Silence is not the solution

There are certainly matters the Weston County Health Services board of trustees cannot legally discuss in public. Patient information, protected personnel matters and other confidential subjects must remain behind closed doors.

But those legal exceptions should be the limit.

With the troubling issues surrounding Weston County Health Services, the board should be demanding greater openness — not directing concerns into a private process that keeps them from public view.

At the most recent board meeting, Chairman Ben Roberts said employees wishing to bring grievances before the board must first follow the hospital’s grievance policy. That process reportedly requires employees to raise their concerns with department managers and hospital administration before addressing the board.

An internal grievance process may be appropriate for routine workplace disputes, but it should never become a barrier that prevents employees from alerting the board and the public to serious problems.

When concerns involve staffing levels, working conditions, patient safety or the overall direction of publicly supported health care facilities, board members should want to hear directly from the people witnessing those problems. They should want that information immediately, not only after it has passed through the same administrative structure that may be part of the complaint.

That is especially true when former employees speak. They are no longer subject to the hospital’s internal chain of command, and attempts to dismiss or discourage their public comments only deepen the impression that Weston County Health Services is more interested in controlling the message than confronting the problem.

Of course, employees and former employees must continue to protect patient privacy and follow the law. Allegations should be supported by facts, and those accused of wrongdoing deserve an opportunity to respond.

But confidentiality cannot become a blanket excuse for silence.

Weston County Health Services belongs to this community. Its decisions affect patients, families, employees and taxpayers. Members of the public therefore have every right to raise concerns during public meetings, and trustees have an obligation to listen — even when those comments are uncomfortable.

In fact, the more uncomfortable the concern, the more carefully the board should listen.

Those willing to speak publicly about what they are seeing should not be treated as troublemakers. They should be applauded for having the courage to raise concerns about facilities that many Weston County residents depend on during the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

The board does not have to agree with every speaker. It does not have to accept every allegation as fact. But it should hear those concerns, ask questions and investigate them openly whenever the law permits.

Weston County residents have filled the halls before when they believed their hospital needed their attention. Considering the concerns now being raised, they may have to do so again.

A nearly empty boardroom makes it easier for serious concerns to be redirected, delayed or dismissed. A room filled with employees, former employees, patients and taxpayers sends a very different message: The community is watching, it is listening, and it expects answers.

At this moment, Weston County Health Services does not need less public discussion. It needs more.

The doors should be open. The public should be heard. And the only matters kept private should be those the law truly requires to remain private.

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