Posted on 10/28/2005 12:11:22 AM PDT by caryatid
The LSU Health Care Services is considering buying St. Charles general hospital and leasing Elmwood Hospital to provide some of the services previously available at Charity and University hospitals.
The idea would be to use St. Charles General as an acute care hospital and using Elmwood as a level-1 trauma center.
The move is being considered at a time when the state's public health care system is in financial trouble.
Without Charity and University hospitals, doctors who work with the LSU Health Sciences Center are coming up short on patients and payroll.
“In Baton Rouge our patient population has doubled at the Earl K. Long hospital, as it has in Lafayette,” said Don Smithburg, the CEO of LSU Health Care Services. “Nevertheless that is not making up for the loss of the facilities in New Orleans. There really is no revenue coming in and that equals about a half billion dollars on an annualized basis.”
The money is being lost through Medicaid and Medicare dollars that used to come in before Katrina. LSU hospital officials said since the dollars are not coming in there has to be an immediate step to stop the financial bleeding.
“I think at the end of the day the federal relief is the only solution to get us through this rough patch so we can get facilities back up and begin to service the population as we have in the past,” said Smithburg.
He told the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems in Washington D.C. that Louisiana's public hospital system is on the verge of financial collapse. He said the money will run out around Thanksgiving unless the federal dollars come soon.
Smithburg said the system needs $15 million a month for the next 6 months to meet its payroll.
“In Baton Rouge our patient population has doubled at the Earl K. Long hospital, as it has in Lafayette,” said Don Smithburg, the CEO of LSU Health Care Services.
Do you think they might consider moving the Level-1 Trauma Center to the same place the patients have gone ... hmmm?
* ping *
The Charity Hospital (state run)system is not all that great but it did provide health services to the poor as well teaching facilities to LSU Medical School.
The problem is that many private hospitals can't handle the increased volume without the full compensation provided via Medicare and Medicaid. I think they only reimburse about at 84%. This means paying customers will have to pay more.
Many private hospitals don't have interns. Although, I know that some hospitals will start accepting them. At least temporarily.
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