743 doctors, nurses and other employees tending to 55 patients

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/2280846,CST-NWS-watchdogs17.article

May 17, 2010

BY LISA DONOVAN AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters

Cook County-owned Oak Forest Hospital is known by doctors and nurses in the public health system as the "country club."

They aren't referring just to the 340 rolling acres the hospital sits on, or the pond that beckons geese, ducks and brown-bagging staffers.

The southwest suburban facility -- one of three county-owned, taxpayer-funded hospitals in Cook County -- has earned that moniker because it's staffed at a ratio nearly three times the national average, even though it's virtually empty.

On a given day, more than two-thirds of its 213 beds are empty, and 21 percent of the buildings on its hilltop campus are vacant.

Still, Oak Forest is staffed by 743 doctors, nurses and other employees tending to the 55 patients who, on average, are hospitalized there, hospital records show.

That comes to 13 staffers for each hospitalized patient -- nearly triple the national average, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of data provided by the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, which runs Oak Forest.

[IntravenousDemilo]

1. They should be among the first doctors absorbed into the new public health care system...

... when you finally get one. And you will.

[Oregone]

2. "And you will"

:rofl:


The "liberal" party just mandated private, for-profit, multi-tiered, non-egalitarian insurance that is allowed to have mediocre actuarial values. Hell of a "starting point", eh?

[notesdev]

4. I wouldn't say he's wrong

The system that got mandated is guaranteed to fall apart in less than a decade (and it may happen faster than that). Businesses are already choosing to pay the fine rather than cover their employees, as the built-in insurance price hikes are simply unaffordable.

[IntravenousDemilo]

5. Hey, baby steps. At least it got Americans thinking about the question.

Unless we invade you from the north with our one tank, impose universal health care, and leave again, you probably won't get anything like our system for a while. But at least a serious dialogue has begun, and Americans are finally getting riled up (in a good way as well as a bad way).

I just hope Obama's not going to use his success in passing this bill as an excuse to not do the fixes that are needed, like establishing universality (screw the public "option"; it shouldn't be an "option", it should be the rule) and uniformity of standards.

[Oregone]

7. No, it avoided all the real questions

Baby steps in a confused circle lead you no where.

Never was it discussed if people have a universal right to health care that protects their health, mobility and pursuit of happiness.

The only "right" being discussed was the right to purchase a plan from a private company.

[walldude]

6. Yeah but since then they've moved to the left...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. at the same time, Stroger Hosp. is overcrowded and understaffed

Cook County has many problems, many solutions.

Start with the Forest Department.

They have a separate police department. They have a top heavy, clout filled administration that manages to do little or nothing. They are so bloated that some other counties have come to inspect how the Forest Preserve Dept. works, just to see what to avoid. (Let's ignore the gilt porta-throne that Ye Olde John Stroger used to use, before his brain damage. I am NOT making this up)

Then, move to Medical Centers. While Stroger handles poor and indigent, and while military docs love doing rotations through Stroger (they have more hands on opportunity for treating critical gun shots and knifing wounds than at any other facility, including the VAs across the nation), anyone who looked closely at the Cook COunty medical system would be shocked. Stunned. Tased. And very, very angry.

Next, Cook County Sheriffs. Do they REALLY need a deputy in each and every courtroom? Really? Even in Law Division or Muni? OK, criminal courts, domestic relations, and those chancery courts that deal with foreclosures, yeah, there is a need. But really, come on.

How about the TB unit? Yep, Cook County has employees who staff a TB emergency unit, separate and apart from the COok County hospital system. It does, in a word, NOTHING. Hasn't had a patient in a decade. Hasn't dealt with the TB drug resistant cases, because other hospitals and centers are dealing with it. Talk about a plush, lush, do nothing job. Or, more precisely, multiple jobs, mostly appointed.

Ejukashun. Don't ask, don't tell, seems to be their motto. A mire of Quags that cannot be believed.

The Courts? OK, we have the largest unified court system in the world. More cases are filed here per year than anyplace else. I repeat, ANY PLACE ELSE. Some clerks offices are kick ass. Bridgeview, Skokie and the Law, Domestic and Chancery divisions of the Daley Center are not only professional, they are polite, friendly, helpful, and do a great job. Others? Markham Rolling Meadows? Traffic? Not so much. At least the additional fees for computerization are finally paying off. The Clerk's website continues to get better, and soon, the Beta program for online filing will spread to all divisions.

But, if you walk through courts at 3pm, especially most of the floors in the Daley Center, every court room looks empty. Unused. There is this crazy idea that judges can never share courtrooms, but must have their own.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. amazing