The “Save Our Riverton Hospital” group held a public meeting Monday evening at the Central Wyoming College Arts Center to discuss the future of health care in the county.
Jo Anne McFarland hosted the event, with a panel of speakers giving presentations. Several dozen concerned citizens attended the meeting.
“Save Our Riverton Hospital” organizer Janis Bradley first gave an introduction to the crowd and urged Riverton citizens to thank the hospital staff and doctors to let them know, “how much our community really does appreciate them.”
Dr. Richard Sorenson spoke next, echoing Bradley’s sentiment that any issues with the Riverton hospital weren’t a reflection of the current staff. Sorensen said he hopes that more services are offered soon and consistently at the Riverton hospital, “We need to have OB in Riverton, it’s totally inconceivable for me why we can’t have babies delivered in this community. We need to have surgery 24/7 and we need to have orthopedics.”
Former Riverton Mayor John Vincent re-emphasized that issues with hospital services aren’t “with the physical hospital, the staff, or the doctors.” Vincent added, “the difficulty of it is that the hospitals are now being run by a private, for-profit company.”
Other presentations were given by Cole White, the CEO of Community Health Center of Central Wyoming out of Casper, and Bob Kaiser, the Board Chairman of Memorial Hospital of Converse County in Douglas.
Several community members had an opportunity to address the room with a few minutes of their concerns.
Riverton musicians, Drones Over Yellowstone provided entertainment, with special guest vocalist Eva Bath.
You can watch the event in its entirety below, via live stream from the Save Our Riverton Hospitals Facebook page.