New Hospital Will Have Benefits For County Residents
To the Editor:

I am the Emergency Room Medical Director at Mackinac Straits Hospital and wanted to share a couple of my thoughts with the residents of Mackinac County about the proposed new hospital for Mackinac County residents.

First of all, I am excited to know that the U.P. is finally able to get the federal government to return some of our tax dollars back to the U.P. in the form of $37 million to build a very needed, state-of-the-art new hospital. When I think back to all the times in the past decades a county in the U.P. has asked for disaster assistance for floods or snow removal help, etc., the government has said that "not enough residents are adversely effected." I think that we finally have a chance to get some of our tax money back, in a new hospital.

I am also happy to know that a new hospital will allow us to have the capability to bring new modalities, as well as room for much needed equipment, to aid in treating and stabilizing patients who present to the emergency room. As a tertiary hospital, a new facility will allow us the ability to be better organized and prepared for all levels of trauma and/or illness presenting to the emergency room. This is vital, as we are the only hospital within a 30- to 40-mile radius that would be able to give treatment to the severely injured during the so-called "golden hour" that is so crucial to the long-term prognosis for trauma patients. The ability to improve patient outcomes and long-term survivability is why we chose to enter the medical field.

I would also like to point out that the new hospital will greatly improve patient confidentiality, as well as allow our nursing staff to be located centrally within the new emergency room, instead of 50 to 60 feet down the hall. This allows more accessibility for the nurses and the doctors, and subsequently improved patient care.

I could continue to write about many other pluses I see for you in a new hospital, but if you have been a patient at Mackinac Straits Hospital, you can understand the critical need for a new facility.

I strongly encourage all of the voters of the four townships and cities to approve the hospital ballot proposal, and to understand your vote is for all the residents of Mackinac County. For those residents in the county not allowed to vote, they are looking to you to bring our tax dollars back home in a new hospital.

Jonathon N. Schumaker, M.D.

Gladstone and 10 other employees