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Letters
Story Behind the Story
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Business New Haven
3/23/1998
By: BNH
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Kudos to Business New Haven for its increased health care coverage. It is about time the business media realized health care is a local service by local providers that fuels much of our local economy.
Your recent story on the survival of community hospitals [BNH, March 9] captured some important tactics used by those hospitals, but the bigger picture really involves the bigger evolving health systems. As major systems are underway by Yale-New Haven, Saint Francis, Hartford Hospital and others, the real story is what role these small hospitals will play among the bigger systems.
As Yale-New Haven becomes the parent to Bridgeport, Greenwich and probably Norwalk hospitals, what will happen in those communities? The same can be asked about Hartford Hospital, the dominant partner in relationship with Sharon, Johnson Memorial, Saint Raphael's and other hospitals.
The story is less about survival, and more about future roles. Will outpatient beds be phased out as they have been elsewhere, and these hospitals be outpatient feeders to the larger hospital? Or will they continue to serve all levels, regardless of cost?
Oh, and by the way, I can surely understand the value of including small Milford and Griffin hospitals in your story, but to allow the self-portrayal of Saint Raphael's on the same community canvas is amusing. One of only six open-heart centers in the state, with a budget of several hundred million dollars, tens of thousands of patients, and more than 2,000 employees, Saint Raphael's is anything but a small community hospital. Using that same brush, however, would allow all Connecticut hospitals to call themselves “small” community hospitals.
- Ken Warren
Orange
Editor's note: Warren is publisher of 2001 HealthScan, an independent health-care newsletter.
CORRECTIONS
Due to a reporting error, a February 23 Technology Update item attributed annual revenues of $8.3 million to the Shelton-based FlexiInternational Software Inc. According to a company spokesperson, annual sales were in fact $21.6 million in 1997.
Also doe to a reporting error, a March 9 item advising how to obtain the handbook Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPs) cited an incorrect phone number. To order a copy, call 1-800-358-9295.
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