In your Sunday February 22, 2026, addition of the El Dorado News-Times you published an opinion piece letter signed by "--Anonymous". The signature was within 4 inches of your guidelines for letter acceptance, specifically: "Anonymous letters or letters signed by a pseudonym are not accepted." The subject matter of the letter written by Anonymous concerned the proposed 1/2 cent sales tax initiative to benefit South Arkansas Regional Hospital. This is an important topic for our community, so I am assuming that you violated your own standards for publication to encourage community discussion of this matter. With that in mind, please allow me to weigh in.

One of the most important community entities in El Dorado is South Arkansas Regional Hospital. I rank its importance as equivalent of that of the El Dorado Police Department, the El Dorado Fire Department, and the Union County Sheriff's Office. All of these entities work around the clock to preserve our collective health and lives. El Dorado must have a viable hospital or, I believe, our community will be diminished significantly in the upcoming years. While I am not privy to all discussions regarding the hospital, as a member of the medical staff I can confirm that the hospital is experiencing significant financial difficulty. Anonymous wanted to know how we got to this point. I personally blame the previous corporate owner of the hospital which was based in Nashville, Tennessee. Time and time again, I saw needed equipment updates and facility maintenance deferred by someone in the bureaucracy in Nashville. The 1/2 cent sales tax initiative is proposed to correct the equipment and maintenance problems created by previous ownership.

The hospital is currently formulating a management agreement with Baptist Health. This management agreement is also essential to preservation of hospital services here. I have no information regarding the importance that Baptist Health might place on this successful sales tax implementation regarding whether to go forward are not. However, in my opinion, the added revenue would likely add to the chance of a successful union. In today's healthcare financial environment a hospital the size of ours cannot expect to survive alone. We need the economies of scale and expertise that partnering with an Arkansas-based, strong healthcare system will bring to us.

I would say to Anonymous that the need is right now and it is dire. If the sales tax initiative passes and fails to solve this problem, it can always be repealed by the voters later. I would ask you and all readers to try to imagine the consequences of losing our hospital. Patients will be hurt. We do not have in place in our community an ambulance fleet of the enormous size that would be required to transport the daily flow of patients needing hospital services to other facilities. Assembling and staffing such an ambulance fleet would probably cost the community more than is to be raised by this sales tax initiative. Also, I know from my own professional experience, outlying hospitals often do not have room to accept our patients for transfers. A patient in need might have a ride, but have no place to go. I will close my letter with a brief recounting of an El Dorado economic failure that occurred a few years ago. As I sat in a barber chair, another patron sat in the next chair adjacent to me. He introduced himself to his barber. He stated he was from out of town and had been sent by Pilgrams Pride to resolve the labor contract negotiations that had stalled. He stated that the labor union representatives did not believe that plant would be closed. He further stated that if an agreement did not come to pass that the plant would be closed FOREVER. No agreement was made, and the cost to our community was great. The plant closure cost many jobs directly and poultry producers were indirectly severely financially harmed as well. The plant remains closed today. I fear that if we lose the hospital it will remain closed forever as well. The empty shell on South West Avenue could possibly gain an empty twin on the hilltop at 700 West Grove Street. The negative ripple effect of hospital closure would undoubtedly inhibit economic expansion in our community for the long term. The "lithium boom" mentioned in Richard Mason's column, that was published on the same page as the letter from Anonymous", might bypass El Dorado. As they make their decisions on this issue, I hope voters will bear in mind the potential health care and economic disaster that could occur if the initiative fails.

-- Dwayne Daniels, M.D.

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