Fort Scott Emergency Room

Attending a recent meeting I was reminded how critical Emergency Room (ER) services are to our community.  As you recall, recently a man with a gun was reported near the middle school.

In response to that report our ER staff immediately took the initiative to begin preparing for the nightmare of a mass shooting.  Local staff checked vital supplies like blood, IV fluids and medical equipment.  They also coordinated with the Ascension Via Christi Pittsburg emergency response team.

This resulted in additional staff being notified, the referring ER being prepared and even notification of emergency air transport that sent a helicopter to Ft. Scott for emergency standby.

Fortunately, there was no shooting.  My point however, is two-fold.

First, to say thank you to our local staff and to the team at AVC-P for being here and prepared.

Second though is to remind us, as a community, of the critical importance of having an Emergency Room in Ft. Scott.

While there was no mass shooting, our community is not immune to acts of violence, natural disasters, accidents from sports, to farm, to industrial, to motor vehicle, medical emergencies like stroke and heart attack and all the other emergencies that require a fully operational ER and cannot be handled at an urgent care facility.

Having an emergency room is a critically important foundational piece of our community’s health care.

Please take this letter for what it is meant to be.  A reminder to ourselves and our elected officials of how important an ER is to safeguard our medical security.

Realize also it is critical to our future economic well-being.  Not having Emergency Room services would impact the ability to both maintain and attract people, business and industry.

We as a community have helped finance other health care.  At some point we may need to do the same to secure our ER.  Let’s appreciate having this service and not forget it’s importance.  We’ve lost a hospital, let’s not lose an ER.  We must be ready to step up to the plate.

Randy Nichols MD