The Observation Deck

It's a fact.

Healthcare is indeed changing.

Example, a patient being taken as far as Medina to find an open bed.

Patients being "turfed"--shifted from one system to another based upon ability to pay.

Thank You Mr. Summers and City Council.

You have indeed had an impact on how healthcare is changing.

Brian Essi wrote:It's a fact.

Healthcare is indeed changing.

Example, a patient being taken as far as Medina to find an open bed.

Patients being "turfed"--shifted from one system to another based upon ability to pay.

Thank You Mr. Summers and City Council.

You have indeed had an impact on how healthcare is changing.

NEGATIVE IMPACT!

I hope they are satisfied with the damage they have wrought on all our lives.

No more options = no more peace of mind.

Nothing but uncertainty left, when we are at our most helpless.

Thanks Mayor Summers! I hope it all works out for your friends, NOT!!

Vote AGAINST the ordinance that gave our hospital away!

AGAINST on 64!

Folks in Fairview can't find beds. Folks in AVON can't find beds. Folks in CLEVELAND can't find beds.
Yet none of them have a voice on election day, to preserve real health care in our community.
Lakewoodites, VOTE AGAINST 64. A lot of people are depending on your voice.

Back on October 13th, David Anderson and I exchanged messages concerning our hospital and how Council had said the it had no choice but to go with the Clinic. Since I put that thought in quotes as a generic expression of that body, David took umbrage. I don't remember who on council said that direct quote but I did hear from several members over the past year or so.

In my missive to Mr. Anderson I brought up a number of points about he and his colleagues lacked any ability to negotiate a great deal for the hospital and city; stated that the new Master Agreement was being breached by the Clinic because the vaunted Mobile Stroke Unit was nowhere to be found at the ER

I simply stated that the Master Agreement and Dr. Jones promised that this big white truck would be deployed here in Lakewood and it was nowhere to be seen for 10 months. But low and behold someone pulled strings with the Clinic and it magically appeared as part of the usual dog and pony show we have come to understand here in Lakewood. But that was not the whole story. The Clinic, as it always has done, got the last word and said it would not be deployed until November. That was not challenged by you or your colleagues either. Why didn't you insist that it be deployed that evening? It is just a matter of driving it the ER, where there is plenty of parking.

Your comment to me is that I would rather see the city have an empty hospital in 2026 with at least $90-million in needed repairs and upgrades and no emergency room all the while LHA/taxpayers assets shrank to zero. "But you would have sure stuck it to the Clinic," you stated. I am not out" to stick it to the Clinic." That is a false statement on your part.I am searching for the truth and my actions would have been the same had the situation involved Metro, UH, or the nation's top hospital, the Mayo Clinic. I want to see the hospital succeed on its 108-year-old mission of being a hospital for the people of Lakewood and for the employees of the hospital.

I would go after that entity because it broke a contract with this community and you and your council friends let them get away with it. A contract with me is a sacred document. Apparently you and other in this city don't see the sanctity of a contract.

Why do you think Save Lakewood Hospital was formed and hundreds of people have spent thousands of hours poring over thousands of pages of discovery and depositions to weed out the truth from your false narratives (That is meant in the collective). At one time you said you were on the fence regarding this matter. You later changed your opinion because you told me that the Clinic gave the city $7-million more to demolish the hospital and then you decided to fight residents over their legal right to challenge any decisions made by a public body. I tried to tell
you that the $7-million was not "new" money, but rather LHA money that was due to us in the first place. You and your colleagues tried to denigrate the SLH movement as being a bunch of old, disgruntled people. (Actually, we did a survey and found that our group ranged in age from 20 to 90 years.)

And your final comment about "those hospital service lines you often speak about left years before this issue came to council'" is a bit self serving. Your colleagues, Madigan and Bullock (and now Litten) as well as their predecessors either were duped by Summers, the Clinic, the LHA, or this is one of the greatest Rip Van Winkle acts I have ever seen in the political world. The Psych unit was pulled out in late 2013 and transferred to Lutheran. The cardiac cath lab was the latest to go and those were on your watch. I'm sure I'm missing a few others, but I don't want to belabor the point that those who were charged with watching out for the hospital failed miserably and now want to put out false narratives about the reasons why it failed. If healthcare is changing why did Fairview spend millions to upgrade it facilities and why did the Clinic build Avon? Of course not.

There is no need to have an empty hospital in 2026 and the bogus $90-million in repairs and upgrades was just a "Let's Put Out a Worst Case Scenario'" by Subsidium.

The $90-million estimate came from Subsidium, so the number is suspect because lawyers and consultants work for the guy that pays the bills. Ans therefore, the lawyers and consultants want to please their clients so they get paid.

So I broke their estimates down (because that is what I did for over 35 years) and found their estimates inflated in many areas.

For example, in the ADMINSTRATIVE SPACE,SOME $2,670,000 WAS SET ASIDE. i PARED THAT FIGURE TO $300,000 FOR REMODELLING.

COMMON AREAS was another area that they said called for $5,577,600 in upgrades. (I didn't know that white paint had increased that much.)

Another bloated area was the CONTINGENCY at $15,254,946 and that is 16% of the estimate.

ARCHITECTS FEES were set at $5,321,431 (that's 5%) and were based on the inflated numbers of the total estimate.

