Ozaukee News Graphic

Letter to the editor: Hospital should be full service, not just a branch

Ozaukee News Graphic, August 9, 2007

It’s rather flattering to think there are so many businesses out there that are so concerned with the needs of the residents of Ozaukee County. It would be even more flattering if that statement were true. Unfortunately those deriving profit from any enterprise are not as concerned about the welfare of the locals as the satisfaction of their governing boards and stockholders.

Does Ozaukee County need another hospital? Considering our growth, it probably wouldn’t hurt. Is the location of a second hospital in Ozaukee County important to the manner in which the real needs of the area are met. You bet! Aurora claims to be providing us with a non-profit hospital, the services of which are needed in Ozaukee County. Yet the proposed site is only a healthy jogger’s run up the road from a rather competently staffed and full service standing hospital.

To better provide the residents of Ozaukee County who still have a ways to go to receive health care, a location farther north might be attractive. Competition is a healthy concept in the provision of health care so long as the only purpose of said competition is to give a choice, not shift control. There is much in the history of Aurora Health Care that gives one reason to suspect their interests lie someplace other than in the welfare of local residents.

And, in this 90-bed hospital to be built in Grafton beside I-43, will Ozaukee County residents find a full-service hospital or one which will happily and quickly forward them to St. Luke’s Hospital on Milwaukee’s beautiful south side upon completion of a small number of tests? Any hospital planned for construction in our county should fulfill our needs within its walls. We are not simply a rural community to be served by outlet medical malls designed to triage patients for more refined care at a far away motherhouse.

It took St. Mary’s Hospital several long years to expand its offerings to allow most of its patients to receive treatment without an ambulance ride to Milwaukee. I know, I’ve been that route.

If we in Ozaukee County are deserving of a second hospital, let it be free-standing from the start and not another place from which we and our loved ones can be transferred to a place far away. And let it expand health care to those still not around the corner from an already proficient and caring hospital staff.

Robert Hoefs
Port Washington