Lakewood Healthcare Data Study

[Stan Austin]

We can "celebrate" this event by showing up for the Day of Dumb when the excavators show up. This can be tricky, though. Back in the '90s Tony Sinagra and Fred DeGrandis had the machinery show up in the early morning hours.

[Mark Kindt]

Here I have described an overall reduction in healthcare services and access to healthcare services in Lakewood that began in 2016 and continues to the present.

Can any reader report either a reduction in their local taxes or a reduction in their health insurance premiums? No. I didn't think so.

So where did all that value disappear to?

This is the wonderful world of public wealth transfer by privatization.

A major group of public or community assets get divided and distributed to private entities with only nominal returns to the public treasury. (You know, $1.00 for the hospital building and land.)

In our case, we start with a local hospital, various medical buildings, and two multi-million dollar cash pools of investments. This is a value universe of approximately $170,000,000 all related to an invaluable community hospital.

Amazingly enough, through a well-lawyered, but largely secretive public policy nightmare our local elected officials have managed to divide most of this value universe up and transfer its wealth to a collection of private entities (consultants, foundations, developers).

This kind of raid on public rights cannot be accomplished with honesty, openness, accountability, or transparency on the part of the civic leadership involved. By its very nature, standards of ethics and public integrity have to be disregarded. Fiduciary duties are traduced. Conflicts-of-interest run wild. All chronicled in other citizen-journalism supported by the team at the Lakewood Observer.

Yes, some of the residual value universe may benefit Lakewood residents, but most of it has been diffused into the greater region.

Privatization and regionalism at play, while Lakewood disinvests itself of long-standing public infrastructure and attempts to "paper-over" the debacle with public relations puffing.

[Mark Kindt]

Barely A Band-Aid

There are two documents that the general public has not seen:

1. The City's recent health care data study; and,

2. The pro forma spreadsheets that forecast the potential annual investment revenues to be received by the Healthy Lakewood Foundation from the funds it will receive under the Master Agreement.

Please watch for these two documents, because they will illustrate the dissonance between need and resources.

Here we will witness a real (but silent) crisis of the City's own devise. The development known as One Lakewood Place will rest on the backs of those Lakewood residents least able to bear it.

The City's independent health care data study will detail a broad array of local health care needs, some likely severe, affecting between 15% and 20% of the populace.

The pro forma spreadsheet will show very modest revenues that will not be able to address these health care needs.

An invaluable community hospital that annually provided about $7,000,000 in charity care will shortly be demolished by the City and donated to its selected developer, but not for health care.

[bentleymike]

The pro forma has been up since October, and shared here at least once, probably multiple times.. Start on page 9 of this link

The numbers run are extremely conservative, and done so on purpose

[Mark Kindt]

Thank you for posting this link. I had not seen this document before, nor seen any reference to it on the Observation Deck previously. I evidently missed it while reviewing links on the City website related to FPTF.

[Mark Kindt]

Thank you for posting this link. I had not seen this document before, nor seen any reference to it on the Observation Deck previously. I evidently missed it while reviewing links on the City website related to FPTF.

I stand in error on this point. This document was posted to the City website and linked from the Observation Deck in an earlier thread.

Pro forma projections have been available to the general public.

[Mark Kindt]

Barely A Band-Aid

There are two documents that the general public should study:

1. The City's recent health care data study; and,

2. The pro forma spreadsheets that forecast the potential annual investment revenues to be received by the Healthy Lakewood Foundation from the funds it will receive under the Master Agreement.

Please examine and study these two documents, because they will illustrate the dissonance between need and resources.

Here we will witness a real (but silent) crisis of the City's own devise. The development known as One Lakewood Place will rest on the backs of those Lakewood residents least able to bear it.

The City's independent health care data study will detail a broad array of local health care needs, some likely severe, possibly affecting between 15% and 20% of the populace.

The pro forma spreadsheets will show relatively modest disbursements that will not be able to address these health care needs.

An invaluable community hospital that annually provided about $7,000,000 in charity care will shortly be demolished by the City and donated to its selected developer, but not for health care.

(I have edited this post [in blue] in response to Mr. Bentley's post.)

[Mark Kindt]

Barely A Band-Aid

There are two documents that the general public should study:

1. The City's recent health care data study; and,

2. The pro forma spreadsheets that forecast the potential annual investment revenues to be received by the Healthy Lakewood Foundation from the funds it will receive under the Master Agreement.

Please examine and study these two documents, because they will illustrate the dissonance between need and resources.

Here we will witness a real (but silent) crisis of the City's own devise. The development known as One Lakewood Place will rest on the backs of those Lakewood residents least able to bear it.

The City's independent health care data study will detail a broad array of local health care needs, some likely severe, possibly affecting between 15% and 20% of the populace.

