What's Going On at the Hospital?

Our hospital is absolutely essential to the community.

Cooperation with doctors is absolutely essential to the hospital.

If our doctors are paid by Covenant, is there a conflict of interest? Are patients encouraged to go to Lubbock instead of Cogdell?

Are those patients with the "best" insurance policies being sent to Lubbock?

On the other hand, most of the doctors at the Covenant Clinic have lived in Snyder for many years.

They have raised a great group of kids here.

They are highly respected in the community and know how important the hospital is to Snyder.

Thus, they have incentive to support it.

Do patients demand to be transferred to city hospitals and are doctors simply honoring their requests?

If so, our hospital needs to gain the trust of the community.

Is Covenant the problem?

Are they milking our hospital for their own benefit or are they providing a valuable service with their clinic?

Is it possible for the Cogdell to hire the doctors?

These are questions which occur to an outsider looking in.

Running a rural hospital is not easy.

There are many issues to do with rural hospitals which are mandated.

The amount of Medicare payments, for example, and the necessity to provide indigent care at the emergency room.

Hard and perhaps unpopular decisions have to be made.

However, resolving the doctor issue is one of the most important.

It may be that both sides have to find a way to compromise for the good of the community.