I estimated that we could bring the hospital up to date with about $78,863,880 in funds that are paid for by patient income and
from funds of the healthcare system which would operate it. There are several systems that have contacted us and would like a chance to bid on the facility, But you and your colleagues won't give them that chance. So don't give me any of the political obfuscation that no other healthcare system was interested in it. Metro's proposal was a valid one, but then political pressure from outsiders appeared been a major factor in it backing off.

We have seen that Subsidium did not contact all national healthcare systems (and local and statewide too) that might have been interested in our hospital.

And Jen Pae's disingenous op ed piece in the morning tabloid that said if we saved the hospital, it would be a $90-million liability of Lakewood taxpayers as well as an increase in taxes, was nothing but a damnable lie. Remember that a month after that piece appeared, she admitted that no taxpayer money was ever used on the upkeep of the hospital.

And we know from Metro's proposal, that it could be successful with Lakewood Hospital even with its mixed payer system of private and public insurances. That presented a big problem for Mike Summers, Madigan and Bullock, the LHA and CCF. Because of background interference from any number of people to put pressure on Metro, it chose the word "maelstrom" to back out out of its excellent RFP response because it did not want to be used by Summers and the Clinic.

So your argument that we would have had an empty hospital building that would cost the taxpayers money holds no water.

Also, if the hospital was in such bad condition, Scott Gilman as Fire Marshal, would have been remiss in his duties not to point that out to the proper health system monitors. And they would have had to take action to close it as a hazard to patients. Did that happen?

Why won't the Clinic provide a breakdown of its obscene Administrative Services charges against Lakewood Hospital? Why didn't you demand an explanation? Despite those Administrative Services charges, the hospital actually made money up until 2015, the year Summers,the LHA and Clinic announced it was shuttering it.

This was after the Clinic forced out such long established medical services as orthopaedics, anesthesioligy.radiologists, etc. The Clinic wanted its own doctors,, not independent doctors. The Clinic has said it likes independent doctors, but its record indicates otherwise. My former cardiologist signed a long-term contract with the Clinic recently. That's why he is my former cardiologist. Dr. Terry Kilroy was head of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine and can tell you about his experience with the
former top honcho at the Clinic and how he viewed independent doctors.

It was Dr. Kilroy, Dr. Pat Carey. Robert Sweeney and me that in 1996 first cautioned about getting into the 30-year contract with Clinic

During the course of this fight, the Clinic decided to move its Family Health Center (FHC) to the west side of Belle Avenue and to demolish the Professional Building and Parking Garage. The building was full of mostly independent doctors and today they are gone, Driven from that building on the pretext that the building was old and out of date, Where have we heard that one before?

Once that decision was made, a strategy and script had to be developed. It left more room to develop the hospital site, was one of them.

Speaking of the FHC, who are the doctors who will be going into it? I'll bet that Drs. Garven and Culley and their associates will be among the tenants. If so, that will mean two more vacant buildings on either end of our city. And that's a good deal, David?

Yes there will doctors from the Primary Care Service at Fairview who will occupy some pace. But here again is the background on that move by the Clinic. It needs the space that the Primary program is housed in presently for expansion of Fairview. How convenient to have a new building with exterior glass walls, white interior and an art gallery. I am told that these young doctors must receive their training in an accredited hospital. The FHC is not an accredited hospital, Is that a consistent format for good, quality family medicine(or as the Clinic likes to: World Class Care)? A residency program is generally for a one-year period in most instances

You and your colleagues, Mike Summers and his administration, are really bad negotiators, David. Your claim that the city will receive more in lease payments than if the previous lease went through to 2026 is like comparing apples to oranges,The income tax revenue from an on-going hospital--even one reduced in the number of beds as was suggested in 2006and torpedoed by the Clinic--would have had a constant income flow to the city.

I presume your comments about making up for the loss in income tax revenue is covered by "other sources of revenue have already made up for that payroll loss and refers to the increase in property taxes. So by your logic,we can expect higher and
property taxes to make up for a lousy deal. The city may be flush with cash now, but hard times come in cycles and when that happens, reserves will be used to keep us going. At some time, whomever sits in your seat or Mike Summers seat, will have to come to the people and ask for more money. And when they do, the people will look back and see the bad deal you supported along with your colleagues and the city administration.

Remember that there are over 19,000 cities, villages and townships in the U.S. and only Lakewood's Mayor and Council actively worked to drive out our largest employer and a great community hospital.

A friend of mine, who lives in Avon, said he heard the Mayor of Avon say that now that Avon has a hospital, it is a complete city. Does that mean that now that we don't have a hospital anymore, we are an incomplete city?

The financial payments you toss about do not mention that a good chunk of them are spread over 10 years. Again, the Clinic is using our money and arbitraging it to gain more money for itself. And you think that is a good deal? I believe it proves my point that you folks did not or will not negotiate a great deal for the city.

As an example of negotiating strategies, several council meeting ago, the fire chief said that the city was getting a new rescue squad for about $220,000 that will be paid for out of CITY funds. Could you and others not held up your approval of the Master Agreement by demanding that the Clinic pay for this one and many more in the future? After all, you and the rest of your fellow council members let the Clinic take everything out of the hospital for nothing. Is that a great deal and are you folks great negotiators? I don't think so.

The facts expose each of you as being only lemmings and followers of an administration that is neither transparent not honest when it comes to this deal.

You got duped by Summers, Madigan and Bullock, as well as the LHA and Clinic, and for the life of me, I don't know why you would put your political capital in the hands of these folks and attempt to defend them.

I'm sorry that this ran a bit longer than I wanted it to, but I did want to cover as much ground in answering your comments in your postings.