The Observation Deck

Research shows that if CCF ever builds the new freestanding Emergency Room in Lakewood, it will likely close or be modified not long after it opens---leaving Lakewood with nothing more than an office building in exchange for a hospital.

While it is open, It will not help Lakewood's underserved and it will cost paying Lakewoodites from 3 to 10 times more than a visit an urgent care facility (see numerous articles below).

The proposed ER is a scam for CCF to get out of its remaining 11 year obligation to Lakewood and tear down the hospital so no competitor comes to Lakewood.

As for CCF's $34 million investment in the new FHC/"ER"--its chump change to them---a small price for getting out of a $200 million liability under its current agreement and keeping its competitors from entering Lakewood.

http://www.freemanwhite.com/do-freestan ... ial-sense/

"Freestanding Emergency Departments (FSEDs) are a suboptimal strategy for the following reasons:

1. Locating FSEDs where patients are insured by the best payors rather than in underserved communities with the highest utilization potential is not consistent with the premise of population health;

2. Non- urgent patients use FSEDs for care that could be provided in less costly settings. In an at-risk payment model FSEDs are the wrong move;

3. FSEDs charge insurers double or triple the amount per patient than an urgent care center or doctor’s office, and risk becoming unsustainable if insurers squeeze their reimbursements or steer their members to less expensive options;

4. FSEDs do not appear to decompress ED volumes at main hospital EDs, but rather tend to tap into pent up demand; FSEDs are a last-ditch attempt to bolster inpatient volumes and the equivalent of driving while looking in the rearview mirror, even though a typical FSED will only admit less than 10% of ED patients. - See more at: http://www.freemanwhite.com/do-freestan ... B2z5D.dpuf

Consider the following:

http://khn.org/news/michelle-andrews-on ... ernatives/
http://www.tcf.org/blog/detail/the-trou ... anding-ers
https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Gui ... 1063-F.pdf
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/health/2 ... /14172536/
http://www.alanayersurgentcare.com/Link ... _09_03.pdf

Thank you for your hard work. I hope someone on Council is paying attention.

A less polite title for your post would be "Will Lakewood's new Free Standing Emergency Department Be a Death Trap?." If anyone is really in need of an emergency room it would be foolish to waste time at the freestanding ER and then be loaded on to an ambulance to be moved to an available Hospital ER. No just foolish but life threatening.

Here is the real reason the Cleveland Clinic wants to call its minute clinic an Free Standing ER:

So, to line up the charges against one another:
ER Center Urgent Care
Facility Fee $895 None
Physician Fee $298 $150
Add-Ons: $232 $ 68
Total Visit Cost: $1,425 $218

That was from the link provided by Mr. Essi:

http://www.alanayersurgentcare.com/Link ... _09_03.pdf

The new ER will cost Lakewoodites a lot more for less healthcare.

Not to mention higher taxes.

$0 to walk into an urgent care vs. $895 for "facility fee" for just walking into a Clinic facility???

Just goes to show what this "good news deal" is all about: MONEY!

...no surprise there!