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Letters to the Editor
Uland an asset to GCGH
To the Editor:
Thank you Jonas Uland.
You dedicated the last 32 years to bringing quality healthcare to Greene County. The majority of those 32 years as CEO of Greene County General Hospital.
You hired me 22 years ago to direct the pharmacy services at Greene County General Hospital. I found you to be fair, compassionate and always putting patients first and costs second. During this time, many hospitals faced closure, takeovers, employee layoffs and pay cuts. You not only managed to avoid all these, but made sure your employees got annual pay raises.
When today's CEOs are staying at a hospital on average five years or less, a neighboring hospital has had six CEOs in six years, you chose to stay loyal to Greene County General Hospital and its employees.
During your tenure you brought top cardiac services from St. Vincent's and more recently IU Health Bloomington, Oncology Services from Terre Haute, Surgical Services from Terre Haute, and 24 hour Emergency Room services. You have remodeled the OB floor to make it state of the art with resort type rooms. You have developed a top medical staff of physicians serving a large rural area. To compliment this medical staff you made available state-of-the-art radiology, surgery, lab, nursing, physical therapy, pharmacy, IT, medical records, and respiratory therapy services. An excellent cafeteria is always full. An excellent maintenance and housekeeping staff is always working hard. A business office with electronic integration between departments and insurance carriers is now in place.
You allowed me the opportunity to design and develop the Ambulatory Infusion Center, one of the first JCAHO accredited in the Midwest. When other hospitals have chosen to drop JCAHO accreditation because of difficulty in attaining this prestigious ranking for hospitals, you chose to continue to strive and obtain JCAHO accreditation.
Through your leadership and encouragement Greene County General Hospital was one of the first, if not first Critical Access Hospital in Indiana, the first CAH in Indiana to meet Meaningful Use criteria as specified by the government, the first CAH in Indiana to successfully link up with IHIE, the Indiana Health Information Exchange, allowing the electronic transfer of patient medical data between health care providers.
With all this ongoing, you positioned the hospital for the future remodel that will bring the physical structure up to date with the technology and ancillary services you have overseen installed. When the remodel is done, I think it only fitting you be remembered for your years of dedication and service to the people of Greene County, The Jonas Uland Addition.
Have a great retirement, myself and many others will miss you, and wish you the best and may God bless.
Mike Crane RPh, CPC
Director of Pharmacy and Ambulatory Infusion
Greene County General Hospital
Linton
Obama's war on coal
To the Editor:
The Obama administration has unleashed a record number of new regulations negatively affecting American businesses, none more than coal mining.
Indiana and other coal-producing states are reeling from plant closures, the most recent being the Peabody Coal mine in Vincennes. This closure will affect 230 workers. As a geologist and expert in clean coal, Richard Mourdock, Indiana candidate for the U.S. Senate, would be an outspoken advocate for this endangered industry.
Obama's attack against coal was evidenced by his January 2008 statement, "So, if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted. That will also generate billions of dollars we can invest in solar, wind, bio-diesel and other alternative energy approaches." This was later parroted by Joe Biden, "No coal plants in America" and again by Energy Secretary Steven Chu, "Coal is my worst nightmare."
Complying with Obama's agenda, the EPA began an onslaught of new regulations on coal with total indifference for thousands of families dependent on its continued existence. Sacrificing an estimated 1.4 million jobs between 2011 and 2020 is based on Obama's ideological pursuits of unrealistic energy goals.
One regulation example is the Mercury and Air Toxins Standards. The EPA estimates the industry's costs at $10 billion dollars a year to comply. In contrast, the National Economic Research Associates see compliance costs twice that at $21 billion annually and resulting in 183,000 job losses each year. Over 90% of Indiana's electricity is generated from coal. As a consequence of converting to other energy sources the cost of electricity will skyrocket.
It is hard to comprehend a U.S. president intentionally destroying the industry that fueled the economic development of this nation and compounding that by providing billions of taxpayer dollars to his liberal buddies for factories of failing experimental energy devices. As a proponent for the coal industry, Richard Mourdock believes it would have been far more productive to have allocated those billions of dollars toward developing and implementing technologically advanced systems for producing cleaner coal and saving a viable and established industry.
There are approximately 6,800 Hoosiers employed in mining living in communities dependent on this industry. This coming election can well be the turning point for our country. Please get informed then "Remember in November."
Nancy Holden
Courtney Schmidt
Terre Haute
High debt will hurt future generations
To the Editor:
The morality of today is offending the morality of individuals who are working to produce, to achieve, and to succeed by their own freewill.
The policies that our government has adopted of running up high levels of debt are living at the expense of future generations and living in untruth. The social issues of abortion and gay marriages are an abomination to God. Governments meddling in the economy will eventually lead to control over all of society, possibly even dictatorship.
The idea that a few bureaucrats know what is best for all society or possess more information than millions of free individuals interacting in the free market is false and arrogant.
Government isn't the solution.
Government is the problem.
Please come to reality.
Think on these things.
Marvin E. Query
Bloomfield