Setting it straight on C-TH

Carson-Tahoe Hospital is in the midst of building Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center (CTRMC), a state of the art medical center for our community. You have probably noticed the construction activity at the north end of town. This project will become even more visible over the next two months as the main building's walls begin to take shape.

The two-year project is on-schedule and we expect to open our doors in December 2005. To our knowledge this is the largest construction project in the region's history and it is redefining the entrance to our city.

A project of this magnitude can draw critics. Recently, we have drawn criticism from individuals who may be associated with or sympathetic to trade unions. Some of those individuals have distributed inaccurate information throughout the community. For example, they have stated that the CTRMC is "getting government assistance to finance the construction."

Nothing could be further from the truth; the hospital has not received any funding from the government at any level. Funds for the project have been created through cautious finance management by the hospital's Board of Trustees and years of planning for Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center.

Another example of erroneous information continuing to be spread by certain individuals is that the construction project has hired employers who do not provide health insurance benefits to their employees, thereby encouraging workers not covered by health insurance.

In fact, the great majority of workers are provided health benefits by their employers. As a health provider for over 50 years Carson-Tahoe Hospital fully understands the need for and promotes health insurance for all citizens. That is why, for example, we were one of the initiators recently of an affordable health insurance plan available to members of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce.

One of the five major subcontractors on the CTRMC project is a non-union company and this seems to have drawn the wrath of local unions. The contractor was chosen for its expertise in construction and for the excellent bid it made on the work. Let me point out at this time that 90 percent of the workers on the project to date are employees working under a union contract.

Carson-Tahoe Hospital continues to have excellent patient care as its primary goal, the one which outweighs all others. Our new facility will offer expanded health care services in a setting in which all patient rooms are private. This will be done in a healing environment that also has the most current technology added to the incredibly gifted and caring staff we have always had.

We know you agree that our community deserves nothing less and that you will be very pleased with the new Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center.

Ed Epperson is chief executive officer of Carson-Tahoe Hospital.