Hellen Keller vs ECM - just for the record

If Keller had it their way, all hospitals would be the same shape!

Seriously though you see horror stories about ECM on here, but everyone I have spoken to who recently used ECM services, had only good experiences.

Seeweed, hope your wife is feeling better.

The odor in the waiting room at HKH is terrible. I feel dirty just sitting down in one of those chairs.

When you've given away the keys to the business to a "regional" hospital an hour away, that only sees you as a referral source for patients, this is what you can expect.

To add to discussion, in todays paper Huntsville Hospital took out a paid ad to tell or lie or try to brainwash the people of Lauderdale county that HH wants Lauderdale cty to have a strong hospital. HH also said in bold letters that HH is not a party to the Laud.-Keller discussion of a new hospital nor has HH participated in hearings related to it. Then it says that Laud. cty must follow the law to insure quality care for all citizens. I can remembe when HH was battleing the other hospital in Huntsville to build in madison and HH got caught giving misleading and dishonest information to the hospital decision board. To HH, the people of Laud. cty were not born yesterday. We know exactly how you have been involved behind the scene in trying to shut ECM down so Keller and HH can get more patients. We know that you run and manage Keller, we know you have invested millions of dollars in Keller, we know that you ship doctors to keller, we know that you have given millions of dollars of supplies and equipment to keller and we know that you have people at keller on your payroll as advisor and constanlt. We know why in the paper the other day that keller had quite a few medical proceuder that were lower in cost than shoals or ecm. We know that you give money, doctors fees and time and equipment and supplies to keller to keep their cost down in order to put shoals and ecm out of business. In todays paper it shows a picture of a med-flight helicopter flying over or to HH to say this is where patients should come. I thought med flight was paid for by the state not by HH. I did not realize that HH had that much control over med-flight. I now wonder if med-flight automaticly takes patients to HH rather than ecm. Shame on you med-flight for allowing this picture. I think I have lost confidence in med-flight to now do what is best for me instead of doing what HH wants. Todays paper also said the wait time at Keller isfrom door to triage is 5 minutes and door to provider (not doctor) is 22 minutes. Usually they show 0 time to triage and 5-10 minutes to provider, for some reason I just never thought those times were honest and correct.  And I actually expect in the first round for ecm to be denied the new  hospital because the person on the board who will have the greatest say on it lives in Muscle Shoals and has already said he will vote no on a new hospital replacement even before the application was filed. So just keep telling lies HH and Keller for it is falling on deaf ears.

Seems you got a beef with HH & Co. But why hold back?  Tell us how you really feel!

The three hospitals in our two counties and the Moulton hospital have been losing businesses for years.  Huntsville Hospital has stepped in with their "management contracts" in order to take control of the medical needs of virtually all of North Alabama without having to actually purchase Helen Keller, Moulton and the hospital in Decatur. 

Take control, spread your influence and corporate personality and not have to purchase those money eating hospitals.  But Huntsville gets benefits, including management fees, a lower cost of supplies and equipment by being the "regional giant" in healthcare.  And Huntsville Hosptal's investment has been a working capital loan to Helen Keller of just over $3 million--chicken feed.

If Helen Keller cannot improve financially and turn a profit, Huntsville Hospital can just walk away from the deal and not be liable for that money losing hospital.  What a great deal?

We badly need competition in healthcare, and we also need hospitals that are not losing money.  We're 140K+ in population, and large enough to have hospitals that are going to be fiscally sound and responsible to the community. Only a larger hospital like an ECM can provide the services we need and have the economy of scale to turn a profit.

Helen Keller is not large enough to ever be profitable as a hospital.  Their role should be limited to outpatient clinics and day surgery.    

Huntsville Hospital had its chance to purchase ECM  and Helen Keller hospitals.  For the life of me, why did the politicians of Colbert County chose to stay in the hospital business?  They could have walked away with $45 million and no future liabilities for the hospital.

Huntsville Hospital and Bethesda Cancer Clinic's huge corporate owner are just trying to blow smoke, minimize the size of the new hospital and keep ECM out of the cancer treatment business.

If I ever am in bad enough shape to be airlifted to a hospital, I just hope I'm conscious enough to tell the helicopter pilot to take me on the 48 minute ride to Vanderbilt Emergency Room, one of best emergency rooms in the World.  I really don't want to go to Huntsville for any healthcare.

I'm confused - I thought Huntsville Hospital bought out ECM with the promise to build a new , updated hospital, which as I understand it , Keller has fought tooth and nail. 
From your post, it appears that HH and ECM are dirrerent and HH is in "bed" with Keller.
Damm, I'm confused - please straighten me out somebody.

Seeweed - a group in Tn (regional care health partners) bought Ecm, not HH.  HH is in a 'strategic relationship' with Keller.

FLORENCE, AL (WAFF) - In less than 36 hours, a new ownership group will officially take over a Shoals area hospital.

