The Observation Deck

Mary: "OK, I needed clarification, because I've heard you talking about the
changing face of medicine and how inpatient beds are no longer needed.
And yet, magically, as Lakewood Hospital will close and lose 200 beds,
the Cleveland Clinic is now building an inpatient facility in Avon. And so,
obviously, it may have changed in Lakewood, but it hasn't changed in Avon.
And, in Avon, you can kick the can down the road to St. John's Westshore.
It's not like it's under served."


Dr. Jones: "This is Dr. Jones, thank you for giving us the opportunity to clarify
that. Because clearly there's been a lot of discussion on that topic. And so,
the bottom line would be that, in any other circumstance, these would be really, uh, apparently unrelated issues. In that, in Lakewood we see that
healthcare has changed. Again, we've seen that the use of the hospital has gone down substantially. We have currently, on any given day, probably only some minor percentage of what we had even a couple years ago of patients in the hospital. And again, partly that's a good thing that patients don't need hospitals to the same degree. So, the trends in Lakewood have been very clear. Importantly though, out in Avon, we recognized two and three and four years ago that we, Cleveland Clinic, have about one hundred patients who are in the hospital outside of our own facilities- at different/other facilities-some are leaving the region and frankly we've been,
for a long time, bringing patients from the Avon area to Lakewood.From Lorain county into Lakewood, ah, for their care. Especially the surgical cases, which are the cases that, you may well be aware, are actually where most hospital revenues come from. But for those hundred patients out there that we have a responsibility too, as well. To ask them to leave Lorain county and come into Cuyahoga county, a long way away from home, is obviously something they were making clear they weren't going to do. Because, they were going to other hospitals. By the same token, for citizens of Lakewood, we don't want them to, ah, necessarily, you know, go a long ways away. We've got a number of hospitals here local, that have plenty of capacity. Especially Fairview, three miles away but Lutheran six miles away and there are other indeed-other systems that have hospitals here as well. But, we've got plenty, like, hospital beds here and that's really the reason why we've seen the use of Lakewood Hospital go down to the degree it is. So, thank you for the ability to help people understand the difference and that, what's going on out in Lorain county is indeed it's own entity. And our responsibility to take care of those as much as we have a responsibility to patients here in the Lakewood area as well.
Thanks, thank you.