Becker makes sure cooperation doesn't rear its ugly head

They rode the sunset, horse was made of steel. Chased a gringo last night through a field.

JUNE 6, 2010: If Walter Becker had his way, he would soon be opening a ... a ... a ... SOMETHING at 514 Washington St. in Watertown, just a couple of stone throws away from Samaritan Medical Center.

But Becker, the CEO of Carthage Area Hospital, didn't get his way and the building will soon house a day care center run by the YMCA.

This almost/coulda scenario is worth noting as Becker is now throwing a hissy fit over the effort by Lewis County General Hospital to open a clinic in the town of Denmark, which is at least 10 stone throws away from Becker's facility.

Let the record show: Becker rescued the Carthage hospital more than 12 years ago when the wolves were at the door. He turned around the cash flow, got the place out of debt and has expanded the building.

And he has successfully used his patented “we's just poor, hep-less folk in Carthage” routine to score federal dollars to bring more services to the hospital.

But the flip side of Becker is that he is as territorial as a bull moose. It's OK for HIM to launch a dozen clinics all over the place in two counties. But come near HIS place? It's head down and charge, as he did recently at a West Carthage village meeting. There, he tried to bully the village board into rescinding an earlier decision to provide water and sewer service to the proposed 6,000-square-foot clinic.

"We don't need someone coming in here in our community," Becker said to the board.

Someone? Let the record also show this: Becker is the former chairman of the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization, of which the Lewis County hospital is also a member. If you've forgotten, the goal of FDRHPO is to get all the medical facilities around Fort Drum to work together so “we can pool our resources to get regional practitioners to serve the region.”

Says who? Says Walter Becker back in 2005.

Becker says the Denmark facility will duplicate services his hospital provides, but the State Department of Health is responsible for determining that, not hospital administrators and village trustees. (Actually, shouldn't Becker be taking his case to FDRHPO?)

After years of everybody — including Becker — complaining that the north country is medically underserved, it's just odd to hear a hospital administrator expressing fears that we may get too much service around here.

There could be any number of reasons why Becker is behaving the way he is but we'll never know for sure. Over the years, Becker has consistently ignored reporters' interview requests when the news — a threatened union strike or the Veterans Administration yanking its contract from him — wasn't going to be pretty. True to form, he wouldn't speak to a reporter last week who wanted to ask him to explain his rationale after the recent village board meeting.

It's all too bad. Becker was given the chance years ago by his medical colleagues to be the voice for cooperation in the community. But cooperation is not in his DNA.

His “us against the world” rally cry helped pull his hospital out of its self-dug hole 12 years ago. But that mantra gets old fast in a world where cooperation is the best antidote for the rising cost of health care.