Hospital Makeover Leaves "Orphans" At Our Door

I recently watched the episode of the "Extreme Makeover" TV show in which the Design Team built a new home for a Louisville family, and the joy of seeing a deserving family move into a new home more suited to their needs warmed my heart. The special "apartment" within the new house custom-tailored for the needs of the blind and wheelchair-bound Patrick Henry Hughes was especially well done.

But what if the Design Team had intentionally not built the rooms for the other Hughes brothers--and the parents had approved the design? Wouldn't that have been unthinkable?

Effectively, that's what the administrators and designers of the new Harrison County Hospital have done. While the new hospital was sorely needed, and while it's much more suited to its purpose than the hospital's old campus, the hospital designers and administrators intentionally left out any space allocation for either the Harrison County EMS or the Harrison County Health Department...and only mentioned their omission to the County Council after the new hospital building was essentially complete.

Think about that for a moment. That move is the fiscal equivalent of leaving two "orphans" on the council's doorstep while moving the rest of the family into a new home. Historically, the health department and the hospital have always operated together. That's only logical, since the business of the hospital is related to the health of the community. And since its inception in the 1970's, Harrison County EMS and the hospital have literally and figuratively been joined at the hip. Now, suddenly [and unexpectedly, for the taxpayers of Harrison County] the hospital board has decided that providing a home for these unwanted stepchildren--for whom the taxpayers of the county must still provide a roof over their heads--isn't their responsibility. Apparently the taxpayers didn't need to know about that until after the new hospital was completed.

So now county leaders, already faced with the daunting task of finding a buyer who will take the old hospital campus off their hands [and who will put that property onto the county tax rolls], are handed the task of finding new digs for EMS and the health department, essentially at the eleventh hour. In my view, the actions of the hospital board border on duplicity. As a taxpayer, I'm outraged that the disposition of EMS and the health department "never came up" when discussions of building the new hospital were going on. So now even more tax money will need to be allocated for a new building for EMS--for which the hospital board has already "allotted" a space on their new grounds. So don't think for a minute that the hospital board didn't "plan" for this "emergency" to occur. And the net result is, the taxpayers didn't see it coming because the hospital board apparently intended the taxpayers be blindsided.

Of course, the health department doesn't have to be located at the hospital. Their function encompasses a lot more than just birth and death records, and I'm sure that office space can be found at a number of places within Corydon, the county seat, that would suffice. But had county officials been aware of the need to seek a new home for the health department from the time that the new hospital blueprints were completed, a smooth transition could have been well underway by now. Why the hospital board chose to conceal from the taxpayers their plans to "orphan" the EMS and the health department is a mystery to me.

Of course, the hospital board has informed county officials that they already have a partner lined up to share the new unplanned, unbuilt EMS facility. SkyCare, a regional helicopter ambulance service, would lease part of this proposed new EMS facility, helping to defray some of the operating expense, if none of the initial building costs. But that's small comfort to the taxpayers who didn't expect to have to build a separate EMS building in the first place. And then surprising the taxpayers with the need to find a new home for the health department at the same time is a double whammy...and one that, in my opinion, could have been avoided had the hospital administration and board have been more forthcoming and pointed these details out in the meetings that preceded the building of the new hospital.

Now it's obvious that the hospital intended all along to separate themselves from EMS and the health department. But as a taxpayer, I think it would've been considerate of the hospital administration to have spelled out their intentions from the beginning. Sure, it's "only money"...but it's only MY money, and YOUR money and the money of the other taxpayers, that's being spent here. And if riverboat gambling funds are diverted to cover these "unexpected contingencies," those are riverboat gambling funds that are being diverted from other potential uses. And that means that the expenses for which those funds could have otherwise been used WILL come out of the taxpayers' pockets.

I just wish the hospital administrators would have been straight with the taxpayers from the get-go, and not left a pair of "orphan" departments on our doorstep just as the hospital triumphantly moves into its palatial new facility.

IN THE BEGINNING...

...there was the thought; the thought begat the word, and the word begat the sentence. One sentence begat another, and another, and eventually they formed an idea. As the idea took shape, it led to the formation of the opinion, and as the opinion evolved, it begat this blog.

By way of introduction, I am The Buzzman, koo-koo-kajoo. I became The Buzzman back in seventh grade, as a student manager for the junior high basketball team. Long hair was seen as a sign of a rebellious youngster in those days, and to become associated with the team I was required to keep my hair cut short. My brother, a year older, played on the team as well, and his haircut of choice was the flat-top. One of my brother's teammates noticed an uncanny resemblance between my brother's haircut and that of cartoon character Woody Woodpecker's nemesis, Buzz Buzzard...and henceforth my brother and I were known as "The Buzz Brothers." At first we were "Big Buzz" and "Little Buzz," but as I eventually grew taller than my brother, that evolved into "Old Buzz" and "Buzzman." Thus, I am The Buzzman.

I've always considered myself a writer, so this blog is something of a test. It will test whether I have the discipline to write on a regular basis; it will also test whether I have anything to say, and whether anyone will be interested in the thoughts and opinions of someone past 50 who's somewhere between open-minded and curmudgeonly, someplace between "out in left field" and stuck in the dugout. My aim is to write something to make you think...or something to make you smile...or maybe just something to make me feel like I've done something worthwhile.

Some of my posts here may be rants, and I expect many will be political in nature. But don't expect me to defend either of the major political parties, as I consider them to be two sides of the same "heads they win, tails we lose" coin. My political beliefs go back to those espoused by the Founding Fathers, who detested the idea of a Ruling Class, and whose visions of government were of offices being held for a term or two by civic-minded citizens who would then return to their roles in society. Perhaps that's a bit idealistic for some folks to comprehend, but I have always believed that the Founding Fathers were essentially on the right track, and that government is most flawed when it is most skewed from the vision of its founders.

But this blog will essentially be my commentary on life--MY life, as I see it. That's why it's called BuzzWords. I really don't know if I'll be able to entertain, or inform, or stimulate your thoughts. But without this blog, the odds of doing so are mighty slim. So it is what it is, and in the immortal words of Popeye, "I yam what I yam." And I am The Buzzman...let the BuzzWords go forth, from this day forward.