It will take a lot of tender care by Swedish Hospital folks to keep Ballard residents from worrying that its ownership will not mean the slow dismantling of the proud hospital so many local people helped found and then kept vibrant all these years. The history and the value of the hospital are outlined in an excellent in-depth package starting on Page One of today's paper.

We fully recognize that hospitals change and maybe Swedish has to as well. We simply have to take on faith that the leadership of the hospital is making its cuts because of economic need and not because they think Ballard is a lost cause and setting us up for someday shutting down our hospital.

It's too simple to think of this as some faceless corporate decision.

Another major consideration is that the hospital's origins make it a special case. It is not the usual "this is Ballard so don't change anything" issue. Rather, if Swedish were to take services away from the community hospital, they'd be stealing from the people who donated their time and money to its beginnings and continuation.

Swedish is a non-profit hospital so it isn't all about corporate buyouts. Marcel Loh, in an op-ed in the New-Tribune a few months ago, said there was an obligation to the community. If that's the case, the hospital's fate should be considered in the context of the whole community.

A major point is Ballard is getting younger and young people have babies and that's what the hospital is now apparently all about. But Ballard is also older people who need specialized and often unprofitable care.

The loss of the intensive care and transitional care units hit those people hardest. It may be a reality that Swedish needs to change its mix of services, but it should not be a reality that a community hospital gets to neglect its elderly at the expense of marketing campaigns.