Hospital highlights - Dec. 31, 2009

Many of the impacts of Healthcare Reform are hazy but at least four things are clear.

This should be called Health Insurance Reform. The debate is about how to provide coverage for as many Americans as possible and keep costs down. Reform does not change how people stay healthy, how illnesses are diagnosed and treated, or how people heal. It is however, an attempt to change how we pay for these services.

There are thorny issues yet to be resolved. Some, such as the public option, are controversial and may be hard to overcome. I am optimistic that our legislators, working with hospitals and doctors, will create something better than what we have today.

The changes will take years to implement. Overhauling one-sixth of our nation’s economy is a huge task. There will be bumps along the way. Further legislation to smooth out rough spots is a certainty.

WHMC will continue to provide excellent care and adapt to the changes. In the few days I have been here, I have been impressed by the expertise and dedication of the commissioners and the hospital and medical staffs.

I am confident the hospital will thrive, not just survive, in the future.

David E. Womack, administrator

WHMC

Pastor’s

corner

2 Corinthians 4:18 “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

A man lived in the mountains with his little daughter; they raised sheep. One day they went out looking for a missing lamb and found the small animal caught in a thorny thicket. Carefully, they lifted the lamb out, but it was still scratched and bleeding in places. The little girl was crying as she said, ‘Father, that’s a bad tree, let’s cut it down.’

The next day they returned with an ax to cut the tree down. As they approached the thorny branches, the little girl saw a small bird flutter down to a branch, open its beak and grab a mouthful of wool that had been left on a thorn as the little lamb had struggled the day before. The tiny bird tugged and tugged until he had a mouthful of wool and then he flew off.

The little girl looked up at her father and said, ‘I think God has a good reason for this thorny tree. I don’t think we should cut it down, for the thorns are helping that bird get soft wool for its babies’ nest.

Don’t allow the thorns of life to mar your perspective. The thorns may hurt and cut and seem to have no purpose. But in God’s great plan and purpose for you, every thorn can be an opportunity for increasing your vision of God’s great possibilities in your life. When your path is thorny, be at peace, for God is walking with you! That is His promise. This Christmas season and year around he is Immanuel, God with us!

Don Moore,

Church of the Nazarene