BY LAWRENCE A. DANTO, MD
Over the past decade, the Tahoe Forest Hospital District Board has largely ducked its core responsibilities, as defined by its own bylaws and directives, towards the residents of our North Tahoe community.
As a result, our hospital district has accumulated an extremely large, top-heavy, and uncommonly expensive administration; vainglorious unfilled and underused buildings; and, most worrisome, a focus on expensive and unnecessarily fancy specialty care and services. All this excess instead of assuring essential, value-based, and much needed primary care services to our community.
Costs in our health system continue to rise beyond reason, and far too many of our residents continue to be forced to leave our North Tahoe community to obtain routine primary and otherwise essential health care at a reasonable cost outside our healthcare district. Further, the hospital board has caused North Tahoe to suffer an excessive and unnecessary bond issue for our little health system that will bite local businesses and residents in their sorry, taxpaying behinds for years to come.
This coming November, three incumbent hospital board directors will be on the ballot for re-election. There will be three extremely well qualified, experienced, and community-minded candidates running in opposition.
It’s time for change.
~ Lawrence A. Danto is a general and endocrine surgeon, long time Truckee-Northstar resident, clinical professor of surgery at UC Davis, and was a practicing surgeon on the Tahoe Forest Hospital medical staff from 2003 to 2008.
