The Observation Deck

"What makes you most excited about this deal at this point?-

...The emergency department at the hospital will remain open..."

Well, geez, that's one hell of a deal then.

The best part of this deal is that at least the ER isn't shutting down for now...

Wow.

That that 1970's Babin Lakewood Center South will be torn down. Maybe Lakewood Center will fall to the wrecking ball, too?

Yeah, not to mention that in the Clinic's own plans the new, state of the art 24/7/365 emergency room will only be able to handle

1/2 of the traffic that Lakewood generates at our existing emergency room.

Lakewood generates 34,000 ER visits per year. Our new, state of the art...will only be able to handle 17,000 visits per year.

It certainly will generate more excitement when one realizes that when you have an emergency you only have a 50/50 chance of being able to be treated there!

Nothing like adding more excitement onto an already exciting moment! Thanks mayor, council and clinic, you are REALLY LOOKING OUT FOR OUR NEEDS!

It's details like these, hidden from the public's view, that get me excited! Woo-hoo!

See Lori Allen's report in another thread on ER diversions. It looks like they are already setting up to justify handling less traffic.

Since the decanting of the hospital, which includes the Emergency Room, the only sickness they can treat up there are colds, flu, earaches, splinting a broken bone until you can get an appointment the next day at an orthopedist, etc. How can CCF legally call this an ER? All we are getting folks is a six to nine bed urgi-care center. If you need further help, you will have to be transported elsewhere. Just think, you can receive one bill from CCF's wanna be ER and then pay your transportation and receive a bill for that, and then get a third bill from the next provider. Yep Mr. Summers and Council, thank you. It sounds like the citizens of Lakewood are gonna be getting one hell of a great deal!

Dan,
Good point. Are we maybe making up stories about Lakewood's ER diversions?

Lori Allen _ wrote:Dan,
Good point. Are we maybe making up stories about Lakewood's ER diversions?

Okay, here's a story:

Last fall, I had a personal experience of it - I think, as it's hard to know for sure. I was with my grandkids at the Library when the little girl broke a finger badly in a door. The EMTs were great, but there was a very long call to Lakewood Hospital where it seemed to me (I was quite distracted at the time) that they were getting permission to go to Lakewood Hospital ER. They took us there, and it was very quiet at the time.

It is going to be labeled as an ER so they can financially violate the citizens who are receiving "world class care"

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29050 ... lorado-mom

The Marshalls had walked into a stand-alone emergency department, one of dozens that have popped up recently in Colorado,which imposes few restrictions on building new medical facilities that often look like urgent care clinics.

The charges for two visits totaled more than $8,000. After insurance payments and adjustments, the Marshalls were billed for a balance of almost $5,000.

My mother's friend who is 93 years old fell in her bathroom and was just badly shaken up. Lakewood Paramedics took her to Lakewood ER. After she was there awhile, they told her they were transferring her to Fairview. When she refused, they hauled her out of Lakewood ER to Fairview and she was screaming all the way! Since when is it OK to go against a patient's wishes because they are elderly? I told her she should sue.

I can't tell you how many times that city council and Kevin Butler said that "the patient is in control of where they go for treatment".

Every time I heard that I wanted to stand up and scream "BS, that has NOT been the case for years people, WAKE UP!" And we wonder how/why our hospital has suffered "declining patient volumes"...it's by design folks.

Sure, you can go anywhere you wants as long as you have transportation. Heaven help you if it is a real emergency and you die on the way. As for Kevin Bulter, AKA, the acting Mayor, I believe that he too has a big part in this bad deal and probably will reap some benefits.