The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

As a lifelong member of this area and an employee of Coulee Medical Center, I feel I need to speak out about the current situation at the hospital. I was employed by a doctor in 1963. At that time the providers were forced to leave this area due to poor decisions made by the hospital administration. The result was the providers leaving this area and soon after, the closure of the hospital. I do not want that to happen again.

Since moving into the new facility, administrative positions have greatly increased (more than double) while patient care and support personnel have been greatly decreased, leaving an imbalance in administration versus other positions. There are also some nepotism issues that should be addressed. The two people who spoke, in support of administration, at the public meeting were either spouse or family member of people who hold positions in administration that have benefitted financially. I have always supported administration and defended them when decisions they made were not popular or ones I did not agree with, i.e., cancelling lab week because it was “illegal,” only to find that was not a truthful statement.

Now, it seems, administration has launched a smear campaign against our providers that could damage their careers. This is not fair.

I am not saying these are bad people; in fact, many of them have been my friends. I am saying that the decisions they have made and the avenues they are taking are not beneficial to the community or CMC. Several employees have been fired or forced to leave for various reasons. These were people that lived here and were dedicated to the success of the hospital. Out-of-town personnel have been brought in, and in some cases, i.e. radiology, the department has not been fully staffed, forcing some patients to be sent to other facilities for testing. There has also been a loss of revenue because some services were done before the paper work was completed to be able to bill some insurance companies, leaving some patients with an account balance and many fees have had to be written off.

The bottom line: We, as a community, need to band together to keep our current providers and to recruit new ones to this area. This will not happen if the current administration is not replaced.

Thanks to the providers for your many years of hard work and dedication to this community and all the work you did to get a new facility.

Clea Pryor