Lies Damn Lies and The Cleveland Clinic
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 7:30 am
The end game is near.
For nearly ten years the Cleveland Clinic has waged a quiet war against Lakewood Hospital. The Clinic transferred Lakewood doctors to other communities, transferred whole departments to other hospitals, undermined independent doctors and specialists and reduced service and patient care.
Each reduction in service, every transfer and every restraint of trade led slowly and inexorably to a weak and uncompetitive Hospital. It wasn't an accident but part of a carefully laid out plan.
Ten years ago I was told by a Clinic doctor that by the time the Avon hospital was built the Clinic intended to leave behind an out dated facility without doctors and without customers. Even with all of that effort Lakewood Hospital still managed $140 million in revenue. No matter.
What now? Fight or give up? Accept a so called "wellness" center designed to fail or demand a proper facility and risk the anger of the Clinic?
I suspect that we will give up. The hospital will be demolished and replaced with a minute clinic. Some might think that I am mischaracterizing the new Clinic building. I'm not.
The proposed structure is half the size of what exists in Brunswick and will be land locked and incapable of being expanded.
As a bonus the Clinic will have access to the $30 million now controlled by the Hospital Foundation. How long will that money last?
It will offer such limited services that more and more patients will find themselves going somewhere else for treatment.
In a few years the Clinic will announce with great sadness that there is no demand for healthcare in Lakewood and close it down. I suspect that the Clinic has already secured a secret agreement with Metro Health and University Hospitals to keep them out of the City.
The Clinic intends to turn Lakewood into a healthcare desert.
What do we have to lose by putting Clinic officials on the stand to defend their actions?
What about the potential for new development on that site?
Talks of new commercial development are just talk. Nothing will be built. The parking garages are in need of major repair, the new Clinic building will take up the most valuable portion of the property and
Outside the downtown Cleveland taxpayer financed entitlement zone commercial development and retail development are failing all across Cuyahoga County.
For nearly ten years the Cleveland Clinic has waged a quiet war against Lakewood Hospital. The Clinic transferred Lakewood doctors to other communities, transferred whole departments to other hospitals, undermined independent doctors and specialists and reduced service and patient care.
Each reduction in service, every transfer and every restraint of trade led slowly and inexorably to a weak and uncompetitive Hospital. It wasn't an accident but part of a carefully laid out plan.
Ten years ago I was told by a Clinic doctor that by the time the Avon hospital was built the Clinic intended to leave behind an out dated facility without doctors and without customers. Even with all of that effort Lakewood Hospital still managed $140 million in revenue. No matter.
What now? Fight or give up? Accept a so called "wellness" center designed to fail or demand a proper facility and risk the anger of the Clinic?
I suspect that we will give up. The hospital will be demolished and replaced with a minute clinic. Some might think that I am mischaracterizing the new Clinic building. I'm not.
The proposed structure is half the size of what exists in Brunswick and will be land locked and incapable of being expanded.
As a bonus the Clinic will have access to the $30 million now controlled by the Hospital Foundation. How long will that money last?
It will offer such limited services that more and more patients will find themselves going somewhere else for treatment.
In a few years the Clinic will announce with great sadness that there is no demand for healthcare in Lakewood and close it down. I suspect that the Clinic has already secured a secret agreement with Metro Health and University Hospitals to keep them out of the City.
The Clinic intends to turn Lakewood into a healthcare desert.
What do we have to lose by putting Clinic officials on the stand to defend their actions?
What about the potential for new development on that site?
Talks of new commercial development are just talk. Nothing will be built. The parking garages are in need of major repair, the new Clinic building will take up the most valuable portion of the property and
Outside the downtown Cleveland taxpayer financed entitlement zone commercial development and retail development are failing all across Cuyahoga County.