Can Kearney Nebraska Sustain Another Hospital Beside Good Samaritan Hospital?

In the last few months the Kearney Hub and other news outlets have given updates on a developing situation in Kearney, Nebraska. A group of doctors, they aren't announcing the actual list, are making plans to build a doctor-run hospital in southwest Kearney.

But Kearney, Nebraska already has a hospital and a good one. Good Samaritan Hospital, a part of Catholic Health Initiatives, has been in Kearney since 1924 when it was founded by the Sisters of Saint Francis. It is a huge hospital with so many wings and stories that a turn or two in a hallway and you're lost, at least you would be but for the signs and arrows that provide direction.

Good Samaritan Hospital has a level II Trauma Care center with AirCare helicopters that fly critically injured and/or ill patients from many parts of Nebraska as well as Northern Kansas to Good Samaritan Hospital for care. Kearney is in the center of Nebraska and is much closer than the Lincoln or Omaha medical centers. Good Samaritan Hospital also runs an efficient ambulance service.

But problems have arisen because Catholic Health Initiatives that now owns and runs Good Samaritan Hospital, has taken away local control and local response to doctor and patient need. It appears that Catholic Health Initiatives has used money derived from Good Samaritan Hospital to keep some of their other facilities afloat. According to some local doctors, this has caused Good Samaritan Hospital to be less responsive locally. For years they've tried to address the problems, but felt they weren't taken seriously, nor were their concerns addressed.

Until now. Until a group of doctors got so fed up they got together and began making plans to construct their own hospital. Once the announcement was made, Good Samaritan Hospital announced a planned $65 million Catholic Health Initiatives investment in Good Samaritan Hospital.

The two sides are still talking and Kearney is buzzing with the pros and cons of having two hospitals.

I've spent a lot of time at Good Samaritan Hospital for any number of orthopedic procedures to keep me walking. Both my children were delivered at Good Samaritan Hospital. My children have at different times due to broken bones, appendicitis, etc. been treated at Good Samaritan Hospital. One of our grandchildren was also born at Good Samaritan Hospital. Of course, we've visited many friends at the hospital over the years. For the most part, care has been good to excellent.

My main complain was always hospital food, but who doesn't complain about that? Another complaint was years ago after a new orthopedic wing was added. After surgery when I was not to put weight on one leg, I tried to get through the bathroom door of my room while on crutches. I am petite, but I could not get through the door with crutches. It just wasn't wide enough. It took two nurses to assist me through that door. Two nurses who shouldn't have been taken away from other pressing duties to help me when, had the bathroom been as accessible as it should have been, I could have handled the whole situation on my own. No way would a wheelchair have fit through that door.!

I grumbled about the size of the door on an orthopedic wing and said patients, who had a clue, should have been consulted. The nurses said they wished they'd been consulted. According to them, the wing had been constructed by a contractor who should have known about such things.

Makes me wonder just how far back serious problems with Good Samaritan Hospital go with lack of communication.

Good Samaritan Hospital claims that should another hospital siphon off patients and therefore income, the hospital might lose their Trauma Center rating. Catholic Health Initiatives through Good Samaritan Hospital claims other services would also suffer, services that as a non-profit hospital, they must offer.

Others claim a doctor-run hospital could be more responsive to the needs of their patients. The doctor's group claims they would be locally operated and more in tune with the needs of the community. And the monies earned from the hospital would stay in the local area and be reinvested in the local hospital. They also brought up the competition factor. Good Samaritan Hospital wouldn't be the only game in town and would have to be more responsive locally.

But the doctor-run hospital would be a for-profit hospital. Some claim that means they could choose what patients to see and what services to extend. They could siphon off the wealthier patients from Good Samaritan Hospital.

A local surgeon said that while he liked the situation of one hospital as it is, he has noticed a difference in the way he's being treated at the hospital since the news broke about doctors planning to build their own hospital. He said doctors are getting treated better as are patients. After all, Good Samaritan Hospital doesn't want to lose either patients or doctors to a new hospital.

He also pointed out the new hospital would not be a full-service hospital, but more like an expanded surgery center and Kearney already has four of those. And, yes, these do siphon off patients, but still he thinks that even the threat of competition has forced Good Samaritan Hospital's owners, Catholic Health Initiatives, to put more attention into local concerns. This can only be good.

Will Kearney, Nebraska end up with another, a smaller, hospital to compete with Catholic Health Initiative's Good Samaritan Hospital? Only time will tell.

But for now, even the consideration of another hospital to compete with Good Samaritan Hospital has brought positive benefits to Kearney, to the doctors who practice at the hospital and to the patients.

And that's a good thing.

Various media sources
Personal experiences
Local surgeon