Vote “yes” on Proposition One to fund Pullman Regional Hospital’s expansion and modernization. 

Proposition One would give Pullman Regional Hospital a medical residency program, introduce team based care and establish an electronic medical record system. 

The medical residency program would give Pullman Regional Hospital a pipeline of medical specialists who would live and work in the 45,000-foot extension as part of Proposition One, said Meghan Guido, the chief marketing and communications officer at Pullman Regional Hospital. 

This would enable Pullman Regional Hospital to personalize and quicken its medical care. Increasing the number of medical specialists like cardiologists allows hospitals to give the best possible treatment to unique cases. It would also reduce the travel that patients would have to do, since all the specialists they want access to would be in one place. 

Having these specialists living and working together as part of their training would provide more efficient care, as it would allow specials to effectively communicate. A loss of interconnected specialists means patients will have to wait for information to be transferred and will have to deal with the cumbersome bureaucracy of medicine.

Guido also said that the electronic medical record would allow patients medical records to be transferred with ease in between hospitals, allowing for faster flow of information. 

This information needs to be transferred as quickly as possible; no patient wants to sit around for help while doctors are frantically trying to transfer records. With the electronic medical record, patient’s information can be accessed instantly.

The proposition isn’t something that would just benefit longtime residents of Pullman, it is something that would benefit students at WSU. Whether we like to admit it or not, college students are not invincible, and serious medical emergencies happen.

A specialized hospital staff that can efficiently transfer medical information in crisis situations is not a want for college students, it is a need. 

Proposition One would lay the grounds for a great medical community. One question still plagues this proposition: can it pass?

This is not the first time that the $29 million plan to improve the hospital has been put to the ballot. The proposition failed last spring by over 1,000 votes. In order for a position to be passed in Whitman County, it needs a 60 percent “yes” vote from at least 40 percent of the voters from the last congressional election.

“Lower voter turnout was an issue in the last election,” said Tricia Grantham, a member of Citizens for Pullman Regional Hospital Prop One.

The simplest way to combat voter turnout is to vote.

“If we don’t move forward now, we can’t move forward later,” said Joe Pitzer, a member of the board of commissioners for Pullman Regional Hospital and a supporter of Proposition One.