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B'ham NEWS 4/23/14 pg 10
Mike Oliver moliver@al.com

Ten hospitals closed around the state in just last 3 years. Many others operating on the edge of not staying in operation much longer.

When Carraway closed, some said it only meant driving 5 more minutes to UAB or St Vincents. In rural Alabama, it can mean driving an extra hour to get to one that is open. It has been printed that one reason for Alabama's rural auto accident death rate being twice the national average is that it might take 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and then another hour to get you to a trauma hospital if your injuries are too severe for a paramedic to handle.

The article says there are 94 acute care hospitals in this state, but they are not distributed evenly throughout it. We have about a dozen in the B'ham metro area alone. If you are going to drive in rural Alabama , drive VERY carefully.

Not sure exactly what happened to Carraway, my wife used to work at the Norwood Clinic part of Carraway.

I suspect that they didn't have the number of patients that were required to break even.

It is interesting though that they went belly up not long after they upgraded the hospital.

I think they vastly overspent on different expansions but never got the patient volume to justify it. That was the go to hospital for my family when I was growing up.

I will drive right past most of the hospitals in Jefferson and Shelby Counties (especially Shelby Baptist, what a joke of a hospital). If I'm not going to bleed to death they better take me to UAB.

(04-24-2014 01:29 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  I will drive right past most of the hospitals in Jefferson and Shelby Counties (especially Shelby Baptist, what a joke of a hospital). If I'm not going to bleed to death they better take me to UAB.

I've told my wife, "If my arm is severed on the front steps of DCH, pack it in ice and get me to the south side!"

(04-24-2014 02:05 PM)Smaug Wrote:  

(04-24-2014 01:29 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  I will drive right past most of the hospitals in Jefferson and Shelby Counties (especially Shelby Baptist, what a joke of a hospital). If I'm not going to bleed to death they better take me to UAB.

I've told my wife, "If my arm is severed on the front steps of DCH, pack it in ice and get me to the south side!"

DCH could kill Superman without kryptonite.

(04-24-2014 01:18 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  I think they vastly overspent on different expansions but never got the patient volume to justify it. That was the go to hospital for my family when I was growing up.

As the company hospital for Stockham Valve and Fittings in 1941, I was born in Carraway - dad was a superintendent at SV&F. My oldest daughter was born at Druid City Hospital in 1962 just before I graduated from Bama. On one college FB game day back then, there was not one single doctor in the whole hospital until one hour after the game ended.

The cited article point out some of the reasons rural hospitals are having a great deal of difficulty surviving - one is the recent cutback in Medicaid reembursement adopted by Congress and Alabama refusing to expand its program as several other states did.

My point of citing the article was to point out that closing one of a dozen metro area hospitals (like Carraway) is not as crushing a blow as closing one that is 60 miles or more from any other one.

I can't see why anyone would disagree with your assessment.

(04-24-2014 10:28 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  On one college FB game day back then, there was not one single doctor in the whole hospital until one hour after the game ended.

I bet the wait was even longer for a sober one.

(04-25-2014 09:51 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(04-24-2014 10:28 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  On one college FB game day back then, there was not one single doctor in the whole hospital until one hour after the game ended.

I bet the wait was even longer for a sober one.

Perhaps they had a "designated doctor" (like the designated driver) program when they knew they would be "on call".

Just saw on ABC 33/40 tonight that Pickens County Health Center (Hospital) is laying off several staff and "furloughing" several administrators. They are presently promoting what they call a "Use it or lose it" Blue Ribbon campaign. I'm not familiar with how far its citizens would have to go to the next closest hospital, but it may be the only one in their county.

That would make about a dozen hospitals closed completely (or at least for certain services - like OB/Gyn) in various areas of Alabama in recent times. Imagine if you live in a county with no OB services and your wife says "It's time" and you know you have to drive 60 miles or more of two-lane roads to get to the closest hospital.