Does West County Need Palm Drive Hospital?

Lots of concern lately that Palm Drive Hospital is in dire financial condition, and may go bankrupt. How will this problem be solved? Does it really need to be solved?

The discussion will invariably be about how the Sebastopol/west county community needs to dig deep again to support this problematic institution. Funding options will be proposed, and one of them will end up on the ballot.

In my perhaps cynical view, the most likely result will be another parcel tax on Sebastopol area land owners. Most voters don't own parcels. So when they see a voting option to place the burden on land owners instead of themselves, they'll most likely go for it. Gee...thanks.

I think the discussion should be more focused on whether our community actually needs this hospital. Yes there definitely should be some community medical services institution, but do we really need to fund an expensive full-service hospital? I don't believe we do.

In theory, more hospitals is better. In a perfect world there would be one on every block, in case of emergency. The reality is, that with today's horrendous medical system, we can't even afford to have a hospital in every community.

I suggest that the west county's medical money would be best spent on a trauma center for emergencies, and then walk-in clinics for everything else. We do not need hugely expensive local mri and other ultra-hi-tech gizmos & labs, plus the expensive personnel to operate them. Do we need an ICU in Sebastopol? Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to maintain these expensive and redundant medical services in a more central location, somewhere in Santa Rosa?

I'm wondering too if, on some level, hospitals are like pro sport franchises. Local politicians think that to show status, a really on-the-ball city has to have a spiffy sports stadium, or in Sebastopol's case, a full-service hospital.

Tars the curmudgeon
https://www.rpriddle.com/avatar/worried_125.jpg

Turning our health care system over to insurance companies that make money by denying service will go down in history as one of the most monumentally idiotic things we've ever done as a nation, and that's saying a lot.

All over the country, doctors are quiting and hospitals are closing, as corporations suck the blood out of the system and continue to convince Americans that what they're doing is rational.

I have heard that Dr. Terry Turner is now the director of medicine at Palm Drive. I have heard that her intention is to provide alternative modalities along with allopathic medicine. I hope this really happens. She is our local font on Lyme disease. Mindy

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Posted in reply to the post by Clancy:

Turning our health care system over to insurance companies that make money by denying service will go down in history as one of the most monumentally idiotic things we've ever done as a nation, and that's saying a lot.

All over the country, doctors are quiting and hospitals are closing, as corporations suck the blood out of the system and continue to convince Americans that what they're doing is rational.

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The last parcel tax was supposed to fix their financial problems forever. That's the last bail out I'm going to vote to provide them.

The parcel tax is a fixed amount per parcel. I don't recall the amount but it was at least twcie what the previous tax was.

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Posted in reply to the post by tacitus:

As a renter, I provided my portion of the parcel tax through the raise in my rent. However, I don't know what the actual amount was and whether or not it's dependent on assessed value. Could you tell us more?

Dian

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Posted in reply to the post by tacitus:

As a renter, I provided my portion of the parcel tax through the raise in my rent.

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Most property owners don't have rents they can raise. But the amount of the parcel tax, while painful for those who have to pay it, isn't the main point. You alluded to the main problem - increased cost to everyone, renters, land owners, visitors to Sebastopol, customers of west county businesses - for a hospital of questionable value to our community.

Perhaps we need Palm Drive, as it is, and need to absorb the additional future costs. I haven't seen anyone present a convincing case for that. More likely a more cost-effective means could be found to address the medical needs for this end of the county. As I suggested - trauma center, and walk-in clinic should be sufficient to handle regular medical needs.

Economics aside, I think having Palm Drive in Sebastopol is great, even though I live in Forestville. Checking my property tax statement, the Palm Drive charge is $155 per parcel (and I, like many in rural west county, have multiple small parcels for a single home, so we get to pay $155 for each one)

Cheers
Don

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Posted in reply to the post by Tars:

Most property owners don't have rents they can raise. But the amount of the parcel tax, while painful for those who have to pay it, isn't the main point. You alluded to the main problem - increased cost to everyone, renters, land owners, visitors to Sebastopol, customers of west county businesses - for a hospital of questionable value to our community.

Perhaps we need Palm Drive, as it is, and need to absorb the additional future costs. I haven't seen anyone present a convincing case for that. More likely a more cost-effective means could be found to address the medical needs for this end of the county. As I suggested - trauma center, and walk-in clinic should be sufficient to handle regular medical needs.

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Posted in reply to the post by don:

Checking my property tax statement, the Palm Drive charge is $155 per parcel (and I, like many in rural west county, have multiple small parcels for a single home, so we get to pay $155 for each one)

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Yep, I'm "blessed" with three parcels here. If it was only $465/year I was paying. Add to that the extra amount I pay for things everyday in Sebastopol because business owners have had to raise their prices to cover the extra gouge.

I had the bad luck to need an emergency room. Not knowing any better, I went to Palm Drive. Without leaving the emergency room, it ended up costing me $12,000 before Palm Drive decided they weren't really the best place for me, and shipped me off (cost $2,000) to Memorial Hospital.

I've had need of hospitals since, and now I know enough to go straight to the the hospitals in Santa Rosa. I'm alarmed that I will be hit up yet again, even more egregiously, for a hospital that overcharges, even more than the Santa Rosa hospitals overcharge, and then as likely as not will need to refer me off to somewhere else.

Why are we continuing to pay more and more for a hospital that really serves minimal useful purpose. Its main attraction that I can see is that it's 5-10 minutes quicker to get to for rural west county patients. If your medical malady is such that 5-10 minutes makes such a huge difference, then why not just have a trauma care center in Sebastopol, where you can be treated enough so that you can transfer to a true full-service hospital in Santa Rosa. If a trauma center won't do the trick, someone has probably 911ed, and you're probably going to be picked up by a helicopter and taken to SR anyway.

By the way, thanks to those who replied in email to my posts here, voicing your agreement and support. I hope that you will at some point feel like making your opinions known publicly as well. Who knows, maybe one of our local political "leaders" will see your post and take heed.

:idea:I support the need for a medical facility in Sebastopol, at least for emergency services, trauma and triage for west county medical emergencies.

I don't know enough about the economics of running a hospital to state that such a facility could be self sustaining...that is, operating with the continued input of the present parcel tax within our regional hospital area. Perhaps it could operate as a west county subsidiary of the Santa Rosa full service hospitals, and be partially subsidized for the service.

I am a longtime, loyal Kaiser member, but have supported Palm Drive because I want them there for the time sensitive medical emergencies that arise or might arise.

I hope that the new CEO can turn it around.

I would also like to stop beating up on the present Board of Directors. I think it is unproductive, deleterious and needlessly provacative activity that is not likely to reap good results.

You bet we do!! You must not have ever had a life threatening situation and needed the closest, most immediate care. Well I have. And when I was very close to death I would have not wanted to be in any other facility in this county. Palm Drive Hosp. is a small, high quality care facility. Because of the size, I believe the quality of care is better than at some awful place like Memorial or goddess help us Sutter. And not everyone can afford Kaiser. I am not a property owner, but would happily pay some sort of additional sales tax or whatever it takes to keep Palm Drive open. Lili Burnley

Most of these posts are several years old. Just to update you: Palm Drive did go into bankruptcy, and came out of it in May 2010 without asking for any additional parcel taxes. The hospital board hired a professional management company in August 2009. It is a three-year management contract. The financial picture is improving, and the hospital is expected to end this fiscal year in the black (if you count both revenues from hospital services and parcel taxes.) That would be the first time in 10 years the hospital has not lost money!