The pro forma spreadsheets will show relatively modest disbursements that will not be able to address these health care needs.

An invaluable community hospital that annually provided about $7,000,000 in charity care will shortly be demolished by the City and donated to its selected developer, but not for health care.

Let me illustrate the magnitude of this silent crisis with some estimates.

The U.S. Census reflects a poverty rate for Lakewood at 16.5% or approximately 8,000 residents, many of them children in low income households.

If Lakewood Hospital provided approximately $7,000,000 of charity care in 2014, that would pro rate at about $875.00 per person for these 8,000 low-income residents.

If Lakewood Hospital provided approximately $0.00 of charity care in 2017, that would pro rate at about $0.00 per person for these 8,000 low-income residents.

If Healthy Lakewood Foundation provides approximately $1,149,000 of charity care in 2024, that would pro rate about $144 per person for these 8,000 low income residents.

So, rather than let Metro Health System operate Lakewood Hospital and maintain charity care in our community into the future and invest $100,000,000 in Lakewood Hospital, the public policy choice was made to drastically reduce funds available for our low-income residents and use the assets of the hospital to subsidize commercial development.

Hence, my conclusion that the development known as One Lakewood Place will rest on the backs of those Lakewood residents least able to bear it.

I will leave it at that for the moment.

[Mark Kindt]

Obviously, the Healthy Lakewood Foundation won't be able to replicate the charity care that was previously provided by our community hospital.

It would barely have enough funding to even open-up a store-front clinic and, of course, that won't be its mission anyway.

Like I said before, I have not seen the City's healthcare data study. Who knows what it will say?

Nothing shall stop the impending arrival of that paragon of civic virtue -- a mixed-use commercial development.

My goal here is to just illustrate the gap in care that comes with the "new model".

[Mark Kindt]

Rather unlikely for Lakewood to become one of the healthiest cities in America:

https://wallethub.com/edu/healthiest-ci ... ethodology

If Lakewood is so healthy, why hasn't the Lakewood Healthcare Data Study been released to the public?

Are our elected officials going to keep that a secret, the same way they kept the closure of the hospital secret?

[Mark Kindt]

The city administration is stuck with the results of a debacle that they have themselves truly masterminded.

The irony would be poetic, if not for the loss.

Shortly we demolish our prized and long-standing invaluable community hospital, the heritage of our civic elders, while we hold in our hands the study that describes what has been lost and what cannot be replaced.

What fools we mortals be...

[Mark Kindt]

Newspaper Headlines Will Read

Victory! Hospital Demolished! Mayor Declares Lakewood Healthiest City In America

Let's see.

Hospital closed February 2016.

Today's date: August 23, 2018.

Anyone seen any signs of the new model of community wellness yet or, better yet, to quote Mayor Summers "a convergence of health-care related investments that offer a unique opportunity to become healthier"?

This is what I truly dislike about public relations puffing -- perfectly Orwellian statements like this.

We all know that this "convergence of health-care related investments" was entirely dependent on the Mayor's decision to close Lakewood Hospital and terminate any possibility of hospital services in Lakewood.

Hey, you, new model of community wellness, what's the hold-up? Where are you?

[Mark Kindt]

Here's the update from the Foundation Planning Task Force on the City's website:

"Update July 2, 2018

The Foundation Planning Task Force made its official recommendations to City Council, Mayor Summers, and the Lakewood Hospital Association in June. See here (Link to docs in right hand column) At this time, the proposal is under review. Once it is approved, the Healthy Lakewood Foundation can begin its work of serving the health and wellness needs of the Lakewood community."

It would be interesting to understand what this review process actually consists of; exactly who are the participants in the review process; and whether or not Ohio open meeting requirements apply.

A first-class attorney did all the legal work. The FPTF submitted a qualified list of board members. What's the hold-up?

For the interested, again I ask "What's the hold-up?"

[Mark Kindt]

Completely Ignoring Lakewood Hospital 2014 Data

In this document, we can see that any and all 2014 data from Lakewood Hospital has been ignored.

Keep in mind that Lakewood Hospital published its Community Health Needs Assessment in 2013. This slide implies that there were NO patients discharged from Lakewood Hospital in 2014.

The-Center-for-Health-Affairs-LkwdWellnessFndnSlides-JC 14.jpg (161.13 KiB) Viewed 4450 times

This document is from the Foundation Planning Task Force on the City of Lakewood website. I have attached the full documents as a PDF.

[Mark Kindt]

The Lakewood Hospital 2013 Community Health Needs Assessment is freely available by Google search.

Here's a copy.

While we consider what to do with $30M+ of former hospital funds, let's just use the wrong data, too.

While we consider what to do with $30M+ of former hospital assets, let's just use a bogus appraisal, too.

You be the judge.