Support the Hospital

Support hospital

I had the good fortune to move back to the Chelan area a few years ago and to reestablish my connection with the Behavioral Health Department and the Sanctuary. I guess that makes me a bit biased in my appreciation of the hospital bond initiative that will be back on the ballot this year. I can tell you, however, that I am not personally in need of a new hospital in order to see patients in my office. In the service I worked out of a Quonset hut in the Philippines, and that met my needs just fine. Actually, now that I reflect on it, my Quonset hut was twice the size of my current office.

Once I get out of my own office the situation changes. Our Sanctuary patients who come with their medical problems wind up having to share rooms for the better part of a month. If one snores, the other is awake. If one is talkative and social the other prefers quiet and relaxation. CPAP machines and oxygen machines make noise for the roommate. One person is messy, the other fastidious. They share bathrooms, whether someone has a bleeding problem, chronic hepatitis, or MRSA infections. During lectures and meetings the entire group of patients crowds together in small meeting rooms.

If I have to see someone on the medical floor, I will have to draw a thin curtain across the room in order to pretend that I have privacy to interview someone. We will likely not find another space to talk.

My colleagues who practice medicine and perform surgery have an even greater set of problems. They are the ones who deliver babies in such crowded conditions that furniture has to be moved if they need to get to a certain piece of equipment during the delivery. The equipment for anesthesiologists, surgeons and radiologists has changed dramatically in the past few decades, but the facility that houses this equipment has not, and space is squeezed. If you compare what your car engine looks like today to how it was in the 50s, this is how medical equipment has changed since the hospital was built.

Beyond these considerations is my sense of duty and community, to the people here now and those who will be here in the future. I hope my children will inherit my home some day. If they move here, I want them to be in a community that looks ahead and invests in its future. I don’t want to stick them with this problem we have today, it will only get more expensive and necessary over time.

I encourage people to vote for funding a new hospital.

William Cagle

Chelan