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| Indeed, the new hospital’s impact
on costs is of vital interest to all parties. By creating a complete
continuum of services and allowing the full integration of patient care, the
new hospital will set the stage for Aurora and Advanced Healthcare to drive
down the cost of care. |
| We believe strongly in the merits
of competition in health care. Competition improves quality, improves
service, drives innovation and acts as a check on costs. In a free market
system that embraces competition, the “duplication of services” argument has
no place. |
| At the same public hearing,
Aurora provided an expert who refuted this beds-per-thousand argument. |
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Editorial: Healthy skepticism
Village officials should consider all of the costs and benefits of a
proposed Aurora medical center just five miles from another hospital.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 7, 2007
Grafton Village President James Brunnquell got it right when he said,
in considering whether to approve a proposed Aurora medical center in
the village, that the paramount consideration for officials should be
"how does this particular project benefit the community?"
But certainly part of the question of whether the project will
benefit the
 community
involves the center's impact on health care costs, which will be borne
by Grafton residents as well as by other residents in Ozaukee County and
the rest of southeastern
 Wisconsin.
And that impact needs to be considered by the Plan Commission when it
meets Dec. 13 to make a recommendation and by the Village Board when it
considers that recommendation on Dec. 17.
The proposed hospital and medical office building would be built at
the east end of the village, less than five miles from Columbia St.
Mary's Hospital Ozaukee in Mequon. Does it make sense to have two
hospitals
that close to each other, potentially duplicating each other's services?
"How many hospital beds are enough for a county?" asked Therese Pandl,
executive vice president and chief operating officer of Columbia St.
Mary's, at a recent combined meeting of the Village Board and Plan
Commission.
Pandl
obviously has a bias, but she cited a national standard that says about
1.5 hospital beds per 1,000 residents is adequate for an area. Right
now, Ozaukee County has 2.2 beds per 1,000 residents, she said. If the
Aurora center gets built and
Columbia
St. Mary's fills its new addition in Mequon, the county will have 4.1
beds per 1,000 residents.
Grafton citizens have said in community surveys that they want
another full-service hospital in the area. That's fine, but officials
should be aware of the costs of providing that hospital.
Competition usually serves to lower costs, but that hasn't
been
the case in health care, especially when there is excess capacity.
It's reasonable to ask not only what benefits the hospital and all
those extra beds - at both Aurora and the addition at Columbia St.
Mary's - will bring, but also what costs will come with them.
Maybe the Aurora center makes sense for Ozaukee County. But Grafton
officials should get answers to both questions before they decide.
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| Much falls within the
purview of Plan Commission members, but solving our nation’s
health care cost crunch is not on the agenda. |
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| “Obviously has a bias”
is understatement at its best. The Columbia St. Mary’s
organization operates the only hospitals in the entire
northeastern segment of the metropolitan area, and it wishes to
maintain that position. |
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| The Federal Trade
Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a
comprehensive study of competition in health care and concluded
that competition delivers enormous benefits for health care
consumers. |
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