CHI has shown their true colors, and they call themselves "faith based"... CKMC will be gone (can't see it taking more than a year or so) and then instead of having one hospital still going had they chosen to pursue the best option with the least competition (St Joseph Memorial Hospital -SJMH) instead they will have ZERO hospitals in this area. I am waiting eagerly for the day that it is announced that CKMC will be closing their doors. It is getting old seeing Lind spewing a bunch of propaganda and lies on the TV and acting like she cares about SJMH, YEAH RIGHT, she just needs to shut her yap... Yeah it was an economic decision so they could try to funnel even more money from Larned to the sinking ship that is CKMC. If they honestly think that people from Larned are going to go to the clinic and to CKMC they are going to be in for a rude awakening. The sooner CKMC and CHI is out of Larned for good the better off we will all be... The people of Larned and Pawnee County will band together and make something happen to see to it that we will have a hospital, I have faith!

I truely think that when the new hospital in Great Bend opens that CKMC or CHI will go down. It is not even fair what they are doing. They are thinking only of themselves, and not the community lives. I know lots and lots of lives that have been saved because they didn't have to travel 30 minutes to get care. This is just stupidity.

I was very disappointed with your 10:00 p.m. TV coverage of our town's meeting last night, which had 500 in attendance. Let me briefly tell what you did not report. The citizens of Larned DONATED money to build their hospital in the early 1950's. Through circumstances they had no control over the hospital eventually was GIVEN to CHI, which is Catholic Health Initiatives. CHI owns the building and the rural critical access license from the federal government, without which a rural hospital cannot function. Not only will they not give us back our hospital, they will not SELL it to us because they own CKMC hospital in Great Bend and CKMC will get income from Larned residents having to travel there for services. Our mayor gave a detailed report on how closing our hospital will cost the city and county several million dollars a year. You did not even mention this.

This story doesn't tell the whole story. The community is willing to purchase the hospital and fund it if needed. The "story" is that CHI won't sell because they don't want any competition. Is a dollar worth someone's life that doesn't have 30 minutes in an ambulance and needed stablized in an ER?