So whats the next step--- Hospital

[christopher dan]

So ...since the current mayor has won, and issue 64 did not pass, What happens with the Lawsuite? When is all that suppose to be settled? does it still go to court?

So does council vote and the hospital close? Whitin the next few months i guess what can be expected ....and when does council even vote?

[todd vainisi]

I'm wondering these things too. I'm guessing the SLH folks are taking a breath and regrouping - they fought very hard to during this election and this has been a low moment for them, I'm sure. I'm betting the lawsuit will proceed, as it wasn't contingent on who the mayor was or the fate of issue 64.

[Michael Deneen]

The lawsuit continues on, since the judicial branch is not part of the legislative.
I don't know the dates, but I believe information is online.

I'm sure Judge O'Donnell is under heavy pressure to dismiss the suit.

Council will determine the timetable if its own vote.

[Dan Alaimo]

As was pointed out (I think during the Council PD interviews), a referendum is possible - Issue 64 didn't lose by much.
I'm guessing Council will approve the deal very soon.

Everybody's taking a breath right now, but it's not over.

[Jim O'Bryan]

As was pointed out (I think during the Council PD interviews), a referendum is possible - Issue 64 didn't lose by much.
I'm guessing Council will approve the deal very soon.

Everybody's taking a breath right now, but it's not over.

Dan

A deal would first have to be made. Talk is there is no deal as of right now. That could change in seconds.

Then it has to be presented to council, and should take three readings minimum, which pushes the vote to 2016.

.

[Michael Deneen]

A deal would first have to be made. Talk is there is no deal as of right now. That could change in seconds.

Now that Issue 64 has lost, what leverage does the City have?
Kevin Butler has publicly stated that the current contract is worthless.
The Mayor is committed to take a deal, so he can't walk away from anything the Clinic offers.

[todd vainisi]

I hope the new deal includes my indoor golf range.
>>>Fingers Crossed!<<<

[Ahmie Yeung]

Well, one interesting thing I learned when Butler presented at the Lakewood Kiwanis meeting a few weeks ago, one of the things that LHA was required to maintain was maternity services. There's been so much push toward geriatrics for so long, this doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar. Total fertility (the total number of chlidren any given woman is anticipated to give birth to before menopause) has been rising for the first time in decades - it'd been stuck around 2 births per woman and is edging up toward 3. There are a lot of families in Lakewood with more than 2 children, particularly as our Muslim population has grown (they're statistically more likely to have "larger" families), but it's not all among the non-white demographics. There are several families in my children's school that have 3 or more children. I haven't done a records request to see if the data is available, but from "participant observation" I suspect that the average family size at least at this school is close to 3 already.

All this is to say, maternity services NEED to be part of this discussion, and really don't seem to be brought up much. A lot more time is given to "how will losing the hospital affect the nursing homes" - which is a valid concern, but we fail our community if we succeed in keep it as a hospital but with a geriatrics-centric service set right after we're completing building all these nice new elementary schools to draw in young (and potentially growing) families.

I have been having discussions off and on for years with Nickie Antonio (I think from possibly back when she was still on Council) regarding trying to start a freestanding birth center in Lakewood. Currently, there is only one freestanding birth center in Ohio, out in Youngstown. It is 1.5 miles (according to Google Maps) from the nearest hospital in case of an emergency. Lakewood Hospital is 3.5 miles (and a minimum 10 minute drive, without traffic) according to Google Maps. I'm not sure if that will be close enough for the liability lawyer types.

I also think it is a huge mistake to close community hospitals just when our society is starting to swing back toward extended families trying to stay geographically nearer to better support & care for one another. Lakewood, with its abundance of doubles ripe for owner-occupancy, is a very appealing location for us "sandwich generation" folks. Being able to pop over to the hospital to visit a recovering family member without derailing the children's schoolwork/extracurriculars schedules excessively, is a real appeal. In the last 10 years since moving to Lakewood, we've only had one inpatient stay for any member of the family - my eldest had infected lymph nodes that wound him up on 4 days of IV antibiotics. It was supremely annoying to have him down at Main Campus' Children's Hospital, necessitating more than an hour round trip logistics for his siblings or grandparents to visit him. It was such a simple issue that I really resented that his care was diverted away from the hospital the rest of the family could WALK to, and where my husband and I could have more easily taken shifts of overseeing his care instead of having me there the whole time.

I don't care about the decor or how recently updated the fixtures are when a loved one is in the hospital. I care about how much additional strain is put on our family system and other social support networks during that time. If he'd been in Lakewood Hospital, the number of people who could have been by his side as a known & trusted patient advocate while I went and got some rest in my own bed would have been increased exponentially due to the ability of our friends and neighbors to stop in and take a shift for an hour when the location is 5 minutes from their home. As it was, since we were down at Main Campus, even when people could spare the time to be there for him *I* couldn't leave to take advantage of the situation because the commute back & forth to my own home would have eaten the entire hour of their time they'd generously given - taken from their own life & family responsibilities.

