This is just the tip of the iceberg. All over our country, private investment firms are buying up mostly rural hospitals, hoping to turn a profit. Certainly not to maintain or improve patient care. When they have milked the hospital of any profit, they either close the doors or sell to the next sucker. This is what holding companies do. Not just for hospitals either. When the factory I worked at was sold to a holding company, they sold off everything that wasn’t nailed down then sold us to a company looking to use us as a tax write off. Which they can do for five years. Then they close the doors. They don’t care about the people employed there. It’s all about profit.

To me doing this with hospitals is even worse. Most of us could find other employment, retire or take advantage of the company paying to retrain or pay us for college. My choice. How much worse is it for the people who need medical care? Not a thought is given to people who are impacted by these vulturous moves, including the employees who care for the patients. This same type of ‘profit before people’ attitude is what cost the CEO of United Health Care his life.

What happens to the people who’s lives are impacted by these holding companies? From what I have seen nothing good. Patients who are in serious condition, are shipped to hospitals in other towns, making it a hardship for families to keep a close eye on their care. Outpatients have to drive distances to another hospital for procedures and follow up care. We drive 96 miles to a hospital I trust, since the local one sent me home septic twice. I look for the local one to be closed soon since they partnered with two other hospitals in towns 25 miles away. The quality of care at all three has seriously deteriorated since then. Employees will be faced with the options like we at the factory were. Retire if close enough in age to do so. Look for other work in the area, or look for the same or similar jobs in other areas.

Mismanagement is only one thing that has caused this relatively new for profit or else attitude. Another one was ridiculous purchases like letting a salesman talk them into buying several mammography machines, in a town of 9,000 if you include surrounding countryside. Most of the machines have set idle. The other after affect was for doctors being told to over prescribe the test to justify the expense. The facility has also had a doctor drain, due to several ridiculous causes. At the top, I would have to say the nickname of Hospital Peyton Place was something that could have been avoided. Especially firing the nurse and retaining the doctor in one episode, was not something that endeared the workers to the CEO, who had been carrying on with his secretary for ten years. Favoritism, was only one of the circumstances that caused a pretty significant exodus of doctors and other well-trained staff. I’m surprised the hospital is still struggling along. But not for much longer I’m hearing.

The story at many hospitals is detailed in this URL at the top of the page. Check it out if interested and you decide what the remedy is. Oh, and the same story is to be found at local nursing homes as well. The concern is for profit, not in the care of the people there. Apparently some of the workers as well as staff at the administrative level, either have no elderly in their family or think they won’t have to wind up in a place like this. Or, maybe like the CEO of United Health Care, their end will be different.