SURVEY: CHAMBER SPLIT ON MERGER

A survey of Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce members showed they are split in their opinions of the proposed merger of St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Last month the chamber's board of directors surveyed its membership to determine if members supported, opposed or were undecided on the proposed merger.

The chamber has more than 1,150 members. Of those, 454 members responded to the survey.

Supporting the merger were 214 members, opposed were 192 and undecided were 46. Two members responded with more than one answer.

The chamber board met Tuesday to review the survey results. The board has not taken a position on the proposed merger.

Chamber president John Mehner said 454 responses is a high number for any survey done by the chamber. "We feel we heard from a substantial portion of our membership," Mehner said.

"We're not statisticians, but one thing it does show is that there are pretty good feelings on both sides," Mehner said.

The board decided to conduct the survey after meetings and open forums brought lots of comments on both sides of the issue.

The chamber has hosted two informational meetings on the proposed merger, the hospitals have held one town hall meeting and the Missouri attorney general's office has held a public hearing on it.

"This survey shows that people are very much for it and people are very much against it," Mehner said.

The chamber board hasn't made plans on what step, if any, to take next.

"Obviously, if the results had been 453 to 1, we might have taken some action," he said. "But for now we're just releasing the numbers."

The last time the chamber surveyed its membership was on the question of whether to allow riverboat gambling in the city.

The hospitals want to merge to strengthen their competitive position in the regional market, maintain quality services and control costs. They project $44.4 million in savings if the merger is approved.

As part of the merger, the hospitals are willing to establish a community health foundation to address public health issues and to enter into a consent decree with the Missouri attorney general to guarantee the projected savings.