Competition healthy

July 25, 2007 05:27 pm

— The opening of a second hospital in Muskogee in 15 months will be good for the community, providing more health care and economic opportunities.
This week, investors announced Friday’s groundbreaking for Muskogee Community Hospital at Harris Road and North Main Street. The $52 million hospital is expected to employ 100 people and provide $5 million in total annual payroll and about $500,000 in ad valorem taxes to the county.
Plans for the new hospital initially raised fears that it would draw patients away from Muskogee Regional Medical Center, which prior to March was a public trust hospital.
Administrators at MRMC said the hospital was struggling financially. They said a second hospital, a private one, would take the most financially secure patients, leaving MRMC to serve the uninsured and underinsured. The complaints led to the City Council passing an ordinance requiring sponsors of any new facility to file an impact study and seek approval of the facility from the council.
MRMC, however, has been leased to a private company, Capella Healthcare of Franklin, Tenn.
No doubt, the new hospital will impact MRMC’s business, but competition is not necessarily a bad thing. Competition will force both hospitals to be more concerned about service and customer satisfaction.
The presence of a second hospital, and recent additions of other major health care facilities, also will establish Muskogee as a regional health care center. That should improve MRMC’s ability to attract physicians, nurses and other workers. We must mention, too, that the new hospital will lead to positive economic spinoffs, other jobs in the community and new development on North Main Street.