Butler Memorial Hospital has released results of a telephone poll conduced earlier this year that indicates the majority of people in Butler County would like to see an end to the debate over a new hospital and want to "move forward."

The telephone survey report makes an interesting news release, but it's not clear what it really means.

The most helpful way to better understand the results of this or any poll is to know more about how the poll was conducted, most importantly to see all of the questions asked - their exact wording and the order in which they were asked.

The National Council on Public Polls, in a publication geared toward journalists writing stories from polls, suggests that reporters review the exacting wording of the questions because "the very wording of questions can make major differences in results." In some cases, such as those involving controversial issues, the guidelines recommend including the exact question wording in the news reports. The guideline for journalists adds, "At the very least you must have the exact working as you are preparing the story."

Most people tend to worry that a small sample size or non-representative sampling can produce skewed or inaccurate poll results, but national the polling companies Gallop, Harris and others all emphasize that question wording, and even question order, are far more critical to producing legitimate results.

For example, the two following fabricated questions would likely produce different responses in a poll:

"Should the Butler Memorial Hospital be forced to remain the current patched-together buildings, some of which are 80 years old, or should a brand new hospital be built?

"Should the Butler Memorial Hospital abandon all buildings on the current campus, despite still owing $25 million dollars on past construction projects, and proceed to spend $160 million or more on a new building on the VA campus along congested New Castle Road?"

When the Butler Eagle asked for a copy of the exact questions asked, the hospital and its public relations firm, Brabender Cox, refused - saying that the poll questions are considered "proprietary survey data" or contain confidential information.

If 300 respondents were asked the questions, as the polling company reports, why would such proprietary or confidential information be revealed to them?

At the time the poll was conducted, several callers to the Butler Eagle reported being asked questions related to the hospital in a telephone poll. Most of the callers also indicated they were surprised at the tone or slant of some of the questions.

Since the hospital or polling company will not release the questions asked, the newspaper must rely on people who were contacted by the polling company to help reconstruct the questions asked.

Taking the results at face value, the poll findings are interesting, but not really surprising.

As to Brabender report that 66 percent of county residents surveyed believing the time has come to "stop the bickering and finally move forward with this project," it's easy to see people agreeing with that statement, even those who oppose the plan to build a new hospital on grounds of the Butler Veterans Affairs Medical Center on New Castle Road.

Does moving forward mean only building a new hospital at the VA site? Moving forward could also mean conducting a detailed feasibility study of building a new hospital tower on the existing East Brady Street campus, but still using the 1980 "Main Building" and tier garage.

Does wanting to move forward mean not caring how many beds the new hospital will contain, or whether they will be private or semi-private rooms? Does wanting to move forward mean favoring a final decision to begin construction before it is publicly known how many psychiatric beds or transitional care beds will be included in the new hospital?

According to Brabender Cox, most people are in favor of "putting the acrimony behind them and moving ahead with construction." But this is not particularly surprising either.

Most people on both sides of the new-hospital issue are not enjoying the increasingly bitter debate, and most can clearly see that the community needs a new - or mostly new - hospital. And most agree that seeing construction begin sooner would be better than later, given that inflation will boost the price by about 6 percent for every year of delay.

But does the desire to see the debate end and the project move forward also mean that most people don't care if the best decision is made? Does it mean people don't care whether the feasibility of building a new hospital tower on the existing campus has been fully explored? Does wanting to move forward mean people don't care whether or not the option chosen is the most cost-effective solution for spending $150 million or more for Butler County's future health-care needs?

None of this is clear from the press release issued by the hospital, especially without knowing exactly how the poll questions were worded.

BMH's telephone poll of the community provided interesting, but not highly significant results. The reported poll results are more valuable as a public relations gesture than as a true gauge of the public thinking on this complex topic.

If the hospital would spend the same amount of money and energy on a detailed and public report determining whether building on the current campus makes sense as it does on public relations, residents of Butler County would then learn some truly useful information.