Via the TU: Shands Jacksonville Moves to Block Orange Park Trauma Unit

[urbanlibertarian]

Shands Jacksonville moves to block Orange Park trauma unit
Posted: June 10, 2011 - 7:04pm

By Jeremy Cox

A trauma center scheduled to open this fall in Orange Park will steer patients away from Shands Jacksonville and damage the safety-net hospital’s bottom line, Shands officials say.

The Jacksonville hospital, which runs Northeast Florida’s lone trauma center, filed a challenge last week with an administrative law judge in Tallahassee to the state’s review process for new trauma facilities. The News Service of Florida first reported the filing on its blog Friday.

The state system uses out-of-date information, according to Shands and three Tampa-area hospitals, which filed similar complaints last month. Attorneys for the hospitals have fused the Jacksonville and Tampa cases together since then.

Orange Park Medical Center’s parent, hospital giant HCA, is proposing five new trauma centers statewide. The other three opponents â€" Tampa General Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Bayfront Medical Center â€" are leery of HCA trauma unit proposals in nearby Bradenton and Hudson.

The Times-Union reported last July that the five trauma sites are nestled in largely suburban areas where, critics say, they’re more likely to turn a profit â€" and hurt their competition.

For its part, Shands contends that the Orange Park facility, due to open Oct. 1, will siphon off 25 percent of its trauma patients.

“A reduction in patient volume would cause Shands Jacksonville to lose the revenues associated with those cases and increase the amount of fixed costs allocated to each of its remaining cases,” the challenge says.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health, which is named as the defendant in the challenges, said the agency will defend its “actions and policy.”

Shands says that the agency uses an outdated trauma system review process. The system was created in 1992, and the data it was based on shouldn’t be used in 2011 decisions, according to court documents.

Erik Kaldor, spokesman for the Orange Park hospital, said, “It’s a shame that Shands Jacksonville is putting their financial interests ahead of what’s best for trauma patients in this region.”

A seriously injured patient’s chances of survival are greater in a trauma unit versus a standard emergency room. HCA’s plans will help reduce the death rate among Florida’s trauma patients, which is higher than the national average, Kaldor said.

jeremy.cox@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4083

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/health-and-fitness/2011-06-10/story/shands-jacksonville-moves-block-orange-park-trauma-unit#ixzz1Oz6qvflT

The Times-Union reported last July that the five trauma sites are nestled in largely suburban areas where, critics say, they’re more likely to turn a profit â€" and hurt their competition.

Any reason why a trauma center shouldn't turn a profit?  Any reason why Shands should be protected from competition?  It seems to me that any increase in the supply of available medical care would tend to reduce upward pressure on health care costs.

[Charles Hunter]

I don't know the answer, but suspect it is because to be a "Trauma Center" - and not just an Emergency Room - the hospital must have certain equipment available, and more importantly, certain medical specialties available in-house 24/7, or on-call on short notice.  These costs would seem the same whether there are 10 trauma cases a night, or 100.

I am torn between wanting more access to quality medical care, and not wanting to damage the ability of the existing Trauma Center to do its job serving a much larger population than OPMC will.

[Dog Walker]

HCA doesn't exactly have a stellar record at running Level One trauma centers.  Shands is absolutely world class in this area.  In particular their Trauma Neurosurgeons are as good as they get and are highly experienced.  We are very lucky to have Drs. Nguyen and Arce in this city.

This is a medical specialty where cutting corners will definitely cost lives.

[Fallen Buckeye]

My understanding is that many of the trauma patients from poor inner city areas are often unable to pay for their care whereas people in the suburbs are more likely to have decent insurance which will pay for the care they receive. So having a good number of suburban trauma patients helps offset the cost of uninsured trauma patients. Taking away that balance could mean that eventually that having a trauma center at Shands becomes cost prohibitive and it could close which hurts the Jacksonville citizens who are on the Northside or other communities far from Orange Park. Shands is a much more central and equitable location. And travel time counts for a lot in trauma situations. And even if the trauma center at Shands didn't close having less money is surely going affect quality of care as Dog Walker said.

[thekillingwax]

Well if OPMC's proposed trauma unit is on the same level as the rest of their hospital... I'd rather be pushed in a shopping cart to Shands.

[north miami]

Orange Park / Clay County becoming more like the product they sold against.....the "demand" telling and pivotal.