Monday letters: Providence Hospital deserves our thanks

Your front-page article on the projected sale of Providence Hospital headlined “Mistakes of past, pressures of future drive hospital sale” (July 30) concerned and puzzled me. One economist’s pessimistic opinion set the tone; an attempt at balanced coverage of the sale of the beloved hospital where we have known only high-quality, compassionate care was buried inside, available only for those intent on finding out more.

Contrary to the front-page assessment that the sale of Providence Hospital is “all about the money,” I would suggest that for Providence, it’s never been about money. Rather, it’s been about service to patients. Dozens of religious sisters in 77 years have dedicated their lives to the sick in Columbia. Volunteers, support personnel, technicians, nurses, doctors and administrators still convey their spirit.

Knowing the hospital for more than 15 years, I prefer to assume that it was concern for quality health care, retention of the hospital’s identity and mission, the indigent and current staff — coupled with a decline in religious vocations — that dictated the difficult decision to sell.

Let’s not delay our “thank you” to Providence. As the sisters pass their mission to LifePoint Health, we add, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

Why belittle the potential buyer’s pledge to provide better service through state-of-the-art equipment and other improvements by quoting an observer’s sarcastic “it’s always roses after consolidation”? What is to be gained from conjuring up failure? Let the facts eventually speak for themselves. No one benefits when our community’s health care really is “all about the money,” and I sincerely wish the buyer well in this complex health-care environment.