Insurer ‘Threatens’ Hospital
Daily Observer
We
have increasingly in the theater of the absurd, except the term might properly
be modified to the medical amphitheater of the absurd. The insurance company that carries the
liability insurance for the
The
patients lie in stretchers in the hall because there are not enough beds to
cater to the medical needs of the community.
Stretchers in the hall obviously are an infraction of hospital building
codes or at least of fire codes. Of
course they could put stretchers outside the building, but chances are that
they would catch another code.
If
the hospital loses its liability insurance, it will have to close its doors,
which would leave the area bereft of hospital facilities.
If
the hospital complies and removes beds from the hallways, it would have no beds
in which to place emergencies that are brought to the emergency rooms by the
rescue squads. The danger of illness and
accidents will thus be compounded.
The
hospital probably cannot close its emergency room and still retain its charter
as a hospital. It cannot build new beds
without a certificate of need from state agencies. If the hospital does close its emergency
room, doctors will be unable to care for their patients. Patients will have to shift for themselves to
find hospital accommodations unless some unified plan between hospitals in the
area is developed. The area hospitals
which managed to unite in order to sue the state to give them the per diem
rates they wanted have, so far, not been able, or perhaps not tried, to develop
a unifying plan that would enable the sick to find hospital accommodations in
one of the area hospitals. In this
modern age of instant communications and computerization, that incapability
seems odd, to say the least.
The
health system, therefore, must be repaired, or reconstituted to fill the needs
of the people. The thrust of legal
encumbrances that prohibit the construction of new hospital beds by
communities, such as Brick, is in reality an administrative dictatorship that
prevents communities from doing what they feel is best for them.
Worst
of all, of course, is that the federal and state regulations are so well hidden
from public view that we the people have little knowledge of what is happening
to us or why.
There
is a terrible fear amongst our leaders that we will waste money on our
health. I can’t think of a better thing
to waste it on.
There
is fear that there will be empty hospital beds.
That is certainly healthier than no hospital beds. And finally, there is fear…..