It's a move that's expected to bring the Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital out of extensive debt. Don't expect to see a lot of major changes if you do head to Florence's ECM Hospital, but that doesn't mean people won't be busy behind the scenes.

When the clock strikes midnight on July 1st, Regionalcare Health Partners out of Brentwood Tennessee will officially become the new managing group of the hospital.

Officials say Coffee Health Group, the former board that oversaw the hospital's day to day operations, will stay intact to tie up a couple loose ends but will not be involved in any other way.

The group says a new board of directors is expected to be hired soon as well. The board will be made up of eight to ten people. Half of those appointed are expected to be citizens and the other half local physicians.

As part of the agreement signed in March with the hospital, Regionalcare Health Partners will pay off all of ECM's $140 million debt.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12730069

About Keller and HH-

I don't have a beef with HH. I just don't like to be lied to about what is going on. I don't like for one hospital (HH) to try to tell ECM what they can or can't do. I don't like it when HH and Keller gang up together to try and shut ecm down and lie and mislead people and say they are not doing anything to shut ecm down and they expect us to believe them.

One thing that I like about ECM is that when you are about to be discharged, billing will contact you and offer a discount if you pay right then, I have been to the hospital twice in the past year and my daughter has been once so the discount saved me $150.00 from what my co-pays were supposed to be.

James T , thanks for the clarification.. Guess I was totally off based on the project.

I was born at ECM, as was one of my granddaughters, and have always used ECM (usually the branch here in Muscle Shoals) whenever a hospital was needed. Never used Keller, and from the lesson learned , looks like I probably won't . I am assuming that Shoals Hospital is going to remain part of ECM ? 

Yes, thats my understanding of things.....

Keller should have sold themselves to Regionalcare when they had the chance. 

Shoals does the same thing with giving you a discount.  And they have for a number of years.  But the last time I went in the Spring, what I had to pay with the discount was far more than I should have per my BCBS statement and I was owed $55.  I was a pain in my rear to get my money back from them. 

My family has been in the hospital in Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham Atlanta and Muscle Shoals.

I can honestly say that the level of care that we have received at ECM simply cannot be beat.  My hat's off to the caring health professionals that work hard to do their jobs so well.  I hear Helen Keller's staff is the same.

And hopefully the level of care is going to remain the same, no matter who owns the hospitals.

HH and HKH are the two behind the debacle of the CON and their efforts to prevent Florence and Lauderdale county from replacing the outdated facility that is ECM.  HH knows that Regionalcare will not build a new hospital unless it is similar in size to the one that is currently in Florence.  ECM is licensed thru the state for about 375 beds, and they voluntarily gave up about 75 of those beds in the new application to REPLACE the current facility.  That however is not ebough for HH nor HKH.  They do not want any competition, and they kow if RegionalCare does not build a hospital, they will sell off the facility, HH can step in and buy the last remaining piece of the puzzle for their takeover of healthcare in northern Alabama.  look around and see that they manage or own almost every hospital north of Cullman. 

The CON board is ruse, polictally motivated and bought by the highest bidder. He with the most lawyers wins.  If the people of Lauderdale county , and the elected officials petition the governor to step in, prerhaps the $250M investment in our community can be saved.  Spite and jeaplousy are the two things that I see most coming from this issue.  No hospital is perfect, BUT if HKH and HH are so convinced that RegionalCare cannot make a 300 bed hospital work , then why should they care, it is not their money? Under the current guidelines that HH and HKH want this hospital replaced, if a major disater happened and HKH was destroyed, then they would only be allowed to replace their facility with one of 8 beds....now does that seem like a justifiable rule?

Originally Posted by seeweed:

It’s hard to straighten out a person who expects the government to take care of their every little need.

t, if the 375 beds ECM has at present and a average occupancy of 150 on the average is not a present threat to HK,  how could a 300 bed hospital be a threat?

QD,

They are not a threat. That is my point.  Why should a county be forced to give up over 100 beds which have been in place here for over 80 years?  This is an attempt to make the project die.  HH can then swoop in and buy HKH and ECM for almost nothing.  Turn them into a doc-in-the-box and refer all surgery and large cases to the main campus. I have seen and heard of people in this area currently being funnelled to HH for procedures that are done here in the community.  They are ebing told they "are not offered", and then sent 45 minutes to an hour away for these things not knowing they could have them done in their own community. Recently, I saw a lady whose life was saved when she had a life threatening emergency and would have probably died on the way to another facility had there not been a cardiothoracic surgeon available to save her life.

I don't want these services to be lost to the community.  It might be you, or me, or one of my family members one day who needs this and 45 minutes might be the deciding factor that keeps us alive.

Under the rules that HKH / HH want to enforce, if the HKH campus was destroyed in an accident or act of nature, they could not replace it.  The only thing that RC wants to do is to replace their hospital with something akin to the one they purchased.  Is that too much to ask?

And do not be deceived by the average occupancy. I have seen days when all beds are full.  Also remember that the total bed count will include ICU, CCU, pediatirc, and med0surg beds.  Only a fraction of those are the standard infirmary beds.  HKH's occupancy rates are no better, but remeber this is because most insurance companies really try to make sure the patients are in and out as wuick as possible.  A hopsital will lose money on long term care.  Their reimbursment is based upon DRGs and you get paid the same thing per diagnosis, not the number of days you were there.

___

Cheap shot, Jobe--full of ASSumptions and rude to boot.  seeweed was honestly seeking information.

I know of the following options for non-ER medical care on the weekend:

ExpressMed on CoxCreek is open Sat

MedPlus (at the mall) in Florence is open Sat & Sun

MedPlus on Avalon is open on Sat & Sun

There may be others as well.

I have always wondered why people who have been sick for a while suddenly decide that on Sat they need to see a doctor.

I have been at ER's for actually emergencies with whole families have a picnic while 'grandma' is having that thing looked at that has been on her back for three months.

Seriously?  Since when is going to an ER a family reunion?

My advice.  If you are sick, go to your own physician when you first get sick, then follow Logical's advice and go to a  non-ER type facility on weekends and nights. Not only are they much cheaper, with a shorter wait time, but that heart attack victim won't have to wait while someones has their 'bump' looked at.

Crumb,

You nailed it.  About 75% of emergency room care is not an emergency. however, Medicare and Medicaid, and most insurances, will drop any deductible you have "in an emergency".  People think they can go to the ER and it will be billed as emergent care, and they can forego the deductible.  There have been studies done that show that this type of utilization is changed when the payment feature is mended.

Also, Medicaid does not pay for OTC meds, so if you go to the ER and get a script for cough medicine in the middle of the night, it saves you the $6 you could have spent to buy a bottle of generic Robitussin at Walmart. I have seen it enough to know it is the fact. Spent a late night (2 am) seeing three small children brought in a by a mother (who did not work) one time while doing a stint in the ER.  They were brought in for sniffles and a dry cough, which they had for "over a week".  Mom had to go outside to smoke while we were seeing the  patients. When asked why she came in at 2 am, she said she had been watching a movie. Told her that they could take RobitussinDM every 4-6 hours, and she refused.  Wanted a script for each of them to get a bottle of prescrition cough syrup because Medicaid did not pay for OTC cough syrup.

This is the type of mentality that dirves up the cost to the taxpayer.

The slightly obese man who has some degenerative joint disease who wants you to write him a recommendation for a power wheelchair because he can get one for free if he has it. Or the lady who wants the sit-down bathtub because it will make it easier to have access.

We are a country who feels entitled. We are bombarded with commercials on TV telling us that we can get it "at no cost to you",   But it does cost something, and it is paid for with government money.

Well Tey, I agree 100% about the medical supplies like the power wheel chairs, etc. We can thank Ronald Reagan for the advertising and lifting the ban of lawyers, doctors, pharmaceutical companies,  and hospitals advertising their weirs. A personal observation, is that that is what started the steep incline in prices for medical service. When I was in college mid sixties, the cost of a doctor visit was $7.00.  Inflation calculator puts that at $50 today . From my experience, the usual billing is double that.

Logical, I called Med Plus on Avalon, they were apparently closed. Did not call any across the Tn Ocean. Wife had been to her regular doctor who had given her Levaquin (sp) and a albutrial (sp) inhaler, but after 5 days, she continued to get worse ( we all know you need to give meds a chance for a few days), Come Sat evening she could hardly breathe, so that's why the ER. I try to avoid the ER like a plague  for a number of reasons that have been discussed on here.

However, the primary subject at hand was Helen Keller vs ECM, and due to the recent news about how Keller, along with Huntsville Hospital, is working to prevent us from having a first class hospital and cancer treatment center, I would rather go to Corinth than Keller.

Now, it's about principal !!!!!!

Yes, I apologize for steering us up a tributary. You are correct, the real issue here is that people of of this community need to rally around this venture. UNA's assessment that it would contribute up to $1B into the community is nothing to sneeze at, and I think they are correct. Most people I have talked to believe this is one of the best opportunities to come to this area in decades, and we do not want to let it slip away.  If Governor (Dr.) Bentley is truly serious about creating jobs and growth in Alabama, there is no way the CON board can justify not allowing this project to take place. It is wrong and unfair to expect a 375 bed hospital to be replaced by a 200 bed facility in a community which has not shown a simalr proportionate decrease in population.

I agree, we should all come together to support it. I don't know the process, but if that governor of ours has a hand in it, that is a frightening prospect. My bet is he will want to support Huntsville Hospital.

Colbert Co Hospital was named Helen Keller Hospital to honor that lady, but she is a cousin of mine, and I am truly distressed that people using her name are attempting to bring down the level of health care to the lowest common denominator and that is them.