Read Chaos at Crescent City Medical Center for Free Online

providers, especially nurses, because reimburse ment will decline.  Most small to medium size hospitals are estimated to lose at least a million dollars a year in Medicare reimbursements.”  Alex noticed that Mitch was paying rapt attention and continued, “Obama Care includes $575 billion in cuts to Medicare to pay for a Medicaid expansion to provide health care for the poor, but these cuts are going to hurt those of us in acute care.  The elderly are our most expensive and costly patient population.  It's real competitive here, more than in most places, or at least that's what I hear from my colleagues.  Look what's happened here in the past few weeks.  American Hospital Corporation bought 80 percent of Tulane for $180 million.  Then, they immediately merged with Health Quest and formed another huge conglomerate.  Health Trust, as it’s known, now owns twenty-five hospitals in Louisiana.  It's going to be difficult for smaller hospitals to compete with these big boys."  Alex paused for a second, thinking to herself and continued, "Health Trust even has international holdings, and, when you factor national health insurance programs into it, the times will be dangerous at best and the outcomes and quality of care uncertain, mostly like substandard to ou tcomes now.  These huge conglomerates are buying up hospitals in Europe, specifically in England and Switzerland, and I understand they're even negotiating with hospitals in South America.   Makes you wonder who'll still be in business in a few years with the fierce competition. It’s a turbulent time for healthcare."  
    Mitch was listening closely and responded, "How many hospitals can they buy without it being a monopoly?"
    Alex looked speculative.  "All but one, I suppose.  I'm not as worried about monopolies as I am about legal risks and cost-cutting to save money on patient care.  Hospitals are struggling to survive.   These mergers and buy-outs affect a hospital's credibility and image. Obama Care is going to make things even harder and more expensive. Look what's happened recently in Florida and in Boston, especially the hospital that gave 10 times the amount of chemotherapy drugs and killed the patient.  These errors are tragic and have long term consequences.  It'll take those hospitals years to recover from the negative publicity."
    "Yeah.  You would think a cancer center would know how to calculate the correct chemotherapy medicine.  Those patients' families were really angry and the press had a field day with it.    People pick hospitals because of their doctors, don't they? "
    "Used to, but now they have to go where their insurance company will pay.  Big business and insur ance companies run health care now.  They control health care and who gets it.  Obama Care will only make it worse and more costly.   Remember when hospitals first started advertising and using slogans like, ' the best care in town ' or ' caring made visible ' or ' the finest doctors in the country? ' "  Mitch nodded, and Alex continued.
    "These slogans have come back to haunt us, becoming the basis for malpractice suits.  Sometimes patients don't believe they got the best care or the finest doctors."
    "Are these claims defensible?"
    "Many are, some aren't, depending on the facts of the case.  Information systems make it possible for patients to search data bases kept on health care practitioners.  For instance, a patient c a n find out whether a practitioner has ever been sued."
    "Sounds like the medical information explosion to me.  Pretty scary for doctors and nurses, I would imagine."
    "It is.  Patients can even learn how much money the physician earns.  That adds even more fuel to the fires of malpractice actions.  It's all part of the consumer rights movement."  Alex was pensive as she stared into her water glass.
    "You mean that if patients experience bad results from surgery or medical treatment, they can do their own research to build a