The Observation Deck

The Clinics 10 point plan:

1. Encourage patients to use Fairview hospitals emergency room not Lakewoods.
2. Encourage doctors to refer to Fairview hospital and not Lakewood.
3. Encourage paitients to have their surgeries performed at Fairview hosptial. and not Lakewood.
4. Reduce the number of doctors at Lakewood Hospital.
5. Reduce the number of nurses Lakewood Hospital.
6. Transfer routine screenings like colonoscopies to facilities in Westlake.
7. Demand signed agreements from Westside doctors guaranteeing that they will refer to Fairview or Lutheran, not Lakewood. Deny them access Clinic facilities unless they agree.
8. Do not advertise Lakewood Hospital or its services except in Lakewood.
9. Transfer medicaid and medicare patients to Lakewood Hospital and encourage paitients with insurane to use Fairview or Lutheran.
10. Build state of the art facilities in other Cities. Limit capital improvements at Lakewood Hospital to unavoidable repairs to things like air conditioning.

Bill Call wrote:10. Build state of the art facilities in other Cities. Limit capital improvements at Lakewood Hospital to unavoidable repairs to things like air conditioning.

Didn't they just build a state of the art Diabetes wing at LH?

David Lay wrote:

Bill Call wrote:10. Build state of the art facilities in other Cities. Limit capital improvements at Lakewood Hospital to unavoidable repairs to things like air conditioning.

Didn't they just build a state of the art Diabetes wing at LH?

I think you mean heart center. Didn't the Clinic promise to make Lakewood Hospital the heart center? Was that before or after they promised to make it the stroke center?

I guess maybe you are right. Now we are going to be the diabetes center except that the same services will be offered at Fairview and Lutheran and Avon and the new mega facility in Rocky River..

This whole process kind of reminds me of my two year letter writing campaign about the Port Authority. I pointed out the stupidity of the planned expansion, the feather bedding, sweat heart contracts and mismanagement and got nowhere.

When the Army Corps of Engineers announced that the Port would have to close in three years people finally took notice. Sorta kinda. The existing board is still pretty much in tact and pretty much as clueless as ever. Scene Magazine reported that many public officials new what was going on but but were afraid to speak up.

My guess is that the same scenario is playing out here. People know what is going on but are afraid to speak up. I mean if public officials are afraid of the port authority why wouldn't they be afraid of the Cleveland Clinic?

I hear from an ex board member that he is concerned about cuts in services.

I hear from more than one Lakewood resident that they don't even bother with Lakewoods emergency room. They go directly to Fairview.

I hear from one friend that their doctor was forced to move from his Clinic building because he refused to sign a conract containing a clause stating he would refer only to Fairveiw. (I guess "only Fairview" is more lawsuit resistent than "not Lakewood")

I hear from an elected official that a doctor friend told him that what is happening at Lakewood Hospital is a lesson on how to dimantle a hospital. (I stole the line for this title).

I hear from an employee at the hospital that they are "cutting everywhere at Lakewood".

$100 million in East Cleveland, $100 million in Rocky River and $100 million in Avon and at Lakewood Hospital:

air conditioning repair!!!!

That might not tell you anything but it tells me we are getting a lesson on how to dismantle a hospital.

Bill Call wrote:I hear from more than one Lakewood resident that they don't even bother with Lakewoods emergency room. They go directly to Fairview.

I have been in the Lakewood ER more times than I want to count. My family has had surgery there after a trip to the ER. I have never had a bad experience. Granted I have never needed trauma care since they took away the trauma center

I guess it is all about who you talk to but I have friends in Bay and Westlake who swear by Lakewood ER. In fact they have sworn off Fairview.

I was in the Fairview ER a while back. Like all the times I have been in the Lakewood ER, there was a surplus of beds and nurses milling about. ER's are not the most populated places in areas where most of the people have some sort of health care. Now you go to Metro and that place is hoping whit all the indigents and Cleveland gunshot victims. I saw all that because I consider the consolidation of trauma services as nothing more than a business decision made to reflect the needs of the community. Running an ER is expensive and perhaps we have a glut of services in this area.

NOTE I have been in all these ER's in a professional capacity at one point or another. I am not as accident prone as the above post would suggest.