Our View: Hospital vote was a tough decision

Serving on any governing body, be it on the city council, board of county commissioners or state legislature, is a tough gig.

Occasionally, elected officials are tasked with making decisions that could drastically impact their constituents. The Sweetwater County Commissioners made one of these decisions last week while debating and ultimately refusing Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s request for revenue bonds. The bonds would have been used to pay for an ambulatory surgery center expansion.

We believe the area needs a surgery center and it would do a lot toward helping attract surgeons to Sweetwater County and improve efficiency within the hospital itself. It would also help the hospital transition from a county hospital to a regional healthcare facility. Speaking to the commissioners last week, a number of doctors working at the hospital made those same points, some of whom said their reason for establishing a practice in the county was due to the hospital’s plans for adding a surgery center. The hospital also contends the center is needed because they’ve already run out of space in the new medical office building it opened last year.

This was a very tough choice and we’re not criticizing the commissioners for denying the bonds. We agree with the five-member board’s concern about the risk associated with the center, as well as the final debt, as they could cause financial problems for the hospital. Commissioner Wally Johnson issued some especially passionate remarks about not wanting jeopardize the hospital’s future after he talked about his comments about U.S. Steel’s future in Lander helping fuel the construction of a public hospital that was sold after the company’s iron mine closed down.

However, the hospital administration’s confidence in its ability to pay down the debt speaks volumes to how prepared it is in seeking those bonds. A situation like Johnson described would be very unlikely in Rock Springs.

Asking the hospital to pay down its existing debt is perfectly reasonable as well. Paying down existing debt before taking on another investment and additional debt is sound financial advice. Also, while we’re against making the sixth penny tax a permanent way of funding wish list items dreamed up, the tax would make a good method of paying for the surgery center.

The county commissioners weren’t being overly cautious when they denied the hospital those revenue bonds. It was a tough decision, but ultimately one with the future of the county’s hospital in mind.