Tuesday, April 03, 2007

New poll: a second hospital in GF?

Closing the old poll...
The old poll question was "How often do you read local blogs?". With a total of 84 votes, "Several times a day" was the winner with 35% of the votes. (Results)


Selection
Votes
Several times a day 35%29
Once a day 18%15
Several times a week 14%12
Once a week 10%8
Several times a month 5%4
Once a month 6%5
This is my first time 13%11
84 votes total
Opening the new poll...
The new poll question is "Do you support a second hospital in Grand Forks?". I'll be interested to see how this one turns out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I truly believe that a poll with the question |"Do you support a second hospital in Grand Forks|?|" is misleading. There are no qualifiers with that statement that would let people know the negative effects a physician-owned hospital would have in the community |(and smaller surrounding communities for that matter|).

What if you posed the question |"Do you support lower gas prices?|" or, |"Do you support lowering taxes|?" etc.|? Of course the majority of the people are going to lean in the way of "agree." But, they wouldn't understand the detriment those statements could create because there are no qualifiers added to it.

I challenge community members to ask educated questions. The issue at hand is not about choice, nor is it about competition. It is about the community, by way of the City Council, supporting a tax abatement for a hospital.

People need to understand what of things this means for them and their loved ones. Among many issues a physician-owned hospital will create is the reduction of federal dollars coming to the to the community by $7 million per year. This money is lost forever, it's not transferred to another place. Losing millions of dollars places essential services at risk for being lost to people who need them.

Please take a strong look at all of the issues at hand and ask questions. If you don't understand what a new FOR PROFIT physician owned hospital would do, ask questions and keep asking questions until you understand.

Anonymous said...

I agree, and where is this poll? Our community really needs to understand the difference between not for profit health systems and for profit physician owned facilities.