Quote:
Originally Posted by Mack184
Actually...take a trip in most major city ERs and you will find that a 36 hour wait is not the least bit uncommon. Most hospital ERs are WAY overburdened by things that are NOT the definition of a TRUE emergency. I hate to say it..but while a kidney stone hurts like fire it is NOT a TRUE emergency. Things like emergent strokes, MIs, gunshots, severe trauma and babies popping out trump a kidney stone every single time.
As far as complaining to hospital management, especially TVRHs hospital management, you would be better off to direct your complaints to the POTUS. Why? Because at his lawful direction in 2010 he required Medicare to REDUCE the amount of payment to hospitals and doctors. Those reimbursements will drop once more with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act on 1/1/2014.
There is currently an active thread here on TOTV griping about the cost of greens fees and other fees within TV..and how things cost more than they used to. Virtually EVERYTHING costs more than it used to. A gallon of milk, a gallon of gas, a can of beans..a knee replacement, a heart stent and so on. NOTHING costs less.
I have mentioned this multiple times here, and nobody wants to listen, but the problem at TVRH is that it receives fully 88% of it's revenue from Medicare. While the price of virtually everything is rising, the hospital is being forced to get paid less and less for the many different services it must perform in it's hospital. So exactly how do they expand their number of beds, expand their slate of doctors, nurses and other staff while they are forced to take less and less to do the same amount of work? Costs didn't go down. The cost of doing business didn't go down, but the patient load is going up and reimbursements are going down.
Last year it was said that there would be no COLA increase for SS. Seniors cried bloody murder! How would you like to get 30% less than you did? Well, that's what your local hospital is trying to figure out because that's what's been happening to them! But to listen here they are just a bunch of incompetent mangers and lazy staff who don't care about their patients! Get real! The problem is that they have to do more & more with less and less. Take a 30% cut on YOUR income and then see how you make up the difference.
And..it's not going to get better as long as the senior population here continues to increase and the Medicare reimbursements continue to get lowered. THAT is the problem. Not incompetent or uncaring service from the hospital.
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This really is the crux of the problem (low medicare reimbursements being the bulk of revenue to TVRH, while costs keep going up and medicare reimbursements are being cut even more).
If not for the 500+ volunteers doing what would be paid work elsewhere, the hospital couldn't afford to keep the doors open with the lights on.