Why Skaggs Brags!

Every Fall, our now "almost digital airways", air a strong round of self proclaiming ads by our own "Skaggs Community Hospital".  This season, with the economy in disarray, the question looms large; why does the  only Hospital in town need to spend our money telling us what a great Hospital we have?  Surely the ads aren't free!.  Yes, we all know that the Springfield "MetaCare Hospitals" have a presence in Branson, but unless everyone that I know is an exception, few of us are selecting Hospital services like we choose between Country Mart and Walmart.   To play off of the now overused political quote, "It's the economy stupid", I guess the obvious message for the Skagg's operatives, is; "it's the doctors stupid".  Withstanding all of the "hospitalist" trend, we all don't show up often at Skaggs, we know nothing of the program, little of the operational leadership, and have no idea where Skaggs gets its money or how they spend it.  We are barely able to sustain a relationship with our respective doctors, they being so heavily guarded by techs, assistants, and admins.  Accordingly, we almost always will defer to our doctors call re:  hospitalization, medications, home health providers, therapy support, surgery, procedures, etc. 

 As such, many of us would hope that Skaggs would drop the generic bragging and concentrate on presenting strong arguments to our doctors as to why we shouldn't have to drive to Springfield for our next "sleep study", "plastic surgery", or whatever else OUR DOCTOR "deems to be in our best interest".