Critical Access Hospital: Benefit to Sutter Health and Impact on Us
As a retired employee of
Sutter Coast Hospital (SCH), I would like to share my thoughts on the
SCH Board of Director's decision to downsize SCH to a "Critical Access"
hospital.
My husband and I know from
personal experience the burdens, both financial and personal, that a
family suffers when a loved one has to be transferred to a hospital in
another city to receive their care. Not only are there ground and air
ambulance fees, but no insurance pays for a family to travel to the
hospital of transfer, nor do they cover the cost of lodging for the
patient's family or the cost of the return trip home.
Our local SCH Board decided
to downsize our local hospital from 49 beds to 25 beds to qualify for
higher Medicare payments. It is not possible to know exactly how many
patients will need to be flown out for the lack of beds or lack of
hospital staff, but here is something that both Sutter Health and our
community agree on:
If Sutter downsizes
the hospital, more of our local residents and visitors will require an
emergency air flight to another hospital. In other words, both sides
agree it will be ugly; the only question is, how ugly?
Besides the huge cost,
transferring people to other hospitals is harmful because it often means
family and friends cannot be with their loved ones when they are
hospitalized. Separating patients from their family and friends is
harmful to the healing process. Keeping family and friends together is
very comforting for the patient, family, and the hospital staff, and
helps ensure the patient receives his or her usual medications.
Here is a final
point of agreement between our community and Sutter: Critical Access
will bring more money to Sutter Health. But the money does not stay in
the community. Every two weeks, Sutter Health removes all of
the "excess cash" from the hospital and transfers it to the "Sutter
Health Treasury," where the money becomes the property of Sutter
Health. No wonder Sutter Health wants to downsize us to Critical
Access. But what does that say about priorities?
Sutter Health is a tax
exempt charity. On paper, they are required to act in the public
interest. But in reality, Sutter's high charges for care and
skyrocketing executive salaries are benefitting Sutter executives, not
the public. We can stop Sutter's plans for us, and bring their actions
to light. But only if we speak up, and work together. Please share
your thoughts with Dr. Duncan.
Marcy Bohannon
Crescent City
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