To the editor:
I keep reading of a possible merger of the Lewistown Hospital with another medical group. Lewistown Hospital has prospered many years with growth, integrity, and with dedicated doctors. If management is the problem, the solution is simple. Replace that management with responsible, dedicated professionals.
For my part, I consider that I have had excellent results from Lewistown Hospital and local doctors. At least I consider it excellent results when they have saved my life twice.
As for the selection of a group to merge with, if management is not the problem, I surely hope that the directors or trustees of the hospital consider their options carefully. Please remember that competition brings better care at a more affordable cost to the patient. Becoming part of a monopoly, like joining the Geisinger group, could bring the exact opposite. The Juniata Valley does not need their impersonal assembly line method of delivering health care.
There is also more of a chance of indifference and health care shortcuts when the same group that supplies your insurance is delivering your health care.
Please do what is right. The health of the citizens of the Juniata Valley is at stake.
John G. Noss
Honey Grove
