Voters will decide Nov. 2 whether to increase a countywide sales tax by 1⁄4 of a cent to go toward a new Allen County Hospital.
Members of the Allen County Healthcare Committee address questions about the issue.
Q: Why does the plan for a new hospital specify 25 beds?
A: The maximum number of beds for a Medicare-designated Critical Access Hospital is 25 beds. So the number 25 is the top number for small rural hospitals wanting to qualify under Medicare for Critical Access reimbursement, which provides payment for services at 101 percent of cost.
There are some days each year when Allen County Hospital has 25 patients in the hospital, according to census information for the last several years, although it is not frequent.
At one time, Allen County Hospital was a 50-bed hospital, but that was during the period when hospital stays were assumed to be “long-term.” A person would be in the hospital for surgery or as a new mother and would be expected to stay several days before being released. As a result, there was a higher number of beds needed to accommodate them. With more recent advances in medicine and improvements in surgery techniques, hospital stays have become much shorter, reducing the need for beds due to the reduction in patient days in the hospital.
In the event of a bad flu season, a local epidemic or a natural disaster, having the ability to expand to the full 25-bed limit would be important and is the reason it is not wise to make the number any smaller than 25.
If you agree with us and would like to help our voter information effort with your time or your money we can use both. We expect it to take several hundred volunteers to get the word out with only a few short weeks before the election. Volunteer names or contributions may be sent to “Yes Allen County Healthcare,” at A.C.B., Inc, 16 W. Jackson, Iola, KS 66749 or left at the Moran, Humboldt or Iola branches of Emprise Bank where we have our checking account.

Voters will decide Nov. 2 whether to increase a countywide sales tax by 1/4 of a cent to go toward a new Allen County Hospital.
Members of the Allen County Healthcare Committee address questions about the issue.
Q: I thought the present hospital handled labor and delivery; why do we need a new one for that?
A: Like so many aspects
of the building originally designed in the early 1950s, space dedicated to the
delivery of babies has changed a lot in recent decades.
Sixty years ago a mom was admitted to the delivery room after being in labor and family members waited outside until the doctor or nurse announced the arrival soon thereafter. There were segregated areas for each function,
limited space and limited family involvement in the whole experience. 
Today, with the considerable increase in equipment that is used and participation of family members, modern hospitals devote considerable space to this area. They have birthing suites permitting a totally different environment for this exciting time in the
life of a family.
Plans for the area in the new hospital would correct 100 percent of the limitations present now and local moms wouldn’t have to go out of town to enjoy the comforts and convenience of birthing suites. 
If you agree with us and would like to help our voter information effort with your time or your money, we can use both. We expect it to take several hundred volunteers to get the word out with only a few short weeks before the election. Volunteer names or contributions may be sent to “Yes Allen County Healthcare,” at A.C.B., Inc, 16 W. Jackson, Iola, KS 66749 or left at the Moran, Humboldt or Iola branches of Emprise Bank where we have our checking account.

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform met yesterday. The high-powered group of politicians, economists and business leaders is due to tell the nation how to deal with its deficit in a report expected in two months.
The co-chairs are former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson.
They have a thankless but critically important assignment: persuading Americans that they must accept substantial tax increases and painful spending cuts to keep the nation from careening off a fiscal cliff.
This year’s deficit will come in between $1.3 trillion to $1.5 trillion. Unless the nation changes course boldly, and soon, economic disaster looms.
Placing blame won’t help. The fact is that the budget surpluses enjoyed in 2000 and 2001 gave way to nine straight years of ever-increasing deficits. Without a fundamental shift in direction, the United States dollar will lose much of its value and America’s standard of living will fall sharply.
What must be cut? Let’s start with Social Security, Medicare and the Department of Defense. Those are the three big spenders; the three spenders that have grown and grown and will keep on growing unless they are trimmed back. If the Commission on Fiscal Responsibility issues a fiscally responsible report it will call for raising the retirement age, reducing pensions to the well-to-do and raising the amount of individual income that is subject to the Social Security tax.
It will also demand that the United States reduce the amount it spends on health care until it approaches the levels spent in other wealthy nations such as Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany and Japan. America simply can’t afford a health care system that costs 30 to 50 percent more than other nations spend to provide adequate care to all of their residents.
The Commission will also demand fundamental reform in the way U.S. defense dollars are spent and observe that the fastest road to reforming the system will be to stop giving the Pentagon a signed blank check every budget season. Putting the military on a strict diet will stop some pork-barrel appropriations that do more to re-elect members of Congress than to strengthen our armed forces.
Cutting spending won’t do the job alone. Taxes must rise, too. The tax reductions passed by Congress in 2001-3 will cost the treasury about $1.8 trillion over their first decade. Federal income will drop even further in the years ahead unless taxes rise.
At present, federal taxes amount to about 19 percent of the gross national income. They have been as high as 23 percent in the past. Raising them back to that level would be a huge step toward solvency. And, yes, America can afford to tax itself enough to pay the cost of its government.

