Lakewood Hospital Transfers Westlake Building To Fairview?

[Bill Call]

A friend of mine will be have out patient surgery at a building in Westlake just off Columbia. The building use to be labled as a Lakewood Hospital Building. He said it is now a Fairview Hospital Building. Can anyone confirm this?

I have also heard that the Obstetrics unit is to be transfered to Fairview by the end of next year. Is this true?

It seems an easy thing for the people who run the hospital to answer these questions. Why won't they?

At what point does a hospital cease to be a hospital?

[Jim DeVito]

Bill as a literal answer to your last question. I would say a hospital stops being a hospital when it stops offering in-patient surgery. Once you only offer out-patient surgery you become a medial office building. I am unsure how that plays into the current Lakewood hospital.

[Greg Morley]

The building has a HUGE sign on the freeway side the says Lakewood Hospital.

[sharon kinsella]

I had outpatient surgery at the Westlake Building three years ago, I was told it was Cleveland Clinic.

[Bill Call]

The building has a HUGE sign on the freeway side the says Lakewood Hospital.

The sign on the building does say Lakewood Hospital. However, all the paperwor for the surgery says Fairview Hospital Annex. Although I did not see the paperwork that is what my cousin told me (I asked him for copies).

It turns out that Lakewood Hospital and Fairview Hospital have some kind of partnership aggreement in what is a shared facility. I had always assumed it was just a Lakewood Hospital facility. It doesn't look like either hospital owns the building.

That seems like bad business in at least two ways:

1. Lakewood Hosptial should own its buildings
2. Fairview Hospital is a competitor and it makes no sense to allow you competitor to use your name and building but keep the patients and the money.

Brent Larkin stumbled into the truth about the Cleveland Clinic:
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index. ... _olde.html

He wrote that 75% of the Clinc's revenue comes from Northeast Ohio. That 25% that comes from elsewhere in the State is the added value the Clinic brings to the region. That added value will decrease over time. Then what?

That editorial said volumes in few words.

One item: the Clinic needs 85% occupany to make money. They are at 66% occupancy.
They are also building a new hospital in Avon.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Bill

There is nothing new with the Lakewood/Fairview marriage. Bringing Jan over as CEO of
Lakewood and Fairview would underline that.

What is troubling though is who owns the name "Lakewood Hospital"? What did Lakewood
actually sign away? While you often fault the Clinic, I see them as nothing more than another
business addressing their bottom line. HOWEVER I can fault the city for everything they
gave them like the building on Hillard and Madison. But I also fault the city for giving the
Beck Center the armory that seems we still pay for the upkeep on by forgiving loans.

The city should learn the term lease or $1 lease.

FWIW


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[Bill Call]

What is troubling though is who owns the name "Lakewood Hospital"? What did Lakewood actually sign away?

That is a very interesting question. That strikes to the heart of the matter in 20 words or less.

I'd always assumed that the Clinic ran the hospital's day to day operations but the Hospital Board controlled the marketing and business strategy and that the Mayor and Council controlled the board.

What if the Board doesn't control anything?

For example:

The Lakewood Hospital facility in Westlake seems like a good idea. A new building in a wealthy suburb that offers a large number of out patient services and as a feeder to the main hospital.

Why would the Board want to share that facility with Fairview Hospital?
Isn't Fairview the competition?
If they aren't the competition who are they?
Why would the Board agree to share the revenue of the Westlake facility with Fairview?
Does Fairview share its revenue with Lakewood?

Can the Council and the Mayor control ANY aspect of the operations and business strategy?

If not, if the Clinic can simply work its will they why not sell the Hospital and be done with it?

If so, if the board CAN control the operations and strategy of the Hospital then why don't they?

I know, questions are easy. Does anyone have the answers?

[Jim O'Bryan]

Bill

I cannot answer the questions but can get into the mindset that is flowing through the
Clinic side of this. But it will no answer who owns the name, the rights, etc.

1) Fairview is not seen as competition but as a sister hospital, in the Clinic's new vision.

I can kind of understand this, as the costs of technology is greatly outpacing the funds
coming in. It also allows "Centers of Excellence" where they can pool doctors and services
around those key ingredients. While this makes sense both for business and patients, it
all fails for a city when key needed services are lost.

BUT THIS IS THE REGIONALISM YOU AND I DO NOT AGREE WITH. If yo are the Clinic or
other large regional entity, you do not see city boundaries, you see driving distances, and
more importantly emergency room distances. Of course as we are seeing this compounds
against a city when the buss system is regional and cuts service, followed by ambulance
service being regionalized and put not within 40 blocks like Lakewood and maybe go to
150 blocks, or even using private firms.

All of these perfect little storms can create real havoc for a community, and in the end it
is the community that is being serviced, or is supposed to be serviced.

So the real question is, did council demand certain services stay? Did they roll over and
just sign another deal, and is the board, like so many boards and committees in this town?
Nothing more than a cocktail conversation starter?

I have gotten to know many, many people with the Clinic and think I have a pretty good
understanding of their mindset. But at the end of the day they are a business, and a
business that claims to be losing money last year with uninsured. For the longest time
Huron Road Hospital enjoyed a rare relationship with the Clinic. Minority run, the Clinic
let them run the hospital to serve their community, and both were proud of the relationship
but I saw that Jeff Johnson was holding a meeting about the Clinic changing policy and
services that would be offered there.

While I cannot fault the Clinic for running a sustainable business and making business
decisions that benefit the Clinic, I can find fault with those here that struck any deal that
allowed a loss of these services to happen. To me it is like businesses moving to China,
they are watching bottom lines, but a government that allowed or worse encouraged the
moves, have become traitors to their country.

So maybe you and I grab lunch and look over that paperwork.

Eh?

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