Broward Health - Sick Truth
However...
It's still pretty to think the President and CEO of one of the nation's largest tax-supported hospital conglomerates would NEVER deliberately mislead the seven Commissioners who gave him his $500,000 a year job.
And it's even more pretty to think transparency trumps bullshit in Big Government.
Trouble is, the truth too often seems terminal at the North Broward Hospital District (aka Broward Health) with its four hospitals, plus a budget of more than $3.5 billion a year.
But you decide if the District's top administrator Frank Nask was guilty of gross bullshit or mere disingenuous spin in his report to his Commissioner bosses extolling the virtues of a network of tax-supported clinics for the poor and homeless living in the seedy neighborhoods of north Broward.
And so....
It's been 16 years since the District opened the outpatient clinics, Nask told the District Commissioners at their last regular meeting on September 23.
“Medical encounters (visits) have increased 512% from 25,347 in fiscal 1993 to 154,939 in fiscal 2009,” Nask continued.
What's more, Nask noted, “By increasing access to (indigent) primary care sites, the number of unnecessary emergency room visits has declined at Broward Health's medical centers” – thus reducing the District's “cost per encounter for this patient population.”
Even better, Nask observed, 90% of the poor people visiting the clinic receive the care they need within two hours and 30 minutes of their scheduled appointment – which certainly calls for major huzzahs from any local Health Care Reform freak.
And yet....
In gilding the District's outpatient care for the poor and the homeless, what Nask failed to tell his Commissioner bosses was the “rest of the story” – or the whole truth as the late Paul Harvey loved to tell his radio audience for nearly eighty years.
Which brings us to the emmis concerning the tax-funded District's outpatient care for the poor:
-
Jointly funded by the County Commissioners, the Indigent outpatient clinics grew from some 25,347 visits a year in 1993 to a stunning 208,118 visits in 1998 – a remarkable increase of 721% in only five years
-
In 1998, Governor Jeb Bush replaced the seven Democrats on the District with seven Republicans who presided over a decrease of 53,179 indigent outpatient visits a year by 2009 – for a decrease of 26%
-
All this was accomplished by a staggering increase in costs
-
Like $62.50 per visit in FY 1998
-
Versus $248.03 per visit in FY 2009
-
Accompanied by an increase in losses (covered by district tax dollars)
-
Resulting in a loss of ($26.64) per visit in FY 1998
-
Versus a ($78.40) loss per visit in FY 2009
-
Coupled with a an explosion of full time clinic employees going from 132 FTEs in 1998 to352 FTEs in 2009
So much for the details in the “rest of the story” --- which Nask failed to include in his report to the District Commissioners.
Not that the District Commissioners gave a flying Patootie about the actual numbers versus the fiscal bullshit they got from their Chief Administrator.
This is because, as a North Broward District taxpayer, I attended the Commissioners' regular meeting on September 23.
What's more, the official minutes will show I told the Commissioners they were getting the full mushroom treatment* from Frank Nask and his bean counters regarding the truth about the District's outpatient clinics for north Broward's poor and homeless. (*The full mushroom treatment is when a board of directors is kept in the dark and fed lots of manure.)
Further, I gave the Commissioners a few of the more outrageous numbers detailing the cruel decline in the District's indigent outpatient care.
So...
What happened?
The Commissioners sipped their bottled spring water and ignored my unpleasant numbers by accepting the happy-happy, mega-spun report from their CEO without so much as a hi-dee-ho for the poor.
Which raises some serious questions regarding the District Commissioners' mandated due diligence and fiduciary responsibilities.
Not that all this might cause even the slightest furrow to crease the sun-tanned brow of the Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who appointed the District's Board of politically connected Commissioners– especially since all we're talking about here are millions of lost local tax dollars and thousands of poor people who don't vote.
Oh yes.
For years, the well-coiffured Jasmine Shirley has served as Vice President and Bean-Counter-In-Chief for the District's shrinking indigent outpatient clinics.
Which brings us to one final set of growing numbers:
-
$143,783 (Jasmine's District taxpaid salary and benefits in FY 2003)
-
$282,927 (Jasmine's taxpaid salary and benefits five years later in FY 2008)
Which, as tax-funded paychecks go, shit sure ain't chopped liver
And which also suggests that if we're gonna talk Health Care Reform, we could do worse than begin in our own backyard with the North Broward Hospital District** (aka Broward Health).
**NOTE: Over the years, I've received world class care from the dedicated health care professionals working for the North Broward District. Trouble is, as a journalist I've been fed a steady diet of world class bullshit from way too many of the politicians and over-paid toadies running the tax-funded healthcare system. JKdeG
You can email me at – johndegroot@live.com
Comments