WILL THE commission report be responsible and advocate the needed reforms? Let’s hope so. Bowles, Simpson, et al, have nothing to lose by being honest, forthright and bold. President Obama desperately needs a hard-hitting set of recommendations if he is truly determined to tackle fiscal reform. Democrats should be told that social programs must be cut back. Republicans must be convinced that federal income must equal federal outgo and advocate a level of taxation that makes that possible.
Or, to sum it up, the United States of America must become fiscally responsible and reform itself. Or give up its greatness.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Voters will decide Nov. 2 whether to increase a countywide sales tax by 1⁄4 of a cent to go toward a new Allen County Hospital.
Members of the Allen County Healthcare Committee address questions about the issue. Q: How will a new hospital help attract more patients, doctors and medical specialists?
A: Members of the Hospital Facilities Commission (HFC) traveled to many new and remodeled hospitals across the state and there was one consistent theme they returned with: making an investment in modern healthcare facilities pays off. It permits a hospital to retain the patients in its market and to attract new ones. It also was instru-mental in retaining and attracting doctors and
medical specialists and improving profits at the facilities.
Consultants hired by the county report in the Mas-ter Plan document released Aug. 2 that the proposal to replace the present hos-pital will solve 100 percent of the limitations or compliance issues of the present building and in so doing, will eliminate issues that have caused patients
to go elsewhere for service — patients who could more conveniently use Allen County Hospital. Improved facilities are attractive to doctors and medical specialists, too. The investment shows a commitment by
the community to remain competitive.        
Hospital profits improve, too, according to the members of the HFC that participated in the study. And it makes sense that profits would improve. Patient volume should increase. Additional physicians and medical specialties should attract more types of patients. 
Operating expenses should be less with staffing efficiencies gained by improving the design of the hospital floorplan and by having all departments on one level. Use of more energy efficient materials and updating heating and air-conditioning systems should save on utilities, as well.
Most persuasive is the fact that most hospitals in our immediate area have already been updated. We are in a “catch-up” mode with regard to the hospitals with which we compete. And almost all are experiencing growth in patients, new physicians and improved profitability. 
We can grow, too!

An effort is being made to persuade the Kansas Department of Transportation to connect U.S. 400 with I-44 to give Southeast Kansas a connection with the east-west Interstate System.
Iola should sign on.
The U.S. 400 corridor is now designated as the No. 3 Congressional Priority Corridor in the United States. It carries traffic across the country from coast to coast, south of the other major east-west corridors that have long been well developed.
Parsons has already seen the impact. Commercial traffic has increased 500 percent since the designation of U.S. 400. Building a connecting four-lane highway from Parsons south to I-44 will boost its use still more.
Iola and the other communities in Southeast Kansas will also benefit. U.S. 400 is less than an hour away. As it develops, Iola industries, businesses and professionals will have easier, safer access to points east and west, as will the other business centers in the region.
Iola and the rest of this quarter of the state has a stake in all of the major highways that serve it. We should also support the improvement of U.S. 54, U.S.169, U.S. 75 and U.S. 69. First class highways are the arteries that give commerce and industry life and strength.
While it is true that the KDOT budget is never large enough to meet all of the needs of all of the highways that tie Kansas together and assure an easy flow of goods and services to every part of the state, every community should speak up for its highway needs and give KDOT the support it needs from each Legislature to continue to keep Kansas highways among the best in the nation.
Building a four-lane between Parsons and I-44 would be a solid step forward for Southeast Kansas and, therefore, for the state as a whole. Rep. Bill Otto and Sen. Derek Schmidt should give it their enthusiastic backing.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.