Large Text
In last month's Seabrooker we addressed your heath from the standpoint of improving the quality of care when in the hospital by reducing human error.  The institution of quality control and the many other clinical programs require resources; therefore, it might have come as a surprise to Seabrookers who read in the Charleston Post and Courier  in mid-April that the Medical University of South Carolina was losing millions of dollars, especially in its contract to manage and staff the Charleston County Hospitals.   
   
Implications
Many Seabrookers chose our island in part because of a healthy community health system.  It is a paramount concern for all of us if we wish "health aging."  There is also the personal financial implication for us taxpaying Charleston County residents:  if the Medical University of South Carolina can't sustain the financial losses of the county hospital, then the Charleston County Council  will have to find the money and in my experience there is only one place to go for that - local taxes.  Thus, the disclosure that all is not well, financially, with our hospitals is an important concern to Seabrookers.



What's the Diagnosis?
The Charleston county hospital financial ailment is not a result of bad management, non-productive personnel, or a host of other local issues.  The facts are that Academic Health Systems all over the country are in financial crises.  Seabrookers have read of the Philadelphia hospital failures including the University of Pennsylvania System.  Harvard Hospitals and Stanford are losing millions of dollars a year.  In fact, their numbers make the Medical University and County Hospitals look great.

In medicine we are taught to make the diagnosis and the financial troubles in our County and around the country come from two causes.  The first is managed care has forced academic institutions to compete on price for services that by their very nature academic medical centers can not provide as cheaply as those hospitals which do not have the costly functions of such programs as liver and heart transplantation, major trauma centers, burn centers and the list goes on and on.  Academic hospitals also provide far more charity care and have the inevitable higher costs that come with education and research.  The second cause of the current financial disaster for teaching hospitals is the Federal Balanced Budget Act passed in 1997.  This act has provisions in it that are removing millions of dollars from teaching hospitals like MUSC and Charleston County hospitals each year.  
    
Prognosis
Seabrookers are interested in their health and intelligent enough to realize that the financial health of our hospitals will impact our well-being.  There is national legislation being proposed to reverse the balanced budget provisions dealing with academic medical centers.  We should support these bipartisan initiatives.  Without education and research there would be no progress in medical care now and in the future.  As Seabrookers and US citizens we need to look to the future with confidence and determination that our local and national healthcare will be the best in the world.  As the national debate on the balanced budget act begins to heat up - Seabrookers should recognize the consequences are playing out right here at home, and we can't afford ignore it. 

Additional Online Resources Outside MUSCHealth.com:
(MedlinePlus, is an excellent source of health information from the world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine. Health professionals and consumers alike can depend on it for information that is authoritative and up to date. MedlinePlus has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources on over 650 diseases and conditions.)

Please note that by searching MEDLINEPLUS you will be leaving the MUSChealth.com web

 Back to Top

disclaimer