Building on a legacy of care
The grandson of Dr. George B. Hamilton, founder of Olney Hamilton Hospital, flew in from his home in Colorado last week to attend the hospital’s annual audit and to talk with the board members about their decision to stop providing Obstetrical services in the new hospital for the first time since the hospital was founded. OHH is the only hospital in Young County that still delivers babies.
Dr. Atchley, a member of the OHH Foundation board of directors and the son of the late Glenn and Kathrine Atchley, addressed the board after the hospital’s annual financial audit presentation on July 23.
Dr. Atchley noted that the hospital “is my family’s legacy” and he praised the board and hospital administrator Michael Huff for keeping it financially healthy while many other rural hospitals are failing.
“Everyone in health care is suffering,” he said. “What this rural hospital has been able to do financially is amazing. I want to commend Mike and the board for their stewardship of a very important entity to this community. You need schools, you need a hospital, you need water. If you don’t have those things you have a dying community.”
He added, however, that he had been “taken aback” by the board’s vote on June 5 to strip obstetrics services from the new hospital – after telling the OHH Foundation at its annual meeting two months earlier that the new hospital would offer the same services as the existing hospital.
“Now all of a sudden we are given a completely different picture of the finances of this new entity and …are cutting services that the voters voted on back when they had the bond issue,” he said. “I want to make sure the board has explored every avenue possible to not cut services or to make those services more financially viable.”
He said he understands the OHH board’s dilemma because delivering babies is “barely a breakeven” for the large Denver hospital where he practices medicine.
“It’s a tough go, however, if you are recruiting new families [for] your large [employers] … it’s something that you may have to have,” he said. “You are going to have babies come into your emergency room and women deliver in your emergency room. It’s going to happen. We have got to be able to take care of it.”
Dr. Atchley also said he had begun raising money for equipment for the new hospital but would have to circle back with large donors to see “whether or not [service cuts] would affect their donations.”
He suggested calling an urgent meeting for the OHH Foundation to reset its fundraising goal in light of the $9-million shortfall and to explore other fundraising options to assist OHH.
“I think it’s important for the community to know just how well their tax dollars are [being managed] and how important this is – you have to build a new hospital,” Dr. Atchley said. “I would take a step back and say you are not wedded to [starting construction] the first quarter of 2025.”
The Foundation Board members are Dr. Atchley, Carl Craig, Louis Farmer,Jim Hirsch, Marilyn Ickert, Trina Johnson, Don Matthews, Mark McClelland, Kendall Montgomery, and Carla Perry.