Hole in the bucket

I first heard the use of the analogy in the title of this column, as it was expressed by a Pittsburg State professor in my organization and business class, nearly five decades ago. He made the comparison to clarify to us his simplest theory on how a business operates. I think there is an affinity in this metaphor that can relate to our current NRMC hospital issue.

The professor told us that any business must be like a bucket of water that also has a hole in the bottom. He said you must have more water going into the bucket from an outside source, than you have draining out the hole! I can’t possibly think of any explanation that says it better.

Before I delve into my thoughts on the current issues regarding our hospital, I want to dispel some negativity that has been directed towards our officials of both the hospital board and the city council. It is my opinion, that all of these “VOLUNTEER” public officials are sincere in their efforts to do the right thing. In a visit with one council member, I have known and done business with for years, they told me of the many days and hours they had agonized over the right thing to do. There are no “bad guys” in this story.

I make no claim to have all the answers to our hospital situation but I definitely have some insights that I feel are valid. First on that list is the bucket comparison. It has been reported for several years now that our local hospital has a bigger hole in its bucket than it has water (income) entering.

That is the issue that has to be fixed if our hospital is to survive, whether we are managed by Freeman or any other medical enterprise. To further complicate that problem, the taxpayers of our community are the guarantors for hospital bonds. I cannot imagine that Freeman would take over that responsibility. Whether this hospital survives or not, we are on the “hook” for those debts.

The other observation that I have come to associate with our hospital is the lack of use by many of our local citizens. I was born in that hospital. When I was 5 years old I had my tonsils removed during the Christmas break from school. The hospital was so full (it had about a hundred beds back then), that my bed and that of another child were placed in the hallway behind screens.

In the decades since that time, the daily in patient population at our hospital has decreased dramatically. Part of that is due to the way medical care is delivered these days. Many procedures are now completed on an outpatient basis. The major problem with the use of our local hospital seems to me, to be simply perception.

Many locals seem to have a negative view of our hospital. I have heard those comments many times. Here are some thoughts on that. Our hospital is first and foremost “local!” You can, as I have been on more than one occasion, be transported to a larger hospital in Joplin or Kansas City, after receiving local life saving treatment at NRMC. The number of people who have been taken to our ER, stabilized and later transferred to a bigger hospital is a very lengthy list. If you don’t have a local hospital, your prospects of survival are far less.

Traveling to other hospitals, when countless basic medical surgeries and procedures can be completed locally, simply does not make sense. A local hospital is a basic tenet of any community.

When you study the pillars that make a community strong, you discover a list that includes schools, firehouses, law enforcement agencies, and hospitals. If any of these disappear, the town is on thin ice. Look at the small towns in Vernon County that no longer have schools and see what their conditions have become.

So here we are as a town in regards to our hospital. We are affiliating with Freeman as the manager of our hospital. I hope that works but there are definitely things we can do as citizens that will perhaps secure the future or our hospital.

First, we must address the hole in the bucket problem. I have advocated for a local sales tax for some time that would be passed with the following stipulations. It can only be used to make the payments for the hospital bonds, for which we as a community are already obligated. Secondly, it would have a “sundown” provision that would end when the bonds are retired.

To further address the bucket problem, it requires that Freeman or our local managers take a serious look at expenditures. Personnel heads the list on that issue. The hospital must not carry any salaries that are not needed, period!

Finally, as a community we must deal with this perception issue. If you don’t think that is a real problem than you better wake up. As someone voiced at the council meeting, “what affect would the loss of our hospital have upon institutions like 3M?”

What do you think your home value would be if we were to lose our hospital or businesses like 3M? Just because you take care of your own business and finances does not mean you would not be directly affected by such monumental changes in the local economy.

In our local high school (another venerable institution), I was taught in English 4 class many years ago, the “Transcendentalism” theory. The basis of this theory is that if you drop a pebble in the water, it sets off ripples that race outward. Eventually these ripples encounter other objects and are rebounded back in ripples to the point of origin.

The ripples that would result from loosing our hospital are dire. Our bucket has a hole in it, and it is our duty and responsibility as citizens to find a way to plug that hole! Stop looking for saviors and do it ourselves.