Comments in the editorial “A Surgical Strike” (Feb. 27) are a gross oversimplification and show a remarkable lack of insight.
Surgical centers provide little or no charity care. They are not required to take care of everyone that comes to their door regardless of ability to pay. In fact, no one arrives at their door uninvited.
They do not provide emergency services. They do not have to stay open nights and weekends. They are subjected to a fraction of the regulatory burden imposed on hospitals.
Patients do not go to these centers because they are better, but because they are directed to them by physicians who also happen to own them. These same physicians direct