Vote "Yes" for the joint venture to build a new hospital for the Valley!

On the Other Hand, by Clyde Boyer

We're voting yes! Valley Hospital has served the citizens of Mat-Su since 1935. This historic healthcare facility has long stood as a symbol of the foresight and dedication of a committed and outstanding group of people who understood this community would flourish when the healthcare needs of its citizens were served with compassion, dignity and sound medical science.

For the last two decades, many different Valley Hospital boards have struggled with the same issue: Rapid population growth and demand outpacing Valley Hospital's ability to provide the necessary services. Yes, we've continued to grow, but never fast enough. We've spread ourselves thin over three different campuses in an attempt to make services accessible to a community that is growing in every direction. A decade ago, we tried unsuccessfully to consolidate and "move" all services to Wasilla where the population center had shifted.

Within the last 10 years, the Mat-Su Borough population has grown exponentially to the north and west -- away from Valley Hospital -- and the commuter population (to Anchorage) has doubled. Today, within the core area of Palmer and Wasilla, 60 percent of those who require hospital services drive to Anchorage for their care. Of the roughly 40 percent that do seek care at Valley Hospital, one in 12 can't pay for services. Valley Hospital wrote off more than $5 million in unreimbursed care last year alone. We can't just turn off your service when you don't pay the bill, unlike providers of other kinds of service.

At the same time, in the last two decades, more than 3,000 hospitals have closed nationwide. Most of these were not-for-profit community hospitals like Valley Hospital. Many closed because they didn't have the capital required to grow, to add new facilities and services and the technology necessary to compete.

More than a decade ago, a different board of directors realized VHA needed to address its location and expand services or lose potential customers to the Anchorage hospitals. Since then, VHA has remained financially viable and sustained critical services, but has not amassed the capital needed to build the facilities and services required by the fastest-growing borough in the state. We saw this crossroads coming more than 10 years ago.

Now, we're at the very crossroads we tried so desperately to avoid. Since Jan. 1 this year, we've run out of available beds a few days each month. This past week, all of our medical/surgical beds were filled on more than one occasion. If we had a major accident -- like the school bus accident a few weeks ago -- we would have to move people to Anchorage for their care. And Valley Hospital and our community have not been able to raise the $75 million needed to build the larger hospital our community is demanding.

For the last two years, the state legislature has considered changes to the Certificate of Need (CON), which requires hospitals to substantiate the need before spending millions of dollars on new facilities or equipment. It is just a matter of time until our legislature makes these changes -- especially since groups from the Lower 48 are heavily lobbying for the abolition of the CON requirement.

When the certificate of need is dropped, another hospital company with access to the required capital will move in and build. This "company" won't need your permission. It won't yield any local control. And it will place the hospital where the center of population is.

The crossroads will be behind us, and VHA will be at a dead end.

Right now, we are being called upon to muster the vision and fortitude necessary to ensure that our community will continue to be well served in this new millenium. The people of Mat-Su deserve not just a more modern hospital, but a financially sound, state-of-the-art medical facility that can provide for our medical needs here at home, without having to travel long distances.

The proposed joint venture between Valley Hospital Association and Triad Hospitals Inc. is a partnership that will fulfill our need for world-class medical technology without incurring debt. Most important, this partnership will support our core community values, preserve local control, and provide accessible quality healthcare services when you need them -- and close to home. Valley Hospital Association will even remain a not-for-profit entity that can use its share of the profits to do good works in the community.

We plan to build a 75-bed state-of-the-art hospital in a central location between Palmer and Wasilla. We are looking for land close to the Parks and Glenn Highway intersections so that the facility is accessible to Palmer and Wasilla residents. We plan to add new programs like pulmonary, cardiology and oncology services -- services you have asked for. We will still treat anyone that walks through our doors -- regardless of ability to pay.

And we're going to do all this while maintaining half the control over this new hospital. In fact, the new hospital's board of trustees will be made up entirely of Mat-Su Valley citizens and physicians. Of course this will improve our economy -- adding meaningful jobs, attracting more specialists and even contributing tax dollars to our borough. But most important, this joint venture between Valley Hospital and Triad will improve healthcare services and access to care in the Valley. So that when you need us, Valley Hospital will be there.

So please, sift through the rumors, sort out the fact from the fiction. Visit Triad's Web site, www.triadhospitals.com, look beyond any special interest and consider the healthcare needs of your fellow Mat-Su residents. When you do that, we're quite sure that you will vote "yes" with us.

Clyde Boyer is the VHA board of directors chair.