Mayor sets date for health care forum

Citing a need to focus on the declining quality of health care in the Fort Smith area, Fort Smith Mayor Baker has scheduled a health care forum for 7 p.m., Mar. 31 at the Fort Smith Convention Center.

“Both major health centers will be participating,” Baker said in announcing the forum at the beginning of the Tuesday meeting of the city board of directors.

The two health centers are Sparks Regional Medical Center and St. Edward Mercy Medical Center.

Dr. Cole Goodman, a Fort Smith city director and a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said he was asked to moderate the forum. He also hopes officials with Summit Medical Hospital in Van Buren will be invited, as well as officials from Cooper Clinic and the River Valley Musculoskeletal Center.

“And I really hope someone is there to represent the nurses, to speak about their interests,” Goodman said. “They are a critical part of this, and that shortage (of nurses) has to be addressed.”

Baker has during the past several months voiced “deep concerns” about the condition of the Fort Smith regional medical sector. The issues threatening the health of the area medical sector are are seen in two broad areas: a continued decline in the number of area physicians and nurses, and a deterioration in the financial health of area hospitals and individual physicians.

“For the last few decades, we (Fort Smith region) had all the critical care specialties covered 24/7. We had the specialists in neurosurgery, urology, pulmonary and so on,” Goodman explained in a January interview with The City Wire. “But that is over. If you need a surgeon in Fort Smith on a weekend, you might have a one in four chance they (a surgeon and the associated support nurses and technicians) will be on call.”

Hospitals and clinics already struggling with finances now face a national recession and federal reimbursement cutbacks. A generational shift that will likely increase demands on the system while reducing the supply of qualified doctors and nurses to meet said demand fast approaches.

St. Edward CEO Jeff Johnson has said the problems must be addressed at the community level.

“This problem, it’s bigger than just St. Edward and Cooper Clinic,” Johnston said during a Feb. 17 interview with The City Wire. “Fort Smith isn’t the only place” faced with a lack of doctors and nurses.

As to what good a public forum will do, Goodman said he has but one goal.

“I just hope this will help educate the public about what we are facing. … That’s the first step,” he said.