Voters will decide Tuesday 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: Besides “a new look” with a new hospital, why is replacing the old one so important?
A: Just as the Iola Register, as a daily news provider, needs to stay up-to-date to keep its readership and advertisers and has decided to transition to a full-color format, our Allen County Hospital, as a healthcare provider, must stay up-to-date to continue to attract patients and doctors with the important improvements that come with a new hospital.
Print media is changing and healthcare is changing. In both cases, organizations that fail to keep up with change means such organizations won’t be able to keep customers and as a result, such organizations won’t be able to stay in business. Keeping up with change is a matter of survival.
There are many other reasons to recommend building a replacement hospital:
1) The present facility is near the end of its useful life;
2) Renovation is 15 percent more expensive, takes eight months longer, solves only 85 percent of present flaws, and yields much less Medicare reimbursement money to pay for the project;
3) A larger site is needed;
4) Construction costs and financing costs are at historic lows;
5) Current hospital profits and Medicare reimbursement as a critical access hospital make financing the project affordable;
6) Patient market size and Allen County population, though declining, are more than adequate to support a new 25-bed facility;
7) The quarter-cent sales tax piece of the financing is a bargain;
8) Family-oriented birthing suites are included;
9) All patient spaces will be wheelchair accessible and a majority of the rooms will be private;
10) Expanded outpatient services would feature more space for physical, occupational and speech therapy;
11) Separate walk-in and ambulance entrances are planned for the emergency room, which will be located close to the surgery suites;
12) Operating costs will be reduced with energy efficient mechanical and electrical equipment and a smaller footprint than the present three-story structure;
13) Staffing efficiencies, im-proved access and convenient layout for patients, staff and the public would be designed;
14) Local control of the hospital by an appointed local board of trustees would be achieved;
15) Keeping jobs in Allen County and attracting new ones becomes easier with up-to-date healthcare — employers insist on it;
16) The City of Iola is helping with the financing by using $350,000 of its sales tax income for ten years — it reduces the sales tax needed from 1⁄2 cent to 1⁄4 cent; and
17) Allen County Hospital is a major employer and a new facility assures those jobs will be around for a long time to come.
Yes! Allen County Healthcare
