Hospitals have convinced doctors and the public that getting larger is more efficient. Many of our local hospitals are selling themselves to large hospital systems, telling the medical staff that service to them and their patients will be just as personal. Others are just getting larger under the name of efficiency and improved ability to […]

The CEO of a large insurance company wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper about how he was trying to reduce health care cost by cutting hospital stays. He quoted an example of sending mothers home on the same day of delivery. This was an unfortunate example since most mothers already go home […]

The Cape Coral Hospital is now the famous “merger gone awry.” This nonprofit facility which opened in 1977 became this coastal town’s largest employer and favorite charity, attracting many volunteers who even had to pay to be volunteers. The town’s most prominent citizens were on its board. In 1994, this profitable nonprofit hospital was on […]

As a medical director in a hospital, I had first hand experience in how hospitals charge for their services. I’m a pulmonary doctor and was in charge of the Respiratory Therapy Department. According to the Joint Commission that accredits hospitals, the medical director was supposed to be involved in setting the charges for all services […]