In the last edition of the Valley Record, an article was published in Valley Views titled, “What role should Valley Hospital play?” We at the hospital district always appreciate the Record’s attempt to provide timely information to our community.

We are also sure the Record would want to publish accurate information, so we are responding to several statements that need to be corrected.

1: The hospital district showed a small margin only last year, not two years ago.

2: The hospital is not struggling with revenues in 2010. We are experiencing record usage and revenues that are increasing each month, reflecting the excellent care patients are receiving and the need for more space.

3: King County did not balk at building a hospital campus, they balked at moving county rural property into urban zoning which would have allowed development on the property we originally wanted to site the hospital on.

4: We are not building a new campus on the Ridge. The new hospital will be just across the street from our original site on the I-90 and Highway 18 intersection, accomplishing our original goal of a centrally located, easily accessible hospital.

5: We want to maintain our stable financial footing, not regain it. With health care reform and the need to make healthcare delivery more efficient and improve outcomes, the district will re-direct the dollars from the clinic consolidation to bring even more services to the Valley.

We want to emphasize that the hospital is doing very well serving the residents of the district. The hospital has now been open far longer than at any,time in its history and the future looks very bright for constructing a new facility. We did not want to leave readers with the misconceptions contained in the article.

Rodger McCollum

Superintendent, King County Public Hospital District No. 4