ER doctors condemn University of Chicago plan to divert patients

U of C may end up closing, as have Michael Reese and St. Francis of Blue Island, As inner city hospitals, they must treat far more indigents, violence victims, addicts, and people that should instead go to a doctor's office rather than the emergency room. Hospitals treating many indigents and patients that don't pay must get State medicaid reimbursements or go broke. Currently, the state is paying too little, and too late.

Ever notice those TV ads touting U of C hospitals? They are trying to attract insured patients that can pay, to subsidize the many indigents they cannot turn away.

So stop the liberal p.c.attacks. Such words didn't save Michael Reese or St. Francis of Blue Island. Do we now want to lose U of C hospital too?

How about the details of Michelle's involvement. The Trib covered this months ago in one article in the business section. Since then silence. The rest of the msm has not covered this story at all. Why? I bet if Palin was an important player in a program to dump uninsured patients we would have heard about it. Endlessly!

We don't need to look any further than this story to understand why newspapers, like the Trib, are failing. They provide only the politically correct and managed news they think we should get. Propaganda in other words. To the credit of the American people they are increasingly aware of the msm's utter cowardly failure to provide objective, unpoliticized news and to let the chips fall where they may. I wonder if Obama would be in the WH now if this story had gotten the coverage it deserved. Even today the NYT, WP, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, the networks are ignoring this story.

What has happened to our free, crusading press?

Hopium Dopium

Atlas shrugged 1/20/09

What isn't mentioned in this article is whether or not the Adams family had health insurance?

U of C is patient dumping - I am personally aware of a young girl being refused transfer to that hospital because their "Transfer Service" plainly stated they did'nt accept the girl's insurance she was subsequently transferred to Stroger.

They have their ER doctors tell you they can't accept transfers because you need to talk to their "Transfer Service". The service asks for insurance information and then they get back to you more often than not refusing the transfer for one reason or another.
The University of Chicago elitist snobs expect that everyone is willing to pretend knowing a persons insurance status does not
change their transfer acceptance. Someone should go to their transfer service and check the acceptance rate of well insured patients vs medicaid and uninsured.

Is it because of greed or are they fighting for their economic survival. The answer lies in comparing their economic status to other hospitals and the answer is most likely they're trying to maintain their current economic status which is a lot better than other area hospitals who are actually fighting for mere survival. Many hospitals have closed up across the nation so something has to be changed. There are subsets of the population that is causing the rest of American healthcare to suffer a HUGE cost which can be dealt with..

Why doesn't the U of C create its own 24 hour urgent care clinic adjacent to the ED thereby meeting an obvious community need while keeping its ED from getting bogged down?

This was one of Michelle Obama's initiatives for her $380,000 per year at U of C Hospital.

Can someone answer this...... I was told Michelle Obama spearheaded this move to no longer admit the patients. Is this true?

Nobody is commenting, because we all are afraid of losing our jobs.

We were told (at the U of C) that if a pt. has medicaid or no insurance, we are not to give them a clinic appointment. We also were told that the ER was telling these pts. to go to County.

Of course all of these doctors are willing to take a 40% pay cut to make up the funding.

What the UofC hospital doesn't mention is that they get paid to be a teaching hospital by the government. These medical education payments are meant to cover those, "higher costs". Why didn't Comer Children's hospital take care of the boy??

Jane Doe wrote:

We were told (at the U of C) that if a pt. has medicaid or no insurance, we are not to give them a clinic appointment. We also were told that the ER was telling these pts. to go to County.

People need to realize that hospitals are a business, NOT A CHARITY. Cook County is the hospital where the uninsured can get care for free. Other hospitals are not obligated to treat the uninsured. It's time to realize that businesses cannot make money if they are not paid.

