Dr. Decapitated By Faulty Elevator At St Joseph Hospital

Houston Chronicle ^ | August 17, 2003 | Peggy O'Hare

[this_ol_patriot]

JCAHO is going to be real interested in this.

Oh don't remind me, we're due. Time to remove all the junk from the hallways in the basement. Hehe, you know everything marked "parts on order".

[neb52]

My apologies, I know there use to be one. I have an email that talks about it being flooded a few years back. I would have to check when I get back to work Thursday.

[Lady Jag]

They really ARE knocked out. They're good looking dogs, what are they and how old in the photo, now?

[BellStar]

I read the long version in the paper today. Seems he was a new on fire for Christ, Christian! A baby was delivered,he went home!

[neb52]

I don't have figures, my hospital doesn't do the billing anymore, its done at the main branch.. The business services department was outsourced to EDS to handle the billing and collecting. So I don't know what the percentages are. I know the hospital I currently work in lost money for 10 years straight before Baylor took over and my understanding is it is still losing money. The city my Hospital is in has two parts to it and a hospital in each of those parts. the one I work in is in the old part of town. Which would consist of the poorer side of town and yes that would include immigrants (legal or illegal). I do deal with the ER a lot and yes there is a lot of hispanics that come through there. I don't know, nor do we really have a way of knowing if they are legal or not. Other than what type of identification they had.

All hospitals have to take patients that are coming in for an emergency(that is decided by the ER Admitting personal), Irregardless if they can pay a dime or not. At first we took anybody prior to 2003. In January 2003 we change this policy due to ER losing money. The ER billing is done separate by HillRom. The new policy for non-emergency patients is that you have to either pay your co-pay or pay a Medical Examination Fee of $250. This would be soften down to if you can just pay something, $1,5,10 or whatever. If you can't pay then you are given a pamplet to shows you how to get to the nearest County Hospital.

During our sign up for benefits, we were lectured on the two biggest reasons for rise in Medical Insurance. One is obvious and that is going to the ER for non-emergency problems, such as earaches. you don't know how many mothers drag in their kid at 02:00 in the morning with an earache the kid has had for 4 days. Then the mother gets pissed because she can't pay here co-pay, thus she is turned away. you well notice on your insurance that there is a big defference in the co-pay for a doctor visit, compared to an ER visit. Thus the cost of admitting a patient is more expensive in the ER than going to your Family Doctor. The second problem is being charged for something that you did not use of receive. Example, you go to your doctor's office and get checked out. What you are getting checked out usually requires an X-Ray, so the nurse checks it off. but lets say the doctor decides you don't need it. The nurse doesn't know that you didn't do the X-Ray, thus the charge remains on your file. When you go to check out and pay your co-pay, you problem don't scrutinize the bill since you are only paying $5 or 10 co-pay. even though the X-Ray may only cost $100, you mutiply that by 10,000 of insuranced people and it adds up. Things like that happen all the time.

Medical Insurance is changing so that you actually pay for the full charge using your insurance card that is tied to a health savings account that you manage. So this would put the ball in your court to scrutinize your bill to conserve how much you have in your account.

[Frank_2001]

"In respect for the family, we're not giving out any information"
Well, that's a smart move-avoid further upsetting the hospital's future OWNERS! What a horrible story... I'm generally no fan of trial lawyers, but not in this case...I hope the family finds the meanest shark in town and wins BIG!

[stlnative]

I read this thread earlier, right after it was posted today, then my hubby brought home a few movies from the video store and the first one he plugged in was "Final Destination 2" (he knew nothing about this Dr's death or story behind it.) I stopped watching after they had scene in it of a lady in the movie being killed the same way this Dr. died and the 2 people who were inside the elevator (in the movie) freaked out also. It was horrible to read about and then see the same thing being played out in a movie on the same day. (too freaken weird and the movie what I saw of it was full of nothing but horrible deaths)

[weegee]

And after reading this, I'll not try to jump on and beat the closing doors of elevators ever again!

Good advice. I was in Cleveland on an elevator in a hotel. The doors were just about to close when an elderly arm came in to stop them from closing. It was Red Skelton. No harm but elevators aren't all the same.

[weegee]

I can't find a picture of "the hammer"...

[cherry]

"And then there are the evil ones who live to ripe old ages,"

oh, that is so true, it seems....

we just lost two farm boys who were killed in a freak silo accident, and while I don't wish death to any person (usually) I just had to wonder why its always the good farm kids who meet an early end....with so much trash running around with 10 earrings and no job and an attitude....

[Sir_Ed]

" You know, when a major corporation so grossly mistreats someone, or a bunch of someones, it DOES keep going around until it comes back to bite them. I promise you Circus-Circus won't be getting my business."

Thanks...we tell everyone we know what happened. I've never been treated so poorly by a corporation.

Ed

[CyberAnt]

Never put your body, your arms or your legs in between the doors of an elevator to force them open again. This is how this "accident" happens. I've heard of people sticking their arm between the doors thinking it would keep the doors from closing, and the person lost his arm.

Stupid move people - don't do it!!

[UncleDudley]

During our sign up for benefits, we were lectured on the two biggest reasons for rise in Medical Insurance.

I have read that insurance rates are going up to cover the cost of illegal aliens using the ER. Agreements between government, hospitals and insurance companies have led to increased rates to defray the unpaid ER costs.

Your post #166, is interesting, BTW.

[UncleDudley]

I don't mean they don't spend money. They don't spend it corrrectly.

IMO, This style of weak management is hurting the once good reputation of the medical services in general. There is a draught of good leadership in the USA. We are ruled by moral midgets at all levels. And hospitals are no exception.

[lorrainer]

Isn't this from The Shining?

Yes. I am sorry, but it's the first thing that came to mind.

[brianl703]

How many years out of date are the elevator inspection certificates?

[happygrl]

It is disturbingly appropriate.

I only saw that movie once, but the visuals left an indelible imprint on my mind as you can see.

[lorrainer]

I have seen it often, and the 2 little girls creep me out no end.

[Moonman62]

I also called the newspapers, but no one was interested. They said people get stuck in elevators all the time.

They would have been interested if someone died ( or you could have told them that the fireman who rescued you was a homo ). But if they do a story that could prevent somebody from dying, then they are ruining their chances for a future big story.