Posted on 08/20/2004 7:11:25 AM PDT by PeoplesRep_of_LA
VAN NUYS -- Northridge Hospital Medical Center's Sherman Way campus, an aging 209-bed acute-care facility losing more than $1 million a month, will close by year's end, administrators said Thursday.
The hospital has 830 employees and its owner, San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West, wants to sell the seven-acre facility and plans call for transferring patients to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, which is slightly more than a mile away.
David Fleming, chairman of Valley Presbyterian Hospital, said Selleck Properties plans to buy the campus for more than $10 million but has not decided what to do with it yet. Dan Selleck, a developer who is on the Valley Presbyterian board of directors, did not return calls.
Once known as Valley Hospital, and later as Valley Receiving, the Sherman Way facility has served Van Nuys for 75 years, providing care to about 45,000 patients a year. But a burgeoning uninsured population and low reimbursements proved too costly for it to continue operating.
"There is a severe health care crisis in Los Angeles, and we are in the eye of the storm," said Jerry Conway, president of the campus.
Approximately 250 babies are born every month at the facility to parents without health insurance. At the same time, about 85 percent of the patients are on Medi-Cal, California's health care system for the poor. Conway said as an employee of the hospital for six years, serving an indigent population has been emotionally challenging.
"Obviously, the staff and doctors here believe it's a noble cause. But with economies of scale and an increase in patient volume, we cannot afford to operate under these conditions."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailynews.com ...
This hospital in Northridge was very important during the Quake. When will the Cheap Labor wing of the GOP realize that not only is our security to stop WMD from getting into the US compromised, but our infrastructure to cope with a disaster is also? All thanks to the Illegal Immigration invasion.
To be blunt, this will only happen when enough people cause them to fear for their lives if they don't fix the problem.
Just another example of the deteriorating living conditions in the third world areas of Los Angeles. The whole central valley area is pretty much a slum now.
Which was why when I originally posted this I included "(250 babies are born every month to illegals)" Yet someone thought they were being helpful to erase that.
Thanks, but I know this area and I know exactly what the article was dancing around by "uninsured." Its the reason for everything.
I study these issues for a living. The fact is, no matter how productive this nation is and how much we spend on healthcare, we cannot keep everybody in Central America healthy, free of charge! Grandpa walks across the border, has an MI, racks up $100,000 in hospital bills, and walks away. Mama walks into the ER, has a premature baby, and has $300K in charges to save the baby's life--and the hospital has to eat all those charges, all the staff salaries. Medicaid and Medicare--that is, you--pick up a small part of the tab, but with millions of indigents, it adds up. At the same time, the quality of healthcare that people are demanding is continually escalating, continually getting more expensive; the procedures being demanded are getting more sophisticated, and if hospitals don't offer them they will be sued. It's a nightmare. Even closing the borders entirely, which I advocate for many excellent reasons, is not going to solve this one.
Okay, you make some excellent points...
Do you have any possible solutions?
There is only one thing which will solve the problem: All patients must pay for services rendered.
"The mayor is outraged by it," Simril said. "The mayor is very concerned about making sure there are adequate services."
Medical groups are backing Proposition 67, which would impose a 3% surcharge on telephone bills to keep open hospital emergency rooms, trauma centers and health clinics, and provide money for physician training as well as emergency medical equipment.
The measure would raise $150 million in Los Angeles County to pay for emergency room care, paramedic training and care, and community clinics, said Warren, of the California Medical Assn.
The same mayor that advocates driver's licenses for illegals, btw. Make whitey pay for it!
that is a statewide phone tax they are pushing...you still have a cell or home phone don't ya? if you have one of each, you pay double!
2. One step in the right direction has been undertaken by some border hospitals: they bill the government of Mexico for charges run up by immigrants. This ought to be extended. There ought to be a very direct link between our relationship with Mexico and their haste to pay the medical bills of their people.
3. Emergency rooms ought to be reserved for emergencies. Right now people use them for primary care. I see scores of cases every day in which people get a runny nose and go into the ER, where they take up staff time and facilities for stupidity of this sort. If they had to pay for this, they would buy a box of Kleenex and a bottle of Tylenol instead of going to the ER, whose staff can't even help them anyway.
I nominate you to be the Hospital Czar :-]
Do you have any possible solutions?
Sturdy non=porous borders.......Please--soon....
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