"State-of-the-art" Emergency Department in FHC undersized for Lakewood?

[cameron karslake]

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Upon reading various documents uncovered during the tax payer lawsuit's "discovery" process, the capacity of the proposed "state-of-the-art" Emergency Department was revealed.

The Lakewood Hospital Emergency Department we have now handles 34,000 emergency cases each year! That's over 90 per day, one every 15 minutes.

In the Clinic's own reports, the Family Health Center's Emergency Department will only be able to handle 17,000 EMERGENCY cases/yr. Of the 17,000 EMERGENCY cases that the FHC ED cannot handle, less than half of them, 8,000 cases, will be able to be handled by Fairview Hospital. The remaining EMERGENCY cases, 9,000, will be handled by facilities that are non-CCF.

So, it seems, when you have an EMERGENCY, you have a 50-50 chance of ever being treated at Lakewood Family Health Center ED. Remember, in EMERGENCY cases, time is of the essence. How many EMERGENCY cases will roll into the FHC, only to be held up while the CCF decides if Lakewood, Fairview, or some other non-CCF facility will be able to handle you? I wonder how many EMERGENCY cases are being turned away from Lakewood Hospital today? Unless your EMERGENCY is Level 1 Trauma (those go to Metro), it seems the Emergency Department we have now can handle just about anything due to it's size and scope. Why is this scale not be maintained? Why is this fact not mentioned in the glossy literature being sent around town?

I ask you, what good is a 24/7/365 State-of-the-art Emergency Department that can handle only ONE HALF of anticipated cases? Is an undersized ED really what the people of this city want/need and are actually fight for? Poor trade off if you ask me. When someone is having an emergency, how many ambulance rides do you think they are up for? One? Two? Three? How many ambulance bills will they be able to pay for? One? Two? Three?

[Lori Allen _]

I love the way Summers and Madigan keep stating "with an emergency room". The new facility will be an urgi-care center. In fact, I believe that since the destruction of Lakewood Hospital started, an urgi-care is basically all that is left of our emergency room. If you are a patient there now and you need REAL emergency care, you lay there while the staff gets on the phone to search for a CCF physician who will come in, or search for a bed at one of the other CCF hospitals. How much time is wasted during this process? Although not in all cases, I believe that in some cases, this time wait can have serious effects on a persons outcome.

On Saturday, when asked, I believe Summers claimed that there was no interest in the hospital and that Metro was not interested. He would not agree to a full release from the clinic to allow to look for real and honest interest in the hospital. It appears that Summer's friends from LHA. LHF and the CCF have made him such a great deal that he just can't pass it up! Imagine that, a supposed mayor that appears to care more about what he is going to get instead of what is best for his 51,000 plus citizens. I feel it is time for Lord Lakewood to dismount from his throne and allow for real, honest and TRANSPARENT offers. In my son's high school there is a banner that says something like all of your decisions have consequences. The mayor appears to have friends in the media and some in the county government. Perhaps this hospital ordeal needs to be investigated at a higher level.

[Brian Essi]

Cameron,

As always, good post!

Unfortunately, as you point out, the new "Specialty Referral Center" will not have an ER in any meaningful sense. It will be very dangerous transfer station where unfortunate and uninformed patients will allow themselves to be taken. Somebody might take their kids there for stitches if they fell of their bike.

The minutes show another Summers lie. Just last week at the Oct 1 meeting with the PD he said "the idea the hospital was in trouble was not know until mid 2014" (minute 20 part 1)

The minutes show they had planned this taxpayer rip off back in 2012.

We have a state of the art ER now that has been stripped of doctors and services on Summers' watch---He wants to destroy the ER, not build one. Its a total lie.

[Bill Call]

The medical office building on Detroit and Belle is slated for destruction. The independent doctors have been told to leave town and the Clinic doctors have already left town. According to the Sumsidium report that office building is 88,000 square feet. The Clinic is promising to build a 62,000 square foot building.

What kind of facility will it be? Picture the current medical office building on Belle and Detroit. Take off the top 3 floors. What's left is what the Mayor calls a first class medical facility.

Anyone who uses that proposed "emergency room" would be endangering their life or the life of a loved one. Why waste precious time going to the new "emergency" room only to be told to hop in the ambulance to go to the real emergency room in Avon or Fairview?

By the way, I've heard from an Avon resident that the Clinic is planning a second hospital in Avon. Those 18,000 people sure need a lot of health care.

[Bridget Conant]

The Clinic is building a huge facility in Mentor Wanna guess who is next to go? Say goodbye to Euclid Hospital and then bye bye Marymount. CCF will have their downtown flagship campus and the rest will be on the fringes of the county - Avon, Medina, and Mentor.

Their business plan isn't about providing world class health care to you or me. They don't care about communities, either.

At some point, and I hope it's now, someone has to make a stand and stop this. I'm hoping Lakewoodites will see what "future" CCF planned for us and tell them NO!

[Lori Allen _]

I believe any hope of Summers standing up to the clinic to fight for his citizens is gone. He appears to be standing strong with all his friends at CCF. Doesn't build Lakewood want a Boutique Hotel on the grounds along with a medical building an an urgi-care? I bet Summers will hire David Stein to take charge of the decor and bedding!

I believe that there is much more below the surface of this, what appears to border on illegal deal. Rumor has it there will a strip mall with bars!