This ad has been paid for by Mick Pryor and the following letter has been submitted by “Concerned Citizens to Save Our Riverton Hospital.”
MOVING HEALTHCARE FORWARD IN RIVERTON AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES
Our mission: To Ensure access to safe, high quality primary and secondary healthcare facilities in Riverton
We, the “Concerned Citizens to Save Our Riverton Hospital,” believe the plans expressed last week by Alan Daugherty, CEO for LifePoint SageWest, to restore some medical services to Riverton Hospital to be a positive step.
Our grassroots community organization, which includes many medical professionals, local community leaders and healthcare consumers, pledges to work cooperatively with SageWest and with the Riverton Hospital Working Group to achieve the common goals reflected in our mission statement noted above.
IMPORTANT WORK STILL TO DO
We agree with LifePoint that we need quality data on local health service utilization to make meaningful and effective decisions. To this end, we will soon be conducting a Community Health Survey to gain additional insight into our community’s healthcare needs. We hope you will support these efforts by completing this survey for yourself and your family.
Our community group will continue to publicly advocate for the restoration and maintenance of needed hospital services which include the goals listed here.
Our Goals:
- Restore medical staffing and services to Riverton Hospital or a suitable alternative to support:
- Level III Emergency Room
- Diagnostic services
- OB/GYN services
- 24-hour inpatient surgical services
- Recruit and retain physicians for Riverton communities.
- Work cooperatively with a hospital management firm that has the resources, ability, and desire to engage in dialogue with Riverton residents for the purpose of understanding and fulfilling Riverton’s acute care and emergency medical needs.
We are pleased that Mr. Daugherty has promised to “aggressively [recruit] medical staff and nurses for both campuses including surgeons who can offer 24/7 surgical services in Riverton.” We want to ensure that 24/7 surgical services in Riverton includes the required complement of support medical personnel to make such services accessible, high quality and safe for the Riverton community.
We are not content with Mr. Daugherty’s pledge to “continue to offer at Riverton all services we currently provide there today….” as they have been reduced in recent months.
LifePoint states with their mission that “everyone deserves quality healthcare close to home.” We intend to hold them to that promise.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IS CRITICAL
For longer than we care to acknowledge, our community has been struggling with one medical challenge after another. While we are guardedly optimistic that SageWest has acknowledged our concerns and that they will follow through on their Riverton promises in timely manner, we believe that it is the community’s responsibility to build, grow, and preserve its medical system.
Health care is a very personal, political, and public concern for all of us. It is about helping our neighbors when they are most vulnerable, maintaining a quality of life for our loved ones at a reasonable cost, and growing an economy able to attract new business ventures.
This is a time for all of us to take charge of our own futures and our medical system. Instead of continuing to point fingers at problems, the Save Our Riverton Hospital committee has chosen to point fingers in a new direction: the way forward.
We need your help as we continue to refine our strategies. We need your voices at our meetings. We need your time and some of your hard earned treasure to bring these goals to fruition. And, most importantly, we need your patronage at today’s local facilities and as we deliver on our commitments.
Please join us at our next public meeting on Monday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. in the CWC Robert A. Peck Arts Center Theatre.
Steering Committee (partial list)
Janis Bradley, Rick & Josephine Gilpatrick, Jo Anne McFarland, John Vincent, Mick Pryor, Kristi Salisbury, Cathy Cline, Kent Stockton, MD, Roger Gose, MD
Contact Info:
Save Our Riverton Hospital
P.O. Box 433
Riverton, WY 82501
Find us on Facebook at Save Riverton Hospital