She smiled and said; "They won't, not for years to come. Once the hospital has proven itself, one of those entities will want to take control of the operation, but I can tell you, yes it might take the burden off of us, as I just said, however, Kalispell would have to get much larger with more of a tax base before that would happen."
"Someday, maybe, anytime soon, doubtful. Oh they'll want to get their hands on it, but in reality, they simply can't afford it. We will have the final say of who is hired and who is not." She assured him. "They simply do not have much of a tax base now, let alone enough of one to take on the expense of running the hospital. So, for the foreseeable future, Kalispell Community Hospital will be in our hands. And our alone."
"That's a relief, anyway." Jonah chuckled. "As much as this is your project and you've invested so much into it, I feel as if it is mine, too, in a way, and I'd like to see it succeed before politicians get their hooks into it."
Hopefully, when...if that happened, he'd be long gone, dead, even, although he found it hard to imagine that he'd be here long enough to die here, provided he wasn't shot prematurely young! But the thought of being on one place for more than a few...months, years...was unimaginable...
But then, he could imagine it, here in Kalispell, with these people...this person.
Quickly clearing his throat, he looked at Leah with an uneven smile. "I hope the town doesn't get too big, seems the larger a town becomes, the more opinionated and troublesome it becomes."
"The thing that will make this town grow is a strike of some sort, gold, silver, something along those lines. Then there'll be a boom until whatever the find peters out as most strikes do. Guyer would know about that sort of thing, being in the business." She responded.
"But I wouldn't worry too much about that, nothing much has been found, and a couple of mining operations have gone bust already up here. However, more people, more patients and that will be the bread and butter of this town, well, aside from the mercantile and the general store."
"An apothecary!" She exclaimed suddenly. "That's what we need, hospital or not, someone that manufactures and sells medicines!"
"An apothecary is a great idea," Jonah agreed, "although I think it should be part of the hospital, that way we can control the quality and price, so we keep out snake-oil salesmen."
He hadn't really cared about such things before, thinking that, if people were gullible enough to fall for a scam, that was their problem. But if prescriptions were going to be coming from Leah's hospital, he wanted to be sure that all was above-board.
"It can be run independent of the hospital, but answer to us. That way, patients can get what medications they need before they leave." Of course, there were the Chinese shops, selling herbs and teas, but he wasn't entirely sure those were bad, and he wasn't as worried about that.
"It's certainly something to look into."
"I like that, yes. Independent, but answerable to us. Though my initial thought of course, was a space inside the hospital for the apothecary, though somewhere in town would be fine, the town is not that big, yet." She explained.
This was a new wrinkle in her thinking. If the hospital controlled the apothecary then they could control the quality of the product, as well as having medications made right there, avoiding shortages of whatever compounds, powders and other necessities. Of course, some would need to be ordered from manufacturers in the east.
"I do agree that advertising for staff locally as as well as in the east, should begin soon, in fact, very soon in the east. Doctors, nurses and apothecaries, though we only need just one I would think. Actually I do like the term chemist a bit better."
"I can write up an advert, if you'd like," Jonah suggested. "And I do think having the apothecary in the hospital is the best idea. Oh, certainly, we can't stop others from carrying potions, but having our own source, we can control the price, and the hospital will be staffed all hours, so folks can get medication in the middle of the night, if need be."
Not that he knew anything much about medicinals, but he'd much prefer that the hospital maintained some control. Now to figure out how to extol the wonders of a back-water like Kalispell!
"An advert? Where on earth would we begin?" She wondered aloud. "I suppose Helena, Boseman, those sorts of places. but outside Montana? San Francisco is close, Denver? Could we, would we dare New York, Boston, Philadelphia?"
It was one thing to deal in stocks and bonds in these cities when necessary, but she had no experience with adverts, let alone adverts spread all over the country, and in that moment she realized that Helena, or Boseman, or Great Falls, would gain like next nothing but but invoices from their newspapers.
"Yes. Yes lets do this, all the major newspapers in all the major cities. Lets see what we can reel in!" She exclaimed, ready to go all in. "And, you may as well include physicians, and qualified nurses. I'm sure this will bring some interest, and possibly fill that annoying Postmaster Ashworth's office with mail for us. How about that, Jonah?"
"I'll look into it when I have a chance," Jonah offered, although he really had no idea how to do that. "It is a bit amusing to think of all the mail that might need sorting," he observed, but then added, "although we'll have to go through it all and reply." And there was a whole new challenge...weeding through everything and picking the 'winners'.
"You know, I think I'll talk to Mr. McVay, I'm sure he'll be able to help us not only with the wording, but distribution." And the man was an advocate for the hospital, so Jonah was sure he'd be willing to help.
"Heavens! Just what we need, more things to do, although it might prove interesting." She countered. "Imagine Ashworth's report to my father about the correspondence." That he would count every one and be sure to let Elias know.
"I wonder what it's like to have a father that is supportive? A mother who is not, well, not wherever she is, doing whatever she is doing. She's a bit old to be gallivanting about. This life has been one bad dream after another, Jonah." She sort of shook her head. "But, damn it! The materials are on their way and our project will be getting under way, at long last, excuse my language." She apologized.