The state continues with its effort to build a brand new charity
hospital in New Orleans to replace the in-the-breach interim facility just west
of the building site. This new facility has faced
criticism over its size in a market already above the national average in beds
per thousand population (about 10 percent higher at 3) and consequent cost. Yet
simultaneously the city is building a facility in New Orleans East around the
site of the old Methodist Hospital, to be operated by a nonprofit religious
organization but governed and funded through the Orleans
Parish Hospital Service District A, a state-created entity but a component
of New Orleans.
The legal
structure of this district intends to operate a hospital as an enterprise,
without use of taxpayer funds other than a city payment to run it. To date, its
funding has come from grants or in-kind contributions and revenues from opening
an urgent care clinic. But the intent is for the creation of a full-service
hospital even though it would create even more beds in the New Orleans metropolitan
area and with 80 beds ridiculously over-bed New Orleans East at about 10 per
thousand. The compelling argument, claims the city, is that no emergency
services presently cover in the area without having to go over a major patch of
water – six traffic spans to the west to other New Orleans/Jefferson hospitals,
two east to the Slidell area, and one south to St. Bernard. Thus, potential
bottlenecks exist that could cost lives in an emergency situation.
In reality, this kind of situation is not one that is considered an
absolutely intolerable hazard. In south Bossier City, for example, only the
two-lane Jimmie Davis Bridge connects that area to south Shreveport and two
hospitals not far away. If the bridge is blocked, even with sirens screaming
and swerving driving it will take an ambulance at least 15 minutes to weave
through street traffic to north Bossier or to go over the more northern Shreveport-Barksdale
Highway Bridge and then head south or further west to get to a hospital. Yet
this is not considered to be an unconscionable threat to life. In New Orleans
East, with realistic seven options west and south, even at high-trafficked
times of day enough exist for successful emergency rides with odds hardly worse
if at all than heading to Read Blvd. on or off I-10.
Nor does that reasoning require establishment of a full-service
hospital. Setting up an emergency room with some satellite beds does not
require the full infrastructure planned. Admittedly, more beds are better than
less, but the problem comes in paying for them. The city will issue debt to pay
for the $130
million worth of construction, which then becomes taxpayers’ responsibility
along with the management fee. Moreover, given the over-bedded nature of the
market, with more to appear soon with the building of the new Big Charity, it’s
quite questionable whether the hospital can operate in a way that would make it
worthwhile for a contractor to make money without the city raising its
incentive.
So politics more than genuine need explain why the city has plunged
forward with the plan in its present form. Mayor Mitch Landrieu has made a major
effort to getting the facility as planned in order to curry favor among mainly
black political elites and residents in the area, given the heavy concentration
of blacks living there – an important consideration as a white mayor in a
majority-black city. Also, as the state continues to reshape its public
hospital system into a more efficient model with greater non-government
involvement that should reduce those kinds of beds, Landrieu with future political
ambitions in mind can claim he is doing the opposite and expanding public beds,
hoping enough of the voting public buys the facile argument that these truly
are needed without considering the costs to taxpayers. Already his surrogates
are taking veiled jabs at the state’s strategy.
4 comments:
More important than the matters you write of is the question of where is the Governor today, as his truly draconian cuts to public healthcare are being pushed through the rubber-stamp LSU Board of Supervisors and presented to the joint legislative oversight committee????????????????????
WAFB reports that he is not around because he in on the way to Colorado to campaign for some local official!!!!!
What? Huh?
Does he really have the job he wants?
Is he continuing to take his salary as a public servant of the State as he continuously travels to other states to conduct business that has nothing to do with Louisiana? and, while vital discussions of truly watershed changes of his doing are being discussed and considered?
Can somebody please explain this?
Where is Bobby today?
Is he in Iowa?
Is he in Florida?
Is he in New Hampshire?
Is he in Colorado?
Is he somewhere else he hasn't told us about yet?
Call his office, and ask them, you say. Try it; they won't tell you. It's a secret.
You think he works for us? Nope!
You think he's got the job he wants and spends all of his time working on it? Double nope.
Just watch him. Don't listen to what he says. WATCH WHAT HE DOES!!!!! IF YOU CAN FIND HIM.
According to the Advocate this morning, The Bobby was in Florida yesterday, undoubtedly attending to Louisiana state business.
Thank you, Governor, for continuing to take of our business in all of the other states of this nation, and at our cost.
As to the above comments, how can a public official continue to travel and be absent from the state week after week campaigning for some one in another state or for or against an issue in another state, and continue to be paid his salary and to draw his other benefits, especially retirement?
Isn't this at least unethical? Or possibly some type of fraud?
Can any other state public official or employee do this?
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