Web posted
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Hospital preparing its case
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
reporter@arkcity.net
City and hospital officials are putting their ducks in a row to try to convince Arkansas City residents that a planned new hospital should be on farm property two miles northwest of town.
The new hospital would replace South Central Kansas Regional Medical Center at 216 W. Birch Ave. That facility is over 50 years old and it would be less expensive to build a new hospital than to renovate it, officials say.
Three officials interviewed this week said that even though the cost of extending utilities to the former Patterson property north of town would be high, it would be the best of several locations considered for the new facility.
The other locations are in-town sites including one near the intersection of North Summit Street and Skyline Road at the northwest edge of town.
But the location issue is controversial among Traveler readers, most of whom say they are not in favor of the site north of town. According to results so far on a Traveler Web site poll asking about the north-of-town hospital proposal, 55 percent say "no" versus 45 percent who say "yes."
Hospital officials will pitch the proposal to the City Commission at its meeting next Tuesday. That meeting will be at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
If the commission approves it, voters may be asked whether they support a one-half cent sales tax to fund the project. The issue may be put on the November general election ballot.
Before the vote, officials will hold several meetings on the advantages of a new hospital at the chosen site, Pappan said. They plan to hold the meetings starting in mid September, he said.
"Since the board unanimously approved the Patterson site last month, the board has formed a community awareness group," said Clayton Pappan this morning at the SCKRMC Board of Trustees meeting.
The awareness group will lead public presentations pitching the new hospital plan at public meetings over the next few months, he said. Meeting locations include the Cowley College Brown Center, the Arkansas City Senior Citizens Center and the Presbyterian Manor.
Then, if the city commission approves the Patterson property location, the hospital board would appear again at a city commission meeting on Sept. 16 to present financial details of the plan. At that meeting, commissioners will consider the issue of putting the half-cent sales tax on the November ballot.
Also last month, the local hospital board approved a new design for a new hospital. By a voice vote at a meeting July 24, the board indicated approval of a $26-27 million facility similar to a new hospital built in Weatherford, Okla.
"The hospital is a key component but that's just the beginning," local physician and advisor to the board Dr. Bob Yoachim said at today's meeting. "We're looking at additional construction -- such as facilities for dialysis and oncology -- not just a hospital and a single medical office."
Hospital and city officials say the Patterson farm offers the advantage of having more room for expansion than the other sites considered for the new hospital.
"We might even eventually build a wellness center," Yoachim said. "It's a pipe dream now, but we do have that vision. It's not just a single building we're looking at."
The SCKRMC board has proposed building a new hospital for about a decade, board members noted.
A site just off U.S. 77 near Strother Field could draw in new patients from surrounding communities in Cowley County, besides Ark City patients, officials say. Out-of-town patients would find that site more convenient than an in-town site.
And a new facility also could draw additional medical staff who want to work in a state-of-the-art facility, they say.
"It's important that the community understands that our thought processes," board chairman Justin Sparks said. "But our efforts have been extended over the past 10 years."
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