Keep the hospital under local control

We have needed the services of our local health care facilities recently. This has included our local doctors, Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital, Home Health Care, EMS and Gottsche for home physical therapy. We would have to say that “better care” anywhere in the country would be hard to find. Everyone involved in the medical field, from support services to doctors and nurses, have gone way beyond what is expected. Most of us don’t really know what we have until we need it.

We feel the hospital board and health care professionals are doing the right things to make sure we continue to have a quality health care system in Hot Springs County. We need to do some updating whether this means remodeling or building new.

We would like to have a dollar for every time we have heard ourselves and others screaming at the top of our lungs “LOCAL CONTROL.” The school system says it, the town says it, the county says it, the state says it. Almost everyone we know agrees that things work better when you have local people that live and work in the community making the decisions. We have all said “What does a CEO from who knows where care about Thermopolis, Wyoming other than the bottom line … keeping their company out of litigation and making money.”

Get behind your locally controlled hospital board if you care about continued quality of health care. You never know when you will need it and saving your life does not mean a 45 minute trip to Worland. Bottom line … you might die before you get there.

Phil and Bobbi Miller