Letters to the Editor

Dear residents, 

We’ve read your letters and heard your voices at public meetings, and we appreciate all the groups and organizations who have welcomed our team over the past month. We’d like to address a few of the most common questions.

A new building for Three Rivers Hospital is the less expensive option, as we discovered from a 2022 architectural engineering study that is available on our website. It would cost more to remove and replace the existing infrastructure, and it would disrupt patient care, unlike our proposed two-phase plan. Our facilities engineer explains some of this in a video on our website, www.threerivershospital.net/home/new-hospital-proposal.

While the new facility would not be much larger than the existing one, we would include space to grow service lines. Our hope is to eventually bring in some highly requested specialties, such as cardiology, podiatry, or dermatology.

We have considered only having a 24-hour emergency room, but that isn’t feasible with the current healthcare reimbursement structure and requirements. Medicare/Medicaid pays us about 17 cents for every dollar we spend providing emergency care. Other services, such as surgery and acute care, receive better reimbursements that help us cover costs overall. We also must have on-call laboratory and radiology to have an ER.

This decision is backed by clear evidence of the need and was carefully considered by our commissioners. We know this path is the right one to continue serving our 2,500-square-mile hospital district and all 16,000 people within. We hope to continue growing local careers, drawing providers back to the area with a more reliable and modern facility. With about 114 full-time employees and more part-time and per diem staff, we’re one of the largest employers in the area.

We encourage everyone to visit us online or contact us to learn more before voting. We look forward to continuing to serve our communities, from Mansfield to Mazama. Our team saves lives every day, and being part of that is a privilege we don’t take for granted.

Thank you for considering our proposition. 

J. Scott Graham, Chief Executive Officer 

Mike Pruett, Board Chair 

Three Rivers Hospital