Kari DeWitt of Pinedale

decided to start her write-in campaign for one

of two four-year board terms opening up in the

Sublette County Rural Health Care District.

She is running beside Sam Bixler, who

also supports the special hospital district ballot

initiative, to help make a smooth transition if the

countywide vote supports the rural health care

district’s plan to merge with the Sublette Center

and build a new critical access hospital nursing

home.

“I didn’t know a lot about the hospital

proposal and rural health care district until six

or eight months ago and I learned that we can

make health care better,” DeWitt said.

She pointed out the health care district’s other

two candidates for the two open seats, Randall

Montgomery and Lynn Bernard, do not favor

the special hospital district initiative.

“I’m hoping for the passage of the hospital

district vote to get better reimbursement,

improved care and a merger with the Sublette

Center,” DeWitt said. “I would like to help make

it a smooth transition and I’d like a ‘second

chance’ campaign” for those who have taken

their health care needs elsewhere.

DeWitt was excited to learn about the three

health-care entities – Star Valley Health, St.

DeWitt launches write-in for RHCD seat

By Joy Ufford

jufford@pinedaleroundup.com

John’s and Eastern Idaho Regional Medical

– that are interested in helping the local board

build and manage a new hospital. The new

hospital district would need a consulting

partnership with one of them with a federal loan,

and it “would bring a higher level of care for the

local providers.”

“My focus now is on helping people

understand the hospital district – if it doesn’t

pass I would support formation of something

financially feasible – but I really think the

hospital is the best fit,” she said.

The Sublette Center is a nonprofit facility so

employees do not have health insurance, and the

facility itself does not have liability insurance,

which they would get with a merger into the

Sublette County Health Care District Board.

“They treat people like their own family and

I would like them to get the compensation they

deserve,” she said.

DeWitt said she hopes very much that her

term on the Sublette County Rural Health

Care District will only last seven months until

the new hospital district board takes over. In

the meantime, her experiences as director of

nonprofits including the Pinedale Fine Arts

Council, business owner – and a mother of

three – “bring a good understanding of the

community.”

“Moms talk a lot at the clinics with their

kids,” she said.