Maxine wrote:

How about the details of Michelle's involvement. The Trib covered this months ago in one article in the business section. Since then silence. The rest of the msm has not covered this story at all. Why? I bet if Palin was an important player in a program to dump uninsured patients we would have heard about it. Endlessly!
We don't need to look any further than this story to understand why newspapers, like the Trib, are failing. They provide only the politically correct and managed news they think we should get. Propaganda in other words. To the credit of the American people they are increasingly aware of the msm's utter cowardly failure to provide objective, unpoliticized news and to let the chips fall where they may. I wonder if Obama would be in the WH now if this story had gotten the coverage it deserved. Even today the NYT, WP, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, the networks are ignoring this story.
What has happened to our free, crusading press?
Hopium Dopium
Atlas shrugged 1/20/09

I agree entirely the Chicago Tribune is complicit with the shameless rancid politital and relative worsning economic state for the people of Chicago and Illinois.

The only thing I'm proud of recently about Chicago is Rick Santelli.

Obama is a pretender and thinks more government is the solution when in fact it's the cause of the American downturn. Every man woman and child is $35,000 in debt (that's only the federal debt).

This hospital SUCKS

Edd wrote:

What isn't mentioned in this article is whether or not the Adams family had health insurance?

They didn't have any insurance, per an earlier story. The UofC did the right thing. The doctors stabillized the situation and told them to go to the appropriate place for ongoing care. The mother was upset that she waited so long in the emergency room, but that just made me shake my head. Of course she waited in the emergency room. She's in the medical field. How is it she thought she'd just walk in and get treated? Emergency rooms treat the sickest first. I'd be shoked if a dog bite was the most pressing emergency in that hospital at any given time.

Reality Check wrote:

<quoted text>
People need to realize that hospitals are a business, NOT A CHARITY. Cook County is the hospital where the uninsured can get care for free. Other hospitals are not obligated to treat the uninsured. It's time to realize that businesses cannot make money if they are not paid.

Actually, other hospitals ARE obligated, under law, to treat ANYONE who comes into the Emergency Room.

Julia Lee wrote:

Why doesn't the U of C create its own 24 hour urgent care clinic adjacent to the ED thereby meeting an obvious community need while keeping its ED from getting bogged down?

This is EXACTLY what needs to happen. The ER is a place for real emergencies and as such, needs to be staffed and stocked for everything...that gets expensive. Kind of like going to a five star restaurant for a cheeseburger. It'll be good, but you could've gotten the same thing elsewhere for much less money.
An emergency room is NOT an after-hours clinic for those without a doctor or insurance. There is a need for this kind of thing (urgent care centers associated with hospitals), but since not many exist, the ER is the default position. Patient dumping has been a real problem in the past and the U. of C's move should be watched carefully, but the idea behind it is valid and is not on its face, illegal.

KAG wrote:

U of C may end up closing, as have Michael Reese and St. Francis of Blue Island, As inner city hospitals, they must treat far more indigents, violence victims, addicts, and people that should instead go to a doctor's office rather than the emergency room. Hospitals treating many indigents and patients that don't pay must get State medicaid reimbursements or go broke. Currently, the state is paying too little, and too late.
Ever notice those TV ads touting U of C hospitals? They are trying to attract insured patients that can pay, to subsidize the many indigents they cannot turn away.
So stop the liberal p.c.attacks. Such words didn't save Michael Reese or St. Francis of Blue Island. Do we now want to lose U of C hospital too?

Violence victims usually have little control over their situation, and thus cannot guarantee they will be able to limit their victimization to normal business hours. The problem is, indeed, that poor, uninsured people use emergency services when that is not appropriate but a more comprehensive solution to the problem -- like Universal Healthcare -- is needed. The system currently in place is prone to abuse from both the patient and the hospital ends.

Minuteman wrote:

<quoted text> Actually, other hospitals ARE obligated, under law, to treat ANYONE who comes into the Emergency Room.

You are correct. This means stabilizing the situation and transferring the patient to the appropriate hospital if after-care is necessary. It doesn't mean providing ongoing in-patient or out-patient care. There's a big difference between providing emergency care and ongoing care.

One of the biggest problems hospitals have now is too many uninsured people use the emergency room as their health clinic. They show up for every sniffle and demand a specialist. Emergency care is provided for the sickest patients, not for those with the flu. Most people don't understand this.

According to the story last week about Adams, the boy with the dog bite, he did have insurance coverage. However, I suspect that it was the state coverage for children who would be otherwise uninsured. The state is so slow in paying the medical bills that providers would rather dump these kids on Stroger than care for them at U of C.