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Page 4 >LOA)! RIDGER. OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE, WE3NESDAY. JANUARY. 10. 19 Emergency Room: Citizens Must Decide If A Good Buy It h a lot that is being asked by Oak Ridge Hospital to operate its emergency room under its proposed new cxpandcd plan. The hospital is asking county funds - possibly also city funds. It is asking Atomic Energy Commission and Union Carbide, Nuclear Division financial Thc hospital would pay each of thc four doctors envisioned a s the staff for the emergency room And those using the room would still be expecte’d to pay standard emergency room care All of this and, pet, at the bcgintiing at least, the service would still end up in the red, with the hospital making this up from its othcr receipts - namely, the It is a lot to ask indeed. And it all comes about because local physicians now staffing the emergewi; rooin on an on-call basis sa) do not want to do this any 1ui;ger; suggest. in fact, that they siiaply will not do it any longer after a certain period of rears its ugly head for a moment. although it is not that the physicians are asking more for their services, rather that they are simply saying that they do not want to render these particular services any longer under any circumstanccs.) It is all a lot to ask and yet what it amowts to are the realities of the costs of health care these days - costs that have literally skyrocketed in less than ten years 2nd which do not nmv appear to be leveling off. For years citizens have said - usually most fervently after some specific case in which it has seemed that more prompt care might have saved a life - that the city needs an emergency many years it was the hospital’s position that this simply was not feasiblc here on a realistic economic basis. Therc was also some sutlgcstion. in earlier years if not Izttly, that the scrvice really w a s not wrraiited --that qciie atlcquate. the cconomics acknowledged that this kind of constant professional service at the hospital is not only desirable, but quite justified on a necessity basis as well. The only question has been how to provide it. The hospital administration has been studying the situation for some time. The rather from a group of doctors several weeks ago has brought the situation to a head. Now it is quite apparent that some change must be made, but what? It is largely a matter of what citizens want. The hospital has told them what the cost will be: Do citizens want to pay this much for the improved emergency room care the new system promises? Do they want to not pay it and risk emergency room service being substantially reduced beyond that which is thinkable, and we’re sure hospital officials agree, that emergency room service would The concept of emergency room service is changing. In general, the number of persons seeking this service is increasing. This is due largely to the shortage of doctors and the consequent necessity of many physicians to simply refuse to take any new patients. The walk in doctor’s office visit is becoming very much a thing of a past. i n its place, the patient in need of care but without a fanlily doctor turns to the emergerxy room. And thus the squeeze under Oak Ridge’s particuix type of emergency room Therefore, before citizens react negatively to thc seemingly rather harsh economic realities of the plan now being proposed by the hospital, it is wise that they consider the alternatives. It may substantially improved local By all mcans the prcpsal needs a goad bit more airirig. It was good or the hospital to hrief members of Anderson County Court’s health and welfare committee. as was done las! ueek. A Iorum in which the public could participate would be