The more BRHS bids, the better | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Along with most of the residents of Beaufort County, I'm glad to see that the BRHS Board of Commissioners is preparing to commence negotiations with all four of the bidders who submitted responses to their RFP.

    I'd like to see the fourth negotiator position filled by someone with extensive experience in the business side of the medical industry, someone like commissioner Howard Cadmus.

    The fact that CHS is back in the running can only help the negotiators, and ultimately the people of Beaufort County. It is an undisputed business fact that competition is healthy and leads to better results in the end.

    The BRHS board now has 4 very different and distinct offers to consider: an outright takeover/acquisition by UHS; a long-term lease and return to the county by CHS, a management-services offer by Brim; and a joint venture with LHP. Let us hope they come to the best decision to the benefit of the people of Beaufort County, not just the doctors and hospital employees who made up the majority of the speakers at the public hearing.

    I trust that the members of the negotiating team will speak with a significant number of employees of hospitals being managed by all four bidders to get a comprehensive picture of how well these companies performed and treated the employees after the contracts were signed. The testimony of a single member of a labor union from the other side of the country is hardly a representative sample of how CHS has treated the vast majority of the employees at the hospitals it has come in to manage.

    Let the negotiations begin!