Morton Hospital News
A web site to promote public awareness of the hospital.
Morton General Hospital is Lewis county hospital district #1 and is controlled by 5 commissioners. Managed by a superintendent and employees about 200 people full and part time. Budget near 20 million dollars a year with 25 beds and a full time emergency room. The public pays little attention as to how the hospital is managed as the lack of public input at board meetings shows. Usually no one shows up when the publics business is being done. Even the local news paper does not seem to care enough to inform the public. For those that wish to know, I have provided some information you will not see anywhere else. The fact is the board of commissioners and the superintendent wants to keep what they do away from the public to avoid controversy. They are your elected officials but choose to keep you uninformed about your hospital. Tax supported and you paid to build it.
Some issues you should know about.
#1. Rationing of health care is a policy at the hospital. This means they decide who will be admitted and who will not. If you weigh over 300 pounds you will not be allowed in your tax payer built hospital. Only the emergency room and maybe as an outpatient if they are kind. Unless you are an employee? They also ration other people but getting this information is near impossible. The commissioners who have the job to oversee the policy of Morton General were told of the rationing early this year. They still do not know who will not be admitted because they let the superintendent decide. Your elected commissioners are not doing what they were elected to do. Oversee the policy and protect the public welfare. In private business they would be fired, but in a public corporation they should be thrown out of office!
#2. The management keeps policy hidden. Hospital policy could be made available to the public on the hospital web site. This would help inform the public and open the process to everyone. Let the public know what they are doing and how the hospital is being run. Cost of services and what our tax money is being spent for could be available to the public. They do have some policy that is "Verbal" so it is not written down. This keeps the lawyers away. Makes it hard to sue them. It is also used to hide what is going on at the hospital.
#3. Doctors will lie to you and hide what the superintendents policy is. A doctor lied to me and will to you. When you are paying for health care services you should expect to be told the truth by a professional. This is allowed by the board of commissioners and superintendent. It is acceptable policy to lie and hide what they do not want you to know. Blame lack of leadership by the board of commissioners. We elected them. Poor ethical policy of the superintendent to. Doctors and professional staff does not complain to proper authorities so they are just as guilty. I brought this to the boards attention and they did nothing! Do not care and to hell with you is their attitude.
#4. There is no formal way for a patient to have a complaint heard and dealt with. You can address the board of commissioners. This can only be done at a meeting held once a month. Or you can get a lawyer and spend lots of money and time. There needs to be a way to handle patient problems in a polite manner and improve quality of care. Make it a part of the hospitals Quality Improvement. The hospital sends out patient surveys about the service received at the hospital. They do not send them to fat people or anyone else denied services. The results as reported by the superintendent are great. Everyone loves Morton General! The results are compiled by Ron DeArth the superintendent and show he is doing a great job!! Imagine that, a man that has been found to use hospital funds improperly years ago and was found to change meeting minutes of the quality committee to make things look good is in charge of the results. The stupid commissioners say, "Great job Ron" and never look into the details. Seems odd the bad service never gets reported? I know of many people that had terrible service at the hospital and their survey was never reported in the results.
#5. The hospital still has not completed the work we passed a bond for many years ago. They ran out of money and have yet to improve the parking lot. Across the street from the hospital. It is still gravel, not paved and the lighting was never installed. We did not get everything we voted for. This is dangerous for unstable folks walking on uneven gravel. Wheel chair patients have trouble to. The staff parking area is well paved and lighted!
#6. Billing. You will be billed much more if you do not have insurance. Then may be sent to collections if you can not pay. Insurance companies get a break but poor taxpayers are billed the most if they cant afford insurance. Charity care is very hard to obtain. It would be nice if the standard charges were posted on the hospital own web site for everyone to see. Then the public could see who pays how much and who gets a discount. Its your hospital? Its your hospital only if you get informed and let your opinions be known. If you pay cash you will pay more than the insurance company or government payments by Medicare.
The commissioners have chosen not to offer the "death with dignity" law voters passed in 2008 to be an available service at your hospital. Meaning if you are terminally Ill there will be no help dieing. You must go elsewhere for this service. The vote was 3 to 2 with commissioners Kenton Smith & Ross Jones voting yes and Glenn Allen, Marc Fisher & Sheri Hendricks voting no. They will not help to end your life. Some service when you are screaming in pain that no drug will end! Do you really think "They Care about YOUR Care"??????
Let the Management know how you feel.
They do not get much public feedback so ask a question.
Contact them by E-mail, Links below.
Superintendent Ron DeArth, rdearth@mortongeneral.org
Chair of the board, Marc Fisher. mfisher@mortongeneral.org
Glenn Allen, commissioner, gallen@mortongeneral.org
Sheri Hendricks, commissioner, shendricks@mortongeneral.org
Kenton Smith, commissioner. ksmith@mortongeneral.org
Ross Jones, commissioner. rjones@mortongeneral.org
If you would like to know more about open government there is a group of folks that want the law to be enforced and open up the policies of our government. click the link below.
This web site owned by Dale Woody, Randle, WA. engraver1@centurytel.net