Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Wow, what a news week.

I’m trying to remember a week that matched this one for overall news worthiness. I’m not sure I can come up with one.

Tracy “Cueball” McCue

This week contained a little of everything. The hospital owner transfer announcement, a Wellington High School bomb threat, three intentional fires set within the city limits, the girls basketball team making it to state, and the potential replacing of a Wellington City Prosecutor were just the headlines. All stories that could fill up a year-end top 10 news list seems to have occurred in one week. That’s the feast and famine nature of the news business.

Next week we could be back to “Wellington has a new pot hole” and “Myrtle’s cat is hungry” stories. But that’s the news cycle.

Without a doubt the story of the week, month, year and, perhaps, decade is the Sumner Regional Medical Center becoming the property of a private group. I have an intimate relationship with one of the board members, and I had no idea that was going to happen.

My wife simply told me Monday to be at the Wellington City Council meeting on Tuesday. My kid had a choir concert on the exact same night. But the fact I was told to be at a city council meeting, led me to believe something big was about to happen. My first inclination was to think that dreaded “the hospital is going to close” sentence was finally going to be uttered.

Some SRMC board members are calling it a miracle. It most certainly is fortuitous timing. The announcement that RHG, a rural hospital chain, wants to come in and obtain SRMC’s accounts receivables and then build a new hospital, is a best case scenario. They also want to help with the debt and retain the current employees.

I keep wanting to call this a sale. No, a sale is a purchase. The hospital is basically going to be run by someone else.

SRMC Board Legal Counsel Doug Pfalzgraf made this relevant point at last Tuesday’s meeting: Even if the new group and hospital fails, it is still better than the alternative because now the city can pay off the hospital’s overwhelming debt.

Regardless if the hospital stayed open or closed, the Pied Piper needed paid. And not only was Wellington staring at a closed hospital, but it had the dutiful task of reinvesting in its Fire/EMS service to add more ambulance and staff to transport patients to Wichita. SRMC would have been the gift of debt that would have kept giving – long after its demise.

And then there were the intangibles. There was the issue of whether Wellington could keep the current aircraft plants, and attract new industry without the benefit of a hospital.

GKN Aerospace has already publicly stated that having available emergency healthcare is essential for them to continue operation in Wellington.

It seems that SRMC has been snake bit since the community voted to consolidate Wellington Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital in the early 1990s. There have been some major mistakes made along the way.

SRMC has been cursed with the fateful decision of not becoming a Critical Access Hospital – a designation given to eligible rural hospitals. This is a story that has not been adequately told and one that has plagued the local hospital for almost 20 years now. In a nutshell, SRMC did not become part of the federal program that allowed governmental reimbursements for much of its operating procedures. And because that program has long shut its doors to newcomers, SRMC has been hampered with being a small hospital without the small hospital benefits. Essentially, it is like you being diagnosed with a terminal illness, and not having any healthcare coverage.

The number of SRMC hospital administrators have been numerous and have come in all forms. Each have come with the initial promise that better things were to come. Each time that promise has turned to more debt and misery.

SRMC’s debts have become so large that they are indebted to the people who are trying to collect money for them. If you ever saw a mouse scurry across the hospital floor, chances are SRMC owes that mouse money.

It didn’t help that the state of Kansas – with the blessing of state representative Kyle Hoffman and state senator Larry Alley — have continually voted against Medicaid expansion that would have brought much needed federal dollars to our beleaguered hospital.

Yet, because of the perseverance of an incredible dedicated and wise hospital board, many with deep knowledge on the subject matter of healthcare, the hospital’s doors have remained open.

I’m not sure how this is going to work out with the private group. A part of me has always felt a little fear when it comes to anything that is SRMC. You can’t help it. Living in utter despair is a way of life for those who have worked at 1323 North A St.

But for the first time in a very long time, there is genuine hope, and that is a good thing. It is the best thing.

It’s my hope, which I’m sure is shared by many, that the community of Wellington can come together and take advantage of this opportunity.

The community of Wellington, which has demonstrated its desire time and time again by passing several sales tax referendums – most certainly wants a hospital.

There is no doubt this community needs a hospital.

And now there is opportunity to rebuild a hospital.

Change is on the horizon in Wellington. Let’s make the best of it.

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