Lakewood Hospital- Does Bill Call Eat Cleveland Clinic Crow?

[Bill Call]

No, for reasons that I may or may not choose to explain. Anyway...

Jack Gustin, President of Lakewood Hospital was gracious enough to spend an hour with me to discuss the changes planned for Lakewood Hospital. Here are the highlights with his additional comments in green.


1. The hospital has 200 rooms with two beds per room, total 400 beds. The rooms are usually 50% full. While the number of admissions is relatively stable the average stay is now 4 days instead of 12 days. The change will have no negative effect on revenue. In addition, people prefer private rooms; the feds are not allowing the construction of new semi private rooms so private rooms make sense.

2. Total employment should increase from about 1200 to about 1350. (of course the 2005 annual report shows total employment of 1,383 but never mind). Total payroll was $50 million in 2007. Projected payroll is $54 million in 2011. The total FTE count of people can be either looked at as Full time equivalents (FTE’s) or total bodies…if you look at it as FTE…we have about 1200 positions working here…if you look at total people…meaning full time and part time it’s closer to the 1350 now…..the number I look at is the FTE’s which will increase over time

3. The Clinic has invested $67 million in the hospital since 2000. More spending is planned to upgrade non-medical infrastructure financed in part by the Clinic, the Lakewood Hospital Foundation and Lakewood Hospital.

4. Lakewood Hospital has a solid balance sheet and plenty of cash in the bank, as does the Lakewood Hospital Foundation.

5. The small building in front of the hospital will be torn down and replaced with a park (for now).

6. The Hospital provided $31 million in charity care in 2008. The amount that would have been paid by an insurance carrier for the same services is about $13 million.

7. The strategic plan is to reduce adult psych and concentrate on neurology, orthopedics, diabetes and geriatrics. The reasoning is that all four are product lines used heavily by the over 50 population. That is the population that is increasing. With regard to pediatrics we have no plan at this time to change but because of the changing environment we may have to revisit that in the future

8. By concentrating on those four areas they hope to increase the amount of Medicare reimbursement. Right now Medicare reimbursement is less than the cost of care. (your companies health insurance premium would be 50% less if Medicare paid the actual cost). He gave me a quick explanation that went something like this: Medicare assigns reimbursement rates to different categories of care. Right now the Hospital receives what he called 1.2 reimbursement rate. They hope to up it to 1.38.

Overall it looks like a sensible plan to deal with changing economics and demographics. I don't know why they keep this stuff secret.

[Jim DeVito]

Thanks for that. Things are looking up.

I don't know why they keep this stuff secret.

Seeing as how you just posted this on the internet...

[Charlie Page]

I don't know why they keep this stuff secret.

Looks like all we have to do is ask

[Charlie Page]

And thanks for asking and posting the answers!

[stephen davis]

Bill,

This may be your best post, ever.

Thanks for the info.


Steve


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[Bill Call]

Delicious.

[Bridget Conant]

Lakewood Hospital has a solid balance sheet and plenty of cash in the bank, as does the Lakewood Hospital Foundation.

Hmmmm. The Foundation has plenty of cash.

The Clinic has invested $67 million in the hospital since 2000.

If you believed city council, the mayor, and Build Lakewood, the place was a dump that hadn't been upgraded in YEARS. I mean they made it sound like nothing had been upgraded since it was first built!

All you have to do is look back a few years and there is plenty of proof that WE WERE LIED TO.

[Lori Allen _]

Does anyone really believe what Lord Lakewood and his mighty subjects tell us ?

[Brian Essi]

Overall it looks like a sensible plan to deal with changing economics and demographics. I don't know why they keep this stuff secret.

Mr. Call,

Thank you for all you did back then and now for reminding us where we have been.

It appears that Gustin only told you half the story--the "Decanting Plan" was developed in 2009 and kept secret.

Half-truths are lies.

We are only half way through Lakewood's "The Grandest Scandal of All."