Voters will decide Nov. 2 whether to increase a countywide sales tax by 1⁄4 of a cent to go toward a new Allen County Hospital.
Members of the Allen County Healthcare Committee address questions about the issue.
Q: Why do we lease our hospital now to HCA?
A: HCA took over the local hospital lease from Health Midwest of Kansas City, Mo. when it bought the Kansas City–based institution more than seven years ago. Health Midwest — parent company of Research Hospital in Kansas City — negotiated the first version of the lease with Allen County commissioners in the early 1980s after a county-wide vote to make improvements to the hospital failed.
Commissioners knew that improvements needed to be made and Research agreed to make the desired improvements in return for a long-term lease, which was necessary to recover the cost of the update. Now, HCA doesn’t want to make the building improvements, so commissioners realize we will need to do it ourselves if it is going to happen.
If voters agree that now is the time to return management of the hospital to local control in order to update our healthcare facilities with a new hospital, HCA will be notified that the lease will be terminated six months from that point and a transition to the new hospital arrangement will begin.
If you agree with us and would like to help our voter information effort with your time or your money we can use both.
We expect it to take several hundred volunteers to get the word out with only a few short weeks before the election. Volunteer names or contributions may be sent to “Yes Allen County Healthcare,” at A.C.B., Inc, 16 W. Jackson, Iola, KS 66749 or left at the Moran, Humboldt or Iola branch es of Emprise Bank where we have our checking account.
Yes! Allen County Healthcare
