Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC) dropped the hammer this week, announcing a September 26 closure of the local health care center that was funded by local dollars, sweat, tears, dedication, and good intentions.
CVMC announced its plans to close the health center last fall and now, 10 months later, there are still no concrete answers about the alleged financial equations that made it impossible to operate the clinic.
CVMC has shared its financials with three prospective new operators of the clinic, but with a non-disclosure agreement that will make it impossible for local patients to ever know about the financial shortfalls that the health care organization and its behemoth parent, UVMC, suggest are behind the closure.
CVMC/UVMC know that the desire to keep a local health center here is strong enough that our community is willing to help meet any financial shortfall, but refused to provide the information needed to make an informed decision and is apparently not interested in having the clinic operate in the black.
The rest of the state, legislators, the administration, the Green Mountain Care Board, have all moved on from this issue. It’s only the folks here that are impacted and apparently our voices are not enough.
The board of the Mad River Valley Health Center has worked hard to get answers and been stonewalled at every turn. They, like all of us, have a great deal of pride in the health care facility that our community made possible. It feels like a diminishment to have this critical piece of our Valley infrastructure wiped out by people so disconnected from us.
There are just no good answers here. CVMC promises us tele-health for those who can’t trek the 25 minutes to Waterbury to see their providers in person. This, despite concrete evidence showing that in-person visits with health care providers offers much better care and much better outcomes.
And this empty promise is made, despite knowing that there are large pockets of our community and those surrounding it who have used this health care center, that do not have good cellphone service or access to high-speed internet.
We expected better from those with the ability to impact or mediate this decision and we did not get it.
