Well last week was a lot of fun. I had a great opportunity to travel to Washington DC and meet with all the Arkansas Congressmen. I traveled there with Arkansas Surgical Hospital to talk about the Health Care Reform Bill and ways to improve it. The target objective was to have act 6001 repealed from law. This act severely limits the growth of all physician owned hospitals. In fact if your hospital was primarily physician owned and not built with all its medical licenses by the time this bill was passed you can no longer open your hospital.
Although any physician owned hospitals that were built by this deadline can continue to operate they can no longer add operating rooms or patient beds. Keeping a business from being able to grow only leaves one direction for them to go, down. Our group took that trip in to hopes of having that act repealed and being able to run this hospital like any other, with the freedom to grow and expand to meet new demands.
As far as we can tell there was no real justification for this act to be passed. Arkansas Surgical Hospital is in the top 1% in the nation for overall surgical care, orthopedic surgery, and in patient safety. They have also received the Patient Satisfaction Award for Overall Hospital Care in 2011. This all adds up to being one of the best hospitals in its field of care. When presented with this information most of the Congressmen were flabbergasted.
It is my firm belief that restricting who can own a business when they have done nothing to suggest dangerous behavior is a clear violation of the United States Constitution. My hope is that the men and women we have placed in control will recognize their mistake and take quick action to correct it.
Dear Matty,
ReplyDeleteOne of my friend’s mom works at a hospital like this. I have multiple family members who have been treated there and I could not be more impressed with the treatment and care. I feel like it is much more interactive between the patient and doctor. This is an incredibly interesting post.
I know this is random but the fact that you got to go to D.C. for free and left me here...that is what stood out to me. I am not bitter or anything(: but you should have stuck me in your backpack! Being in D.C. when this incredibly interesting act was being discussed must have been awesome. Also going to the White House seems pretty darn legit.
I really think the act should be repealed. I think physician-owned hospitals add a level of personal relationship and intimacy that other places just do not have. I cannot believe that anyone would want to stunt their growth like that. That’s stupid.
Once again I go to your blog just to keep up on all of your incredibly interesting posts! This was a topic I was unaware was happening. Keep up the good work kid.
-Galago
Dear Writer,
ReplyDeleteWOW! What a huge privilege & such a memorable experience! Thank you so for doing what you did, & I hope it made a difference & left a statement in some of those Congress men & woman's minds.
"Although any physician owned hospitals that were built by this deadline can continue to operate they can no longer add operating rooms or patient bed" This sounds absolutely ridiculous to me! LIke you said, there is only one place for them to go...& that IS down! It's disappointing to hear though because we NEED hospitals & are always going to NEED hospitals. There will never be a time in our lives where we don't NEED them!
"As far as we can tell there was no real justification for this act to be passed". I hope that this is true, because I would hate to see our hospitals start to just diminish away. That's the last thing we need is to loose our hospitals & all their wonderful doctors. What would happen if this shut down hospitals every where? THey are already scarce number of them, especially in rural areas & this would just make it even worse!
THank you for this post, & sharing your experience with us! I'd be interesting in hearing how it all turns out! Thanks for sharing!
Rhino