for 6 APR 07: OUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE
Weeks of rumors surrounding Phenix City's new hospital became official reality Thursday. Summit Hospital announced its obstetrics unit will close April 15. At least they aren't borrowing from Doctors Hospital, and renaming it "Zero Baby Place."
Summit Hospital executives didn't make up excuses for the OB-KO, admitting the obstetrics unit isn't making enough money. Maybe those illegal Alabama midwives are doing better than they're letting on....
Summit Hospital has been the site of 184 births since its opening last August. The first Columbus-area baby of 2007 was born there. But executives say they're only making about $1,800 per birth, while Columbus hospitals make about $4,000. Sometimes the Wal-Mart approach of discount pricing simply doesn't work.
Spokesman Ian Watson told WRBL the maternity ward was hurt by the fact that Summit Hospital is "100-percent Alabama Medicaid." Of course, a shutdown could send a message Summit would rather be zero-percent....
It was interesting to hear Ian Watson's choice of word about the closure. He called Summit a "community hospital," but said several times the obstetrics unit was a "business." Can you really have that both ways? I mean, other than when you have "community" cards in Texas Hold 'em Poker?
The status of the Summit Hospital obstetrics staff was a bit confusing. The unit was down to about four nurses -- but one TV report said about 20 layoffs and resignations are occurring hospital-wide. Maybe the hospital food unit will need one less person to puree.
Ian Watson held out hope that Summit Hospital's obstetrics unit might reopen someday. But he said the staff has to make sure the facility is financially viable 15 or 20 years from now. Maybe this hospital was misnamed all along - because once you're at the Summit, there's usually no place to go but down.
(Then again, maybe the hospital executives missed a marketing opportunity here. Give new moms and dads coupons to buy baby food at Summit convenience stores.)
Ian Watson promises Summit Hospital will NOT turn away any patient who shows up at the emergency room in labor. But each expectant mother will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Some might be sent to a Christian "pregnancy counseling" center, so the staff learns there's more than simply showing ultrasounds.
The shutdown of the obstetrics unit comes weeks after word that trauma patients in Phenix City are NOT sent to Summit Hospital, but to The Medical Center. Keep chipping away and chipping away, and before long the Russell County Health Department will have the biggest and fanciest clinic in the state.
Given Thursday's announcement, is anyone ready to dare say what I've been thinking - that Columbus Regional may have known what it was doing, when it closed the old Phenix Regional Hospital? Could it be that Phenix City residents are healthier than we've realized, and they're strong enough to get to Columbus medical centers on their own?
E-MAIL UPDATE: Thursday's news about Judge Haywood Turner apparently sparked a discussion on the "All About Columbus" Yahoo group, which included a mention of us:
....and what about the mayor-
is he really a cop?
He wants people to brandish guns!!!!
At least Columbus Council could demote that old black- shrouded guy to a stun gun or maybe a water pistol, especially if he is off his meds. I knew what I heard was too good to be true....that they had a roomie for the public defender, who is presumably, in prison for child molestation, unless our royal mayor in his judicious righteousness has seen fit to pardon him .
Maybe Mayor Jim Wetherington subscribes to the theory that the more ordinary Columbus residents are carrying guns, the less Columbus Police will have to pull out theirs.
(Did you notice there have been NO gun buybacks in Columbus since Bobby Peters left the mayor's office? I mean, other than what might slip through at the annual police auction, hidden in a car's glove compartment.)
Believe it or not, I once lived in a city where water pistols were illegal. Enid, Oklahoma banned them because teenagers filled them with ink, and shot at performers in an annual high school band festival. When I mentioned the ban on radio during a city code review, it became a national news story -- but at least the City Attorney was thrilled to be interviewed by a station in his old home area of Philadelphia.
But I digress: Are you suggesting Judge Haywood Turner should be locked up with former Columbus Boy Choir overseer Rick Smith? This wouldn't cure any anger management problem. If anything, Smith might turn into a soprano.
Now for more pleasant topics (well, maybe) from a pleasant Thursday:
+ Gas prices across Columbus jumped seven to nine cents a gallon, to a low (to our knowledge) of $2.50 at Dolly Madison on Victory Drive. OK, we can rule out Iran's government as the reason for this....
+ Columbus resident Gordon Rogers complained to WRBL about the Ledger-Enquirer throwing free copies of "Northland Neighbors" in his driveway. Rogers explained he travels often, and all the newspapers tip off burglars. Too bad he doesn't have any Northland neighbors of his own, to pick up those papers for him.
+ ConAgra Foods announced Peter Pan peanut butter made in Sylvester developed salmonella due to moisture from a leaky roof. Next time, put the lids on the jars a little faster....
+ Six Flags Over Georgia offered a spring break special, with free admission from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - and a traffic jam formed on Interstate 20 as early as 3:30. And then you wonder how desperate some parents are, to get their children out of the house?!
+ The Columbus Catfish opened their new season by clubbing Kannapolis 6-1. But again this year, it appears no Columbus radio station is broadcasting the games. When "Viva 1460" won't even air baseball games in Spanish, that's bad....
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