Forget Florida's Sunshine Laws mandating transparent government.
    Because tyring to get information via a public records request to the North Broward Hospital District is worse than milking cats.
    At least that's been my experience as a blog journalist and District taxpayer.
    Just consider the egregious disparity in the two recent public records requests I made – one to the public North Broward Hospital District and the other to Miami-Dade's public Jackson health System this month.
    Although I am not a resident of Miami-Dade, it took three days for Jackson Health officials to provide me with all the information I sought under Florida's “Sunshine Laws” for open government.
    However, after 20 days and counting, I'm still waiting for Broward Health's bureaucracy to provide me with the data I requested the day before Halloween.
     Oh yes.
     The North District's lawyers say my request could cost me some serious money.
     While the Jackson Health public affair people filled my far more complicated request gratis.
     As an aside, this was not how my public records requests were handled by Broward Health officials under former CEO Alan Levine's leadership.
      But now, under Broward Health CEO Frank Nask's administration, the District is as "open" as Iran's nuclear program..
     Anyhow...
     On November 10, I emailed a public records request to Robert Alonso, Vice President of Marketing and Marketing at Jackson Health Systems seeking the some key data from the Jackson's 2008 and 2009 expenditure:
     On November 12, Alanso emailed me the following data generated by his staff:

Jackson Health System - Financial Trends 
                                FY 2008                FY 2009
Surplus                   $91,927,642        $20,896,000
Gross Charges      $3,884,741,367  $4,196,479,000
Deductions for:
  Charity                   $977,234,178     $1,076,847,000
  Bad Debt               $231,857,551     $384,584,000
Net Patient
   Revenue               $1,133,876,307   $1,230,126,000
Op. Expenses         $1,526,702,950   $1,827,605,000
Avg. Daily
Patient Pop.            1,365                     1,308
Self Pay
Patient Pop.            149                         182
Adj. Patient Days    655,186                 633,237

     I offer all of the above data because (A) it's extremely interesting and ( it reflects the complexity of my “Sunshine Law” request to Jackson versus Broward Health.
    And also because...
    On October 30, I emailed the following public records request to Sara Howley,Broward Health's Vice President for Corporate Communications and Marketing:
    “As I indicated Wednesday, I need to see a copy of the District contract with Dr. Kenneth Herskowitz for his services as a cardio vascular and thoracic surgeon. “Specifically, I need to see the terms and amount of compensation Dr. Herskowitzwill receive for his services.”
    The same day, Howely replied: “Legal will be in touch with your info and answers. Have a great day.:
     Five days later, on November 5, I received the following from the Legal Department at Broward Health
    “This letter will acknowledge our receipt of your recent Public Records Request pursuant to Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, and dated October 30, 2009. Requests are handled in the order in which they are received, although we will make every effort to respond within a reasonable time. Please understand that Broward Health responds to many Public Record Requests, each of which require documents to be identified, located, retrieved/downloaded, reviewed and researched for applicable exemptions, redacted, copied and thereafter produced.
      “Should your Request involve significant labor or resources due to the voluminous amounts of documents, extensive use of information technology resources or significant clerical or supervisory support, the Public Records Act authorizes the imposition of a special service charge. This charge will be in addition to the statutory copying fees and postal charges you may incur. Requests involving special service charges will require an ADVANCE DEPOSIT, along with the payment of any outstanding fees for previously compiled Requests.”
       Unlike Broward Health's legal department, Jackson Health's Alsano replied within hours after I emailed my public request on November 10 noting:
       “Your request has been submitted to our compliance department for fulfillment. Thank you.”
        And again....
        Within two days, Alanso provided me with ALL the numbers I'd sought in my public request.
        However...
        After 20 days and counting, I'm still waiting for Broward Health to let me know:
        One – How much the District is paying Dr. Herskowitz who replaced Dr. Carl Gill as the heart surgeon at at Broward General's Heart Center of Excellence.
        Two – How much it's gonna cost me.
        All of which speaks shameful volumes between the difference in transparency and openess at Broward Health versus Jackson health.

TOMORROW - So what's with Dr. Herskowitz?

-