Great point on an area providing "basic medical care." What the community may be experiencing is a situation where DRMC tried everything it could to get over a medical services "hump" and couldn't quite get there. In its failed wake comes reduced hours for employees, etc.
The area is returning to the status of "basic medical care" - which, by the way, isn't a right but a privilege that should be cherished, appreciated and supported within limits of acceptable service on behalf of medical providers.
The KDH takeover, like it or not, guaranteed the DRMC reign is now permanent. No competition will enter the fray for an intra-city battle for medical supremacy. KDH is gone and gone is the competitive fire that makes leaders creative and more efficient. Employees have nowhere to turn should DRMC reduce hours or benefits - especially they're "of the Delta" and can't fathom any better place to call home.
It will be difficult to discern any winners if management changes because the changes will be brought by financial struggles and other maladies whether self-inflicted or not. Someone loses their job...the community sees its only hospital on a shaky foundation (especially with Medicaid reimbursements being scrutinized)...the hospital can only cut back on its services, thus making it anti-competitive with regional medical offerings and county leaders face prospects of using tax money to bail a bucket-full of red ink.
The taxpayer gets it no matter what. I must admit that some clouds have no silver lining.
L.R. is right about DRMC. There will be no winners... not locally anyway. Proprietary health care (privately owned) will boom in the 21st century, as health care costs explode. Public funding sources will quickly run dry and the private investor will be the last salvation of public health care as we know it.
Actually, it's a pretty safe investment. Given the declining health of most Americans, particularly in the South, I can only see the need for more and better health care facilities.
Health care won't be the first industry that turned to private investors for its survival... look at the auto and oil industries. If I had to bet on the security of my investment in one of these three industries, I would surely choose health care. Oil prices fluctuate as do auto sales in proportion, but when was the last time you heard someone predict that the need for, or cost of, health care would be declining.
As for DRMC's future, no one can be certain. As stewards of public funds, the administration must be held accountable and be responsive to the public's wishes. If the winds of change are truly blowing, lets hope they bring the needed changes to our faltering health care facilities.
Forthright
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Since it is the Board of Supervisors to keep check on the financial stability of the Hosptial we all need to ask your supervisor how the Hospital is doing carring the financial load that it carries.
How about asking the general public about the numerous charity programs, events, that the hospital is involved in? Hey John Q. Public, How about a positive note for once?
People talk about the service, bad and good, mostly they talk about the bad, that they receive at the hospital. Have you been to Wal Mart lately? Forget customer service, and mostly, plain courtesy.
People have bad experiences everywhere, but you don't hear about that on the web or in the paper every other day.
How many of yoy have gotten food from a fast food resturant lately, only to discover that your order was completely screwed up? Raise your hands, I know everyone has their hand raised. If you don't then you are telling an untruth!!! Compare this to the hospital, and your local burger joint would be in the paper 50 times per day.
People are biased, and most will never change their minds. No matter the good that is being done at DRMC.
Let's face it, if we want business and industry to come to our town, bring jobs, entertainment, etc, etc, don't you think that one of the first things they do is suscribe to the local paper, and then they see all of the negativity. They will NEVER bring their business to a town that cannot support its own. Why would they want to endure that?
KDH as we knew it is gone, get over it already! DRMC had always been, and still is, the most advanced, most critical place in the Delta for healthcare.
Why is not our fair mayor involved in supportng DRMC? Seems to me that would also be in her best interest, if the rumors about her future congressional plans are true. What better to have on your mayoral/congressional resume but the fact that your city built a state of the heart medical facility in one the poorest, most challenged regions in America.
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