMIC advantage also is a an important part of the mix.
Iolan Brad VanRiette eloquently pointed out in a letter published in the Aug. 12 Register the community didn’t have the ability to save the 155 jobs that will be lost by Haldex Brake moving production from Iola to Mexico, but that it could save the hospital, which, with 160 employees and an annual payroll of $9 million, has economic impact as significant, and important, as the major industries in the county.
In cursory view, it might seem presumptuous to think the hospital is in danger of closing or having much less of a health care presence than its does today.
Either is a real possibility.
Consultants who studied the hospital extensively over several months noted in a public report Aug. 3 the hospital likely would require upgrades and repairs totaling $7 million dollars or more very soon and, to be quite honest, there is the lingering fear it is within an eyelash of having nearly catastrophic problems. Boilers, for example, are at or near the end of their life expectancy.
Economic impact of the hospital is more than it being a major employer and contributor to the economic climate.
The hospital also is at center stage in efforts to woo new residents, including physicians, businesses and industries, such as a replacement for Haldex Brake.
Both features are significant and have tentacles in the financial fold that weave their ways throughout Allen County.
Attractiveness of a community has many measures.
Quality of life is a priority, and few things affect it more than having comprehensive health care. Educational opportunities, cultural advantages — we’re light years ahead of others in southeast Kansas with the Bowlus Fine Arts Center — and a broad variety of recreation and entertainment also are on potential newcomers’ shopping lists.
ALLEN COUNTY commissioners will vote very soon to build a new hospital. The vote awaits only them knowing whether funding will require a quarter- or half-cent sales tax.
An agreement for Iola to provide up to $350,000 each year from sales tax money it collects was sent to City Hall late Friday. A decision on the agreement will determine magnitude of the sales tax to support anticipated bonds of $30 million for construction and equipping a new hospital and to provide sufficient capital for startup and maintenance.
The puzzle has other pieces, but the significant one at this point is the funding mechanism.
The referendum will do more than just decide the sales tax, it also will determine whether Allen Countians are willing and eager to provide themselves, their neighbors and their friends with first rate health care and also to have the county well positioned for economic development in the years ahead.
— Bob Johnson
