West Volusia Hospital Authority,
131 E. New York Ave.,
P.O. Box 509,
DeLand, FLA 32721.

Sirs:

To hand the recent DeLand Beacon of the 3^rd inst, in which it is reported that the Authority has entered into ‘‘exclusive’’ negotiations with the Adventist Health System (hence, ‘‘AHS’’) for a period of thirty (30) days.

I am glad that the period of exclusivity is relatively short; the Authority can not afford to limit itself to one lessor whose intent may be at odds with our mission.

I would remind the Authority that AHS appears to desire our beds more than our hospital and well-being. If we lease them our hospital with an option to buy, they will surely take it. I anticipate two things of which the Authority should be aware.

First, AHS will seek a bargain price. Having they paid a total of $0.00 for Fish, they can probably afford to more than double that amount for West Volusia.

Second, AHS will operate the hospital briefly at its current location; they will then announce a necessity to move the beds to Orange City.

We’ll be left with an empty shell of a hospital, and little to show for it but a stack of angry letters from the taxpayers. This is one such: should this deal be approved, you may save this letter so that, in five years, I won’t have to say I told you so.

I also point out the folly of linking any lease payments to the Authority with any payments to Ormond for their disastrous mis-management of our hospital. There is some dispute over whether their operations may have been in violation of §286.011, F.S., and §119.07, F.S., as well as remarkably inept. My position is of course that we ought not, and legally may not, pay for their bungling. Neither should we permit AHS to pay, on our behalf, for Ormond’s bungling.

Yours,



Tanner Andrews

PS: I’m also posting this on the web so people may print it, save it, and see if I’m right.