Washington County residents are speaking out on the lack of coverage from the local press concerning hospital leadership issues, claiming The Independent has denied publishing letters to the editor critical of the hospital.
Lou Chrostowski, former patient of South County Hospital, remains “frustrated” with the local press after his letter to the editor for The Independent was rejected on April 9.
The letter to the editor emphasized allegedly misleading information on The Independent and included the headline in an April 3 article from The Independent stating “Hospital wins court order challenging opposition’s meeting,” according to Chrostowski.
The opponent in question is Save South County Hospital, a non-profit advocacy group formed in October of 2024 which has recently been subject to two lawsuits by the hospital.
After coming across an article highlighting Save South County Hospital from The Good Five Cent Cigar, Chrostowski said he became inclined to repost the news on Facebook and Nextdoor as a way of emphasizing to the local press the importance of including all perspectives.
“There’s been a lot of comments on social media speaking very negatively about the Independent saying, why can’t they cover this like [The Cigar] is doing?” Chrostowski said.
Chrostowski said he noticed that all the letters to the editor published in The Independent held a perspective in favor of what the hospital was doing.
From Chrostowski’s perspective, all the letters to the editor published in The Independent held a perspective in favor of what the hospital was doing. In reviewing The Independent, The Good 5 Cent Cigar found instances of statements on both sides. No letter to the editor has been published since October 2024.
“I [saw] that another doctor [had] written to the hospital, and also the paper [had] refused to print his letter for the same reason,” Chrostowski said. “It’s pretty clear, at least in my mind, that the paper is being extremely biased.”
Patricia Alley, former patient of the primary care practice decided to follow along and repost the article on her Facebook to spread awareness.
“I know what it’s like to go through something like this, and I’m really fortunate to have regained my health,” Alley said. “As a result of that, I feel like it’s my responsibility to speak out on it.”
A long term patient of South County Primary Care, her experience with the hospital was positive at first, according to Alley. It was only after her primary care doctor left from conflict within hospital leadership, that Alley said she felt “abandoned.”
During this time Alley said she was recovering from an open-heart surgery.
“When you find out that you have a faulty aortic valve and you need to have open heart surgery, … you have to go through so much, and that requires coordination of care with your primary care physician,” Alley said. “In my case, none of that happened. The phones would endlessly ring.”
It took the hospital six weeks after her surgery date to find a case manager for the seriously ill, according to Alley. At that point the main concerns were not relevant.
“It was really stressful because for the first six weeks, any kind of bump to your chest could crack it open and it,” Alley said. “[I had] nobody to look at [my] wounds, make sure [they were] healing correctly.”
The South Kingstown community has speculated multiple reasons as to why the local press, specifically The Independent, hasn’t been sharing information about the hospital objectively, according to Chrostowski.
“A number of people believe that the publisher has some kind of relationship with one of the hospital’s trustees,” Chrostowski said. “[Another reason] is, perhaps the paper is afraid of losing advertising revenue from the hospital.”
There is some speculation that The Independent hasn’t been publishing objectively because they are intimidated by the hospital, according to Chrostowski.
Regardless of what opinions the community has, every perspective deserves to be heard, according to Alley. This is something that hasn’t been happening recently.
“I think press coverage is very important, and local is the most important,” Allen said. “Transparency is very important. And honesty. We all see what’s happening.”
