Dear Editor,

Have you read some of the info from the hospital? I still can’t wrap my mind around some of it – probably because I just don’t want to believe it. Aside from the $220,000.00 in tax money the hospital is syphoning from the Long Term Care, the administration salaries are way beyond the average wage for other districts our size. It’s inconceivable.

CEO is making $160,000 a year. That’s $60,000 over what is average for that position, especially in the first year and this doesn’t include benefits! Who in our area makes $13,000.00 a month esp. if they’re not doing their job? Patient Financial Services is making $91,000 a year, $7,500 a month! Twice what that position pays in other districts and most of us know how well that jobs done, right?

The Ancillary Services director makes the same which is $35,000 over other districts.

The Long term Care Director also makes the same which is $30,000 over other districts.

In fact if you look at Ferry County and Omak the top ten salaries are doctors, physicians assists, nurse practitioners and nurses, the only administration that makes their list are the CEOs and CFO’s. Not so in Tonasket, where the CEO makes $77 an hour and medical providers make $54 an hour, any wonder why they can’t keep anybody good around? Management makes $44 an hour and nurses make $45, where’s the justice in that? The hospital has been holding an average of six rooms in the assisted living, costing the assisted living $130,000 (using their numbers). Then the coffee place $130,000 on the long term budget.

Do the math, that’s $430,000, not including the $220,000 syphoned. Just the amount the management is being overpaid is more than what they say the AL is losing. If you put all the numbers together you will see that just correcting the “errors” with the space, coffee shop, tax syphoning and overpaid salaries the AL should have made $530,000 plus in profits, respective to ‘cost sharing.’

If the Assisted Living closes where are they going to take the money from, the taxpayers? Or are they just going to end up selling the hospital too?

Howard Romana

Tonasket