This is just an anecdotal microcosm of the issues that arise when community hospitals are no longer an option, but it's a datapoint that is otherwise uncollected so I'm sharing it in hopes of broadening the understanding of those who have not (yet) had the experience of acting in the role of a patient advocate for a hospitalized loved one. Family and friends serving as patient advocates is an essential component to fostering good health outcomes. Hospital staff are often overworked, and mistakes happen. Having someone who knows the patient in the room as much as possible, double checking that the correct medication is getting injected or that the nurse is called immediately if the patient starts to seem "altered" and to make sure that care instructions are understood and carried out - these are all things that a non-patient friend or family member provide as a patient advocate that save lives and promote health. These are much harder favors to request of others when hospitals are moved out of population-dense areas.

[Marguerite Harkness]

Ahmie, thank you for sharing your experience, here and in your other post about birthing issues. Save Lakewood Hospital is continuing to work to save our inpatient hospital, modify as needed, increase outpatient as needed, etc. Thank you for emphasizing that it is just as important to continue to provide services for younger families, as for mature families. If a kid swallows something, the parent shouldn't have to wonder whether the new emergency-room-aka-urgent-care can do an emergency tracheotomy, quickly. We totally understand the major inconvenience of inpatient care at a distant hospital just because the Cleveland Clinic dictates it. We "get it" that frequent visitation by family/friends is an important contributor to the patient's recovery. We know that many folks can actually WALK to Lakewood Hospital to visit their child, their spouse, their other family member. SO many reasons - to KEEP our inpatient hospital.

Join us! We meet every Sunday at 4, Lakewood Library (Detroit at Arthur), Multipurpose Room (behind the Children's Section).

We The People, working together, will Save Lakewood Hospital.

[Ahmie Yeung]

Join us! We meet every Sunday at 4, Lakewood Library (Detroit at Arthur), Multipurpose Room (behind the Children's Section).

We The People, working together, will Save Lakewood Hospital.

I've actually tried to attend. Inadequate handicap parking is a big problem for me, as I'm a wheelchair user and the library's Detroit Road entrance isn't wheelchair accessible. There's a stupid silly little lip of step all the way around - it's literally about an inch away from being wheelchair accessible. Same reason I don't participate in LEAF.

I work from home and am available at other times, if my sociological or other services can be of use. Jim and several other long time members on here know how to contact me directly, I am very hit-or-miss on how much time I spend at this (or any other) website these days. I've also been limiting my FB time lately and don't have the mobile apps installed, but I can generally be reached within a few days via private message on there if you can't find any other way to reach me.

[Dan Alaimo]

Join us! We meet every Sunday at 4, Lakewood Library (Detroit at Arthur), Multipurpose Room (behind the Children's Section).

We The People, working together, will Save Lakewood Hospital.

I've actually tried to attend. Inadequate handicap parking is a big problem for me, as I'm a wheelchair user and the library's Detroit Road entrance isn't wheelchair accessible. There's a stupid silly little lip of step all the way around - it's literally about an inch away from being wheelchair accessible. Same reason I don't participate in LEAF.

I work from home and am available at other times, if my sociological or other services can be of use. Jim and several other long time members on here know how to contact me directly, I am very hit-or-miss on how much time I spend at this (or any other) website these days. I've also been limiting my FB time lately and don't have the mobile apps installed, but I can generally be reached within a few days via private message on there if you can't find any other way to reach me.

Ahmie,
On access to the library, you didn't mention this, and perhaps you have a reason, but wheelchair access through the back door is very good, automatic door and all.

[Brian Essi]

Christopher,

We will have new leadership on Council. Madigan is an ineffective leader controlled by the Mayor, CCF and the Shadow folks. She is out in January, but I suspect they will continue to use her until then.

When I first met Summers in April, he spoke dismissively of Council as he explained why he left them in the dark for over 2 years. Ironically, even Bullock agrees with the Mayor about his colleagues and dislikes Madigan, but also says it is a Council decision.

Council controls the decision on what to do with the hospital. Summers, Madigan and Bullock have been stiff arming the rest of Council and the public by withholding critical information and outright lying. For example, I have numerous public requests that go to the heart of the matter that they and Butler have ignored for political purposes in violation of law. Why are they hiding critical information while claiming the evidence supports only one solution?


The key to a true solution is and has been new Council leadership. If that new leadership is aligned with Summers, CCF and the Shadow Government, then the hospital will close amid the chaos of litigation and government investigation.

If Council can free itself of the corrupt influencers and bad actors, then sunshine will give light and growth to a number of promising solutions.

[Jim O'Bryan]

So ...since the current mayor has won, and issue 64 did not pass, What happens with the Lawsuite? When is all that suppose to be settled? does it still go to court?

So does council vote and the hospital close? Whitin the next few months i guess what can be expected ....and when does council even vote?

Dan

Remember the scenarios I went through when this was first announced?

We are in the middle of the nightmare one I outlined, for you and other employees.

It will take council until new year, to get any paperwork out of the way, if it was agreed to immediately, and then you have the lawsuit, and many others suits about to happen, complaints, ethic violations, and on and on and on.

Today Kucinich filed this
You can read the entire document here.
http://media.lakewoodobserver.com/media ... 822357.pdf

Residents, can file damn near anything.

This is why honesty, and transparency are so important.

.