When the merger that created Ballad Health was approved in 2018, the hospitals agreed to not cut corners. But for patients like Jerry Qualls, that merger has turned out to be a death sentence waiting to happen.

After a heart attack, Jerry was rushed to Holston Valley Medical Center, part of Ballad Health’s massive 20-hospital system. Doctors there told his wife that Jerry wouldn’t qualify for a heart transplant and that he should not expect to recover. If his wife hadn’t insisted he transfer to a hospital in Nashville, Jerry could’ve died. This is just one example of patients not receiving the proper care they need from Ballad Health.

Ballad Health is the only option for hospital care for more than one million people in Appalachian Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Since the merger, Ballad has consistently failed to meet key quality-of-care benchmarks in infection rates, mortality rates, and emergency room wait times. Ballad Health’s market dominance has led to a dramatic decline in the quality of services provided. In some hospitals, patients are forced to wait 12-14 hours in emergency rooms with “paper–thin staffing.”

The need for reform is clear; Better Solutions demands a change in how monopolistic hospital systems are run. Competition is vital in healthcare in order to provide quality service to patients and their families in desperate times.