St Francis BA to close

[sgrizzle]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory.asp?ID=070223_Ne_A9_Repor63942

ST Francis BA location will close, move operations to the facility currently known as the heart hospital at 91st & 169.

[NellieBly]

My father in law was flown to St. Francis heart hospital two weeks ago after suffering a heart attack and the facility and care were very good. It's a shame it will be incorporated back into the pink hospital. We did not have to compete with gunshot wounds, scraped knees or other emergencies in the emergency room.

The only problem I had was while we were waiting to hear something about his condition, the Barney Fife security guard came into the waiting room and filled my husband in on his father's condition. I wanted to know where his medical degree was from. They won't let him carry a gun, but it is okay for him to address family members about the condition of their loved one. I didn't think the new privacy laws would allow such a thing. It really irked me.

[sgrizzle]

Seems like that violated all sorts of rules, both hipaa and moral...

[Porky]

I live in BA and I think it's a good thing. Where the BA Hospital is now can be turned into more health clinics and etc and the new hospital doesn't take that much more time to get to.

BA's a growing, just wish Tulsa could in the same fashion.

[MichaelC]

Ok.  Seriously.

From Tulsa World

quote: Tulsa and Broken Arrow are in talks to swap a small parcel of land near 91st Street and U.S. 169 to ensure that the new St. Francis hospital remains within the Broken Arrow city limits, officials said Wednesday.

"The Broken Arrow and Tulsa city governments are trying to engineer a land swap," said Tom Neff, strategic planner for St. Francis Health System.

The new hospital site is just 300 yards within the Tulsa city limits, he said. Garnett Road is the dividing line between the two cities in that area.

Talks are under way, but no decision has been made, officials said.

Some Broken Arrow residents are upset that St. Francis decided to move its BA hospital to Tulsa, said Broken Arrow Mayor Richard Carter.

"If it's a business decision, we can deal with that. I think it's the symbolic part that bothers most folks," he said.

The facility in Broken Arrow, 3000 S. Elm Place, will become an urgent care center, St. Francis officials said. It also will offer clinical laboratory services, as well as physical, speech and occupational therapy.

Carter said St. Francis officials had suggested the potential land swap "to soothe some people's feelings" about losing the city's hospital.

"We wanted to show we're committed to Broken Arrow," said Joe Neely, senior vice president of administration for St. Francis Health System and current administrator of the Broken Arrow hospital.

"Every community wants to be able to attach itself to a good school system or a good hospital. We're trying to be good stewards of the area," he said.

Carter said a land swap might take time since both city councils would need to approve the deal.

Because St. Francis Health System is a nonprofit organization, the city of Broken Arrow would not benefit from either sales tax or property tax proceeds, he said.

"It wouldn't necessarily be a financial boon for Broken Arrow. But maybe we could at least say we have a hospital," Carter said.

He said he was disappointed the city is losing a full-service hospital, but acknowledged that the approximate 3-mile move is not too bad.

"Three miles translates to about 10 minutes' drive time. In real terms, it's not that far," he said. "I'd really, really hate it if (the current building) was just going to sit empty."

So, Saint Francis is moving out of BA, THEN, is going ask Tulsa to exchange land with Broken Arrow so that a hospital currently in Tulsa would be in BA city limits.  Why?  Because

quote:"Every community wants to be able to attach itself to a good school system or a good hospital. We're trying to be good stewards of the area,"

The point being that it's somehow important that there be a "feeling" that Broken Arrow "has" a hospital.  I don't get it.  Somehow they're being "good stewards" by having Tulsa and Broken Arrow exchange land.  Because "By God, who in their right mind would ever live Broken Arrow, if it didn't have a hospital!"  Simply bizarre.

[MichaelC]

quote: A 40-acre parcel that has been proposed in a land swap between Tulsa and Broken Arrow is owned by the Warren Foundation, which owns St. Francis Health System.

St. Francis Health System announced plans Wednesday to move its Broken Arrow hospital to the St. Francis Heart Hospital location at 91st Street and U.S. 169 by early next year.

"It was an idea that St. Francis proposed to help citizens here feel that the hospital is still in their community," Broken Arrow Mayor Richard Carter said.

More at Tulsa World

[Conan71]

Anyone care to explain how the overhead of all these specialty hospitals is supposed to lower healthcare costs?  It was just about 10 to 12 years ago all these hospitals were whining about going broke.  Yet soon after, all these new facilities were going up everywhere like someone had sprinkled medical building seeds.

Any Jethro Bodean can figure that overhead and therefore medical costs go up when you have multiple satellite facilities to maintain.

[YoungTulsan]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Anyone care to explain how the overhead of all these specialty hospitals is supposed to lower healthcare costs?  It was just about 10 to 12 years ago all these hospitals were whining about going broke.  Yet soon after, all these new facilities were going up everywhere like someone had sprinkled medical building seeds.

Any Jethro Bodean can figure that overhead and therefore medical costs go up when you have multiple satellite facilities to maintain.

I think the medical industry is exploding to out of hand proportions, largely built on promises of even increased demand years down the line with baby boomers aging, people living more unhealthy in general, etc.  That promise of a health care era like none other still to come, combined with out of control debt lending, has constructed all of these facilities IMO.

Construction in general, due to ever increasing materials costs and profit margins for builders, is just a mad dash to build as much as can be built as soon as possible.  As expensive as building something is now, it would be worse later, and I think businesses factor this into their strategy and end up building more than they need too soon.

[YoungTulsan]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Anyone care to explain how the overhead of all these specialty hospitals is supposed to lower healthcare costs?

Oh I forget the best part.  The goal isn't to lower health care costs and it never will be.

And the government doesn't really seem to want to address the root issue of the problem, which is  Why we are spending so much money on health care?   Instead of encouraging the prevention of health issues, our only solution is to say "hey, lets pay for those ridiculous costs with taxpayer money".

[unknown]

quote:Originally posted by YoungTulsan

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Anyone care to explain how the overhead of all these specialty hospitals is supposed to lower healthcare costs?

Oh I forget the best part.  The goal isn't to lower health care costs and it never will be.

And the government doesn't really seem to want to address the root issue of the problem, which is  Why we are spending so much money on health care?   Instead of encouraging the prevention of health issues, our only solution is to say "hey, lets pay for those ridiculous costs with taxpayer money".

we are paying so much for healthcare because of people who are uninsured or underinsured... the hospital has to eat the charges and has to raise prices to stay afloat.