A Silver City, N.M.-based Gila Regional Medical Center physician published a letter in the Silver City Sun News July 11 commenting on officials' quest to sell the 68-bed acute care facility.
The hospital has been facing financial struggles for several years. County officials have met at least twice to discuss the potential sale of the facility, with the most recent meeting taking place July 10, the Silver City Daily Press reports.
While officials did not vote on the issue during the July 11 meeting, representatives from Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Health and Globe, Ariz.-based Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center were reportedly present.
The author, Okay Harold Odocha, MD, wrote the open letter in the Silver City Sun News to comment on the fate of the hospital. He specified he "lay[s] no claim to knowing the full details" of the hospital administration's decision-making process or the ramifications for the county or hospital board of trustees.
However, Dr. Odocha acknowledged that "there are administrative changes in place … to steer the financial health of GRMC from the intensive care unit, to healing and full recovery," and that he and "most of the caregivers at GRMC equally favor the hospital to be free standing," the report states.
Dr. Odocha noted the administration is composed of "good people" and that patients will always remain administration's No. 1 priority.
"The administration of GRMC, the board of trustees and the county commissioners are good people with good intentions, and are capable, upright men and women, fully engaged in the task of making good decisions that will heal the current discomfort in the community," he wrote. "We all are invested stakeholders of GRMC. … GRMC healthcare givers, as many others elsewhere in the country, are intensely dedicated in the care of their patients."
"As the county commissioners deliberate on their positions as they rightly should, and as they finally cast votes on whether to keep the hospital as free standing or sell it; I wish to reassure you that you are the visible angel in our midst, you are a revealer of paths untrodden in illness and healing, you are indeed, a teacher of truths to all, on the resilience of human nature confronted by the unwanted embrace of illness and suffering, and you are the most important person in the persistent fight by GRMC team of care providers for quality health care in Grant County, NM," he added.
To access the full letter, click here.