Down in Orange County here, I am starting to see some of the same or similar with hospitals, the signs out front are changing.  I recently drove by a hospital owned by Prime Health Care and the sign out front listed the hospital name and underneath, it stated “limited emergency care”.  Prime Healthcare owns a number of hospitals.  Most of the hospitals would no longer be in business if not for the purchase, and on the other hand, Prime does not sign contracts with insurance companies, they just bill them.  The downside to this of course is the balance billing situation we have here in California.  If you want to see where they are in California, use the link below to find out.  BD

Where are the Emergency Rooms in California - How Many hospitals have closed in the last 10 Years

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane will stop serving as a major trauma hospital this year but keep its emergency room open for less serious injuries.

The change will leave Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center as the only center in Spokane for people critically wounded in violent crashes, accidents and crimes.  The Spokesman-Review reports both hospital currently share the Level II trauma center designation under a 14-year joint operating agreement.

Deaconess hospital to give up Spokane trauma care

Related Reading:

ER doctors in Orange County sue state over low Medi-Cal payments – California

Hospitals Put Patients' Debt Up for Auction

California and Balance Billing
The battle of the medical bills where nobody but the insurers win
California sues Prime Healthcare over balance-billing practices

1 comments :

  1. The Hospital is uniformly extremely poor in communication among all strata of all health providers. It's full of physicians who are below par with other professionals found in other states. Specially in the ICU, physicians and nursing staff are inconsiderate, archaic in their practices and extremely unprofessional with patients and family. Hospitalists are burdened by a large amount of admissions and census and they constantly sacrifice quality for statistical wellness. It's not rare for patients who get admitted under hospitalist services get re-admitted because their problems and diagnosis were missed the first time they were there. Physicians practice at their convenience and not with the patients concern in mind. I would not recommend this center even to my worst enemy.

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