SDA & Catholic Healthcare in Walla Walla

[Gregory Matthews]

If you would like to know more about the transfer of the SDA hospital in Walla Walla to a Roman Catholic organization see:

http://spectrummagazine.org/article/2017/04/21/hard-decision-and-ongoing-mission

The bottom line:  Health care in the NAD is changing.  As a denomination we will need to deal with its changing realities.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

The latest:

This hospital will not be sold.  It will be closed.  See:

https://atoday.org/adventist-health-to-close-walla-walla-general-hospital/

 

[debbym]

there is a move to repair the finances and restore the hospital, have no idea how they could dig up 61 million to balance the books...

[JoeMo]

This is indeed sad! Stories about the dismal financial condition of some SDA health facilities have circulated for a long time.

[Gregory Matthews]

I will not say that there have never been problems with SDA management.  But, there are major issues with health-care in general in the U.S.  The Federal government and sometimes the State government is deeply involved and sometime the situation is simply beyond the authority of the   hospital CEO to remedy.

*  Due to government control, a hospital will likely sustain a loss on some services and need other profit making services to make up for that other loss.  This  is due to government control of payments to be received by the hospital.

*  Outpatient clinics are cherry-picking profit-making services away from hospitals that need them to cover the services that operate at a loss.  I can cite an example of a SDA hospital that branched out into an underserved are.  Shortly before the new plant opened, another organization announced the soon-to-be-established out patient clinic that would be   expected to siphon off revenue from the soon to open hospital and therefore change the financial stability of that hospital.

*  In some places, if a hospital wishes to provide new services, such as MRI services, the hospital must obtain permission from the government.   That permission may be refused.  If so, a lo0calo hospital that has that service now has a lock on it.

*  In other places, government permission is not required.  The result may be, using the example of a MRI, there are more ability for MRI services that most of the hospitals will operate it at a  loss.

*  People may bring up the $5 aspirin  pill.  Well, that charge covers dispensing and record keeping.  In addition any profit goes to cover some other loss.

*  Most hospitals today are forced to document and charge for every individual item used for a specific patient, in order to be paid.  There is another way, if society would change.  The government hospital where I worked had flat charges for every service.   They saved a lot of money by not having to record and bill for every individual item.

 

 

 

[CoAspen]

Having been in the hospital world of business for over 30 years the above is true is some cases but the world of health care has been for a long time about profit. Nothing wrong with that. Its the free enterprise system that everyone thinks is the best 'American' way. That may be best for other types of business but I don't believe it is the best for health care. Management is a very big issue. I would suggest that there is a lot of poor management in healthcare, maybe more so than othertypes of business. What is the incentive for better management when tradionaly you had insurance and medicare funds comming in by the truckload. That is not happening any more. Insurance has tightened up it business and so has medicare. Hospitals vie for patient business by replicating expensive equipment of other hospitals, i.e., PET/CT scanners, which become underutilized due to less patients. This happens across the board in all areas. We have some hospitals in this area that would rival the swankious Hotel. Patients want that and will look for those hospitals because they have been falsely told it is the 'best'. Of course, they do want to pay for it and complain when insurance bills them for the difference. There are only so many patients and the competition for them becomes intense. Hospitals are reimbursed at a higher rate for many services than stand alone clinics. They are also buying into them as well. As I have mentioned before, the cancer clinics that I worked for was much better managed and delivered services at lower cost to patients that what they would get at a hospital. We were a 'for profit' business with those monies going back into clinics, management, physicians and staff. They are owned by a larger HC group that provided high level management and expansion funds. The emphasis was on efficiency and customer service. It worked very well. Healthcare is a business and the clinics were run  like one. There are corporations that do try to get into ancillary services and take business away from hospital, but they are often not run well and go out of business or become involved in fraud, medicare mismanagement, etc. Healthcare gets concentrated where the mony is. Here in Colorado, rural areas have next to none. People drive hours for a Dr or clinic in many cases. This is not unusual but pretty much par for the course in most rural areas across the country.

The public has been promised a 'golden' spoon when it comes to healthcare in  this country but with results that are not equal or less than other types of systems in other countries. We ask for and expect the absolute best equipped care, the absolute top Drs, facilities, equipment, etc for 'hang nail', 'runy nose', 'tummy ache' to the extreme. We expect someone else to take care of us, no self control in what we do, eat or anything else in our lives. Bottom line, we are quite selfish and whine a lot, a whole lot!!  "Show me the money" is where the state of HC is and will be. 

(off my soap box)

 

[Gregory Matthews]

The planned closure of the hospital is causing problems.  See:

https://atoday.org/closure-of-walla-walla-general-hospital-harms-medical-partners/

 

[debbym]

+it is staggering on many levels, patients at the clinics ...pediatrics, and internal medicine, neurology, orthopedics and more will be seeking medical care at others clinics and it will be very hard to obtain appointments.