Biotech Values

[Biowatch]

Re: The economic impact of the recession of hospitals.

Losing your clerical staff sounds bad. You didn't have much spare time before this, right?

Hospitals in the Baltimore-Washington, DC, area are losing money. Some hospitals in poorer areas risk closing as many of their patients have no insurance.

In the last few months, I had several conversations about medivac helicopters (with an MD, a paramedic, and a fireman.) (Disclaimer: This is hearsay.) They said that:

* trauma patients from car accidents probably have insurance
* gunshot and knifing victims probably don't have insurance
* George Washington Hospital is too close to the White House to get medivac helicopters, so they don't get as many severely injured, uninsured patients.

I'm not sure how they decide where the medivac goes with patients, but hospitals prefer patients with insurance.



The following article is an interesting read on troubles that doctors and hospitals face.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/HealthPolicy/11237

e.g., Affects of the credit crunch on doctors:

- Older doctors may put off retirement because the market hurt their savings,

- Student loans are hard to get, hurting med students (& med schools???)

- More doctors are going into lucrative specialties. (The general practitioner is a vanishing breed.)