Letters (Sept. 4, 2013)

Realize true motives for NMC?s clinic

I continue to trust that Hillsboro and the surrounding communities can see through Newton Medical Centers initiative for opening a clinic in Hills?boro.

Recent statements boast that the number one thing to accomplish is to provide additional medical services in the community. Services are already being provided in our community, and we appreciate the communitys support. We hope to provide care to many more patients from Marion County in the near future.

The additional services that aren?t already here will be provided at Newton Medical Center and will not benefit our community at all.

The irony of this is, as a physician in Hillsboro, I readily follow the practice of sending our patients to Newton to receive the services that cannot be provided here. Therefore, if recent statements regarding the mission are truthful, their new clinic will provide absolutely nothing that isn?t already occurring in Hillsboro?except, obviously, gaining revenue for Newton Medical Center and lessening that of Hillsboro Com?munity and St. Luke hospitals.

The Newton CEO attempts to provide us with reassurance, stating that the new clinic will have only 11 lab tests and a basic X-ray. What isn?t apparent to most here, is that those 11 lab tests and basic X-rays make up the majority of what is currently being done for outpatients at the Hillsboro Community Hospital.

At their new clinic, all of this business will stay at the clinic, proceeds sent to Newton Medical Center.

Hillsboro Community Hos?pital has worked hard to recruit physicians for the near future that have a vested interest in our area. A physician with a primary interest in another community is not what I feel our county currently needs.

Our local hospital and clinic also provides many services that we don?t get paid for. Again, let?s not lose sight of what already exists in our community and plan to support it.

Shauna Kern, D.O.
Hillsboro Community Hospital and Clinic

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