The NY Times takes aim at University Hospital in Syracuse.
Despite data that show that it ranks low in hospital-acquired infections and provides expensive, low-quality care, the hospital remains open.
It has been recommended that the hospital shrink, or merge with another. But instead of doing so, it has expanded.
The difficulty lies in the fact that hospitals are major employers of the city. Any type of closure or merger would lead to significant job losses, and thus, fought ferociously by both the community and the unions.
A strong piece – Syracuse’s medical community can’t be happy about the negative publicity – that illustrates how hard it will be to cut health spending.
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A strong piece? After being a regular reader of the NYT over the past 10 years, I’d say it was one of the most slip-shod, sensationalist pieces of journalism I’ve seen in a long time. The Times has an established history now of antipathy towards physicans while maintaining this kind of infatuation with regulatory bodies like JCAHO. I guess that is what develops when you pen trash articles from an office in Manhattan while those of us in the trenches of medicine give our sweat, blood and tears to provide care to the poor and indigent.
I’m a resident at University Hospital, and like all of my colleagues there, I give 110% every day to serve the poorest, sickest, and least fortunate members of the Upstate NY community. I am proud of the work I do and the education I am receiving. I do not need an article in the New York Times to define what a “good hospital” is – I can see it in the grateful eyes of the patients we help.
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