Talbot and town councils urged to say 'keep hospital in Easton'

This concerns the Commission Report to the Talbot County Council regarding the economic impact of Memorial Hospital at Easton on citizens and the small business community.

In the current dire and uncertain economic times facing the state and the nation, the commission feels incumbent, consistent with its charter, to give advice regarding the impact of Memorial Hospital on the economic lifeblood of Talbot County. In this connection, this report will focus on a strong medical business prescence and its importance to all small businesses, the jobs arising therefrom, and general economic growth.

Memorial Hospital casts a large and heavy footprint on Talbot County's economy. In this regard, we need only observe the 500,000 square feet of real estate taken up by its presense. That space is occupied not ony by the physical plant of the hospital and its satellite medical facilities but also by rehabilitation offices, medical equipment vendors and the offices of other health care providers who associate with the hospital or are ancillary to patient care needs at Memorial Hospital.

As to number, more than 30 businesses offering health care goods and services in Talbot County are tied directly to Memorial Hospital. Moreover, physicians, surgeons and other health care practitioners necessarily build their practices close to the hospital, just as lawyers choose a close proximity to a courthouse. This network of health care, resulting in use of this vast real estate, was generations in the making.

An absence of the hospital in Talbot County would result in a virtual wasteland of what is now prime real estate dedicated to medical services. Most importantly, the medical community is filled with workers who sustain our local economy through their purchasing power at small businesses. A healthy economy cannot sustain itself without the benefit of those small businesses.

The hospital's presence not only greatly enhances the small business economy but also encourages and sustains its growth. These small businesses are the shoe repair shops, dry cleaners, restaurnats, and other stores and shops in and around Easton, including small vendors who supply products to the hospital. These small businesses depend on the trickle-down effect resulting from the sound economic presence of the hospital.

An absence of the hospital could result in small businesses seeing their bottom line shrivel to the point of causing the closing of their doors, putting their workers in the unemployment lines and adding to that vast waste land of prime real estate.

Memorial Hospital at Easton is more than just a hospital; it is the largest employer and the largest customer of Easton Utilities. The impact on Easton Utilities alone may result in significant utility increases for its other customers.

The hospital's presence helps Talbot County attract new businesses and employees into a quality community. The result is improvement in our economy, and the retention of businesses we already have.

Additionally, it is estimated that the hospital's presence has an economic impact of over $100 million. Health care accounts for more than 2,700 jobs in Talbot County and as much as one-fifth of the total employment in Easton alone.

As recently as August of this year, this Commission expressed to the council that Talbot County needs to grow middle income opportunities and bring more higher paying jobs into the area. Reaching that objective means we must maintain the businesses we already have, in both quality and number, this being necessary to attract those new businesses with higher paying positions for our citizens.

Furthermore, it should be pointed out that the independent Sage Policy Group report, commissioned by Talbot County, revealed a staggering economic statistic that each dollar of income earned by Memorial Hospital employees results in an additional 45 cents earned by other workers in Talbot.

The study further noted that for every dollar of sales or revenue generated by Memorial Hospital, another 63 cents is generated for other businesses in the county.

In closing, the Economic Development Commission urges that the rallying cry in support of a hospital presence for a strong economy must not come from just the Talbot County Council, town councils or this commission but from the affected medical and general business community and it leadership.

With such genuine support from our small businesses and other healthy economic development initiatives, the county can strive to overcome the harsh economic times facing us all.

Mr. Wendowski chairs the Economic Development Commission. Mr. Frampton is the Vice Chariman.