Mayo Clinic: Transparency, Deception, and Ice Cream

BY NIRAN AL-AGBA, MD
The Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis has held the top spot on the U.S. News and World Report hospital rankings for the past two years. That’s an impressive accomplishment. But one despite the closure of community hospitals that negatively impact rural Minnesota towns.
Citing staff shortages, reduced inpatient censuses and ongoing financial challenges, Mayo decided to move all inpatient services from the hospital in Albert Lea, Minnesota, including labor and delivery, to a town more than 20 miles away. In response to pleas for reconsideration, Mayo Clinic Vice President Bobby Gastout callously remarked that 23 miles is not ideal — but “people are driving 23 miles to get their favorite ice cream.”
A grassroots group, Save Our Hospital, galvanized the community by answering “we like our ice cream and inpatient care in Albert Lea.”

So how will our country, from the Midwest to here where I’m writing in Kitsap County,  Washington ensure health care access doesn’t continue to come second to profits?

Price transparency must be mandatory at non-profit hospitals if runaway healthcare costs are to be contained. Behemoth institutions are decimating rural areas after a decade-long buying spree. A study in Health Affairs magazine found nearly half of rural counties in the United States are without hospital-based OB services, a change affecting more than 2.4 million women. According to the University of North Carolina’s Center...

Source: The Health Care Blog - January 23, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs