Atlanta Hospital in Grave Condition

[RedEarth]

Source: AP

ATLANTA (AP) - For generations, Grady Memorial Hospital has treated the poorest of the poor, victims of stabbings and shootings, and motorists grievously injured in Atlanta's murderous rush-hour traffic.

Now, Grady itself is in grave condition.

Staggering under a deficit projected at $55 million, the city's only public hospital could close at the end of the year, leaving Atlanta without a major trauma center and foisting thousands of poor people onto emergency rooms at other hospitals for their routine medical care.

"I don't have the words to describe the onslaught of health care needs that will hit the region if Grady were to close," said Dr. Katherine Heilpern, chief of emergency medicine at the Emory University medical school, which uses Grady as a teaching hospital and supplies many of its physicians. "This is a huge deal. We may literally have people's lives at stake if the Grady Health System fails and spirals down into financial insolvency."



Read more: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20071126/D8T5HBAO0.html

---

Single-Payer National Health Insurance
Single-payer national health insurance is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains largely private.

Currently, the U.S. health care system is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate. Despite spending more than twice as much as the rest of the industrialized nations ($7,129 per capita), the United States performs poorly in comparison on major health indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality and immunization rates. Moreover, the other advanced nations provide comprehensive coverage to their entire populations, while the U.S. leaves 46 million completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single_payer_resources.php

[Rydz777]

1. It will not be enough to bring more people into the health care

system. It is vital that the supply of medical personnel and facilities be increased to meet the increasing demand. That cannot be done overnight.

I hear the candidates talk about bringing more people into the system, but we also need to bring more suppliers into the system. I believe the now derided "Hillary-Care" of a decade ago addressed this problem. If it is not dealt with now, we will face a form of rationing of health care - evidenced by long waits to get appointments and crowded waiting rooms. Grady Hospital is the tip of an iceberg.

[Swede Atlanta]

4. This will be a major tragedy but not unexpected

I live in Atlanta. A loss of Grady will mean the loss of our only true trauma center for all manner of injuries and accidents. Many people deride it as the place we take gun-toting, drug-dealing criminals to be patched up only to be released to ride another day. But it is the place I would want to be taken in th event of a house fire, an auto accident, etc.

The entire nation's infrastructure is in bad enough shape. But it is especially critical in Atlanta. The sewer and water system is falling apart. Mayor Shirley Franklin is trying to remedy that problem. The water storage and conservation programs have failed us and failed to account for the uncontrolled growth. We can't build highways and schools fast enough for the population.

And now we are going to lose our primary trauma center.

Where have the politicians been? They have been playing fiddle as Rome burned.

[Sabriel]

2. How can a major urban area only have one trauma center?

That makes no sense.

How many people have to be trucked all the way across the city every day?

[allisonthegreat]

3. trust me they closed the burn/trauma unit

at the Medical University Hospital in Charleston, SC now burn patients go to Augusta. However they kept the level one trauma unit open for accidents, heart attacks, etc...go figure.

[knitter4democracy]

5. It happens.

Level Ones tend to have big expenses. If they don't build up their endowment, they go in the red pretty quickly. Cleveland lost their best charity-care hospital, a Level One trauma center, on the east side when we lived there. It was horrible, and it really stressed the rest of the hospitals in the city.

[BronxBoy]

6. How can a major urban area be on the brink of running out of water?

A lot of interesting things are happening in Atlanta right now.

[Donnachaidh]

11. try looking at all the McMansions in Atlanta

Did y'all hear about the guy in Cobb County who was using something like 40,000 gallons a MONTH in his *little* domicile? They were running sprinklers all night watering the DIVIDERS on some of the highways in Cobb County a little more than a month ago! And we have GOLF COURSES that get regularly watered, while the drinking water is running out!

We can't *do* anything other than hold prayer vigils for rain. :puke:

[BronxBoy]

20. A slight correction

400,000 gallons. Not 40,000

[ovidsen]

13. It's called drought

And it's one of those thing that humans have no control over. Atlanta has them once every 25 years or so, and while the city has built an admirable system of dams, lakes and reservoirs as buffers for dry spells, sometimes it's not enough. Plus, the city counts on tropical storms wandering norh from the Gulf after hitting Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandles as hurricanes. They're bad for coastal areas, of course. But by the time they hit the Atlanta area, they're just usually big soggy rainstorms that fill lakes and reservoirs to the brim. That hasn't hapened this fall. I'm no fan of hurricans flattening coastal areas, but we realy could have used the rain.

And there's Atlanta's staggering population growth. The resident actualy born in Atlanta is an endangered species. And too many people (locals and transplants) think the talk of the possibility of virtually NO water as "the sky is falling" kind of hyperbole that is best ignored. Not a day goes by when the Atlanta Journal Constitution pins the tail on some donkey home-owner who wastes thousands of gallons a DAY watering their lawns... blatantly ignoring the lawn watering ban that's been in place for months.

We got some rain today. Maybe a half an inch. But it's just a drop in the bucket. More rain and some serious water conservation laws with TEETH (jail would be nice) would alleviate, but not solve Atlanta's worst water crisis since the early 80s.

[BronxBoy]

19. Hey I live here too

So I know intimately what's going on. Yeah there's a drought but how does a major American city wake up one morning and "just" realize that it may run out of water in 2 months. That's a drought plus piss poor municipal management.
My point is that Atlanta is potentially breaking down on a number of fronts.

But the rain is nice though

[Donnachaidh]

10. Because you have so many FOR PROFIT hospitals in Atlanta area

They've slowly been pushing out any sort of medical service for poor people. Just like Atlanta writing laws to get rid of the homeless. Grady is a hospital that cuts into the profit margins of the larger hospital by providing free or low cost health care.

The vultures have been circling Grady for months. And it looks as if the present board has made some sort of deal with the vultures. They had a meeting tonight, in a room too small for all the people who wanted to attend. At least one person was arrested and handcuffed.

Want to see the future of American healthcare? Just watch the jackals bring down this hospital. It's happening as we speak.

[KatyaR]

15. Try this--the entire STATE of Oklahoma has one Level One trauma center,

in Oklahoma City, the OU Med Center. There was one in Tulsa (at St. Francis, I think), but it closed a few years ago.

But, of course, we're just a bunch of red neck conservatives, so who cares, right?

[libodem]

7. Ya know this is when I really get mad

that anyone had the nerve to put Dr Kevorkian, in jail. Letting a, Public Hospital, fold like this is just as good as saying go kill yourself. Fuck off and die, trauma victims. Who cares. Join the 120 vets a week who are committing suicide. No one in, cheneybush, gives, poor people dying, for lack of health care, a second thought. They got theirs, bend over, without a kiss, to the rest of you.

[goclark]

8. Sounds just like Los Angeles, they closed MLK

and Daniel Freeman and now there are ambulances lined up around the block to Centinela Hospital.

Brotman is near by in Culver City and it is in horrible condition. The nursing staff is a crime there.

There are really only two decent hospitals here--- Sinai and St. John's in Santa Monica.

[ovidsen]

9. Greed and selfishness

While Grady Memorial seerves the gravely injured from the more than a dozen counties that make up the Atlanta Metropolitian Area, only TWO counties (Fulton and DeKalb) provide funding for it. The rest of them treat Grady as a freebie. A place where they're more than happy to ship their serious accident victims, people gravely injured in traffic wrecks, or by guns, knives or fire... but when it comes to sharing the financial burden of running such an exceptional institution, these other counties (Cobb, Gwinett, Cherokee, Forsyth, Henry, etc.) contribute NOT A PENNY towards it's financial stability, even as they daily send hordes of severely injured and ill people to be treated there. Most of who do't have any money, much less health insurance.

Their selfishness and greed of these counties is beyond inexcusable. All Grady is asking from the so called "collar counties" is a financial committment proportionate to it's use by these deadbeat counties, and all they get is snickers

And Georgia state lawmakers, as is their tradition, just sit on their asses and say "problem?? What problem?? It's a local issue. Let the litle people take care of it".

It defines despicable.

[Donnachaidh]

12. Kennestone Hospital in Cobb County has been doing construction for TWO YEARS

That's right -- two YEARS. This hospital is the only trauma center in the area. They have so much money coming out of their *ss they don't know what to do with it all.

And Grady is a mess - because Cobb County can't kick anything in. :grr:

[DAMANgoldberg]

16. the same could be said for MARTA

all of the metro counties use the system, Fulton and Dekalb only pay for it (Cobb Community Transit, Gwinnett Trans, and Clayton Transit notwithstanding). There are plenty of nice hospitals in Metro Atlanta, but the problem is the state's medical college is not in Atlanta, so it can't have guaranteed funding, like UAB Medical Center in Birmingham (Level 1). Grady needs to be run by the state of Georgia because it would be a bad thing to expect Northside or Piedmont to handle their caseloads.

[surfermaw]

14. FDR safety nets are saving many hospitals all ove the US

If it wasn't for Social Security, you would see many more hospitals closing their doors...

[bitchkitty]

17. I am so very sorry to hear this.

Years ago I was run over by a car and brought to Grady with head injuries and severe facial fractures. I was a real mess, but the doctors at Grady did such a great job on me - thank God the head trauma caused no permanent damage, but the injuries to my face were so severe. They fixed me - I look nearly the same as I always did, and it's because of the surgeries they performed early on. They were awesome.

Grady was never the place to go for a head cold or a cut finger, you'd wait for hours and hours, and the staff were unbelievably rude. But for a life-threatening trauma, Grady was one of the best places in the nation.

Kudos to the staff at Grady and the people who've kept it going. I hope that somehow they can salvage it.

[MilesColtrane]

18. Republicans want "grave" conditions for all hospitals that care for the poor.

The more poor in the grave, the less spent on SS and Medicaid.

[KamaAina]

21. At least Charity (New Orleans) had the excuse of being hit by a hurricane

though they still could've done more to reopen it.

Now, five hundred miles to the northeast, we're seeing another major public hospital brought down for no external reason at all, just what Southerners would call "pure D greed". :grr:

[gorbal]

22. Thats scary!

But you know, hospitals are socialism so they all have to go. (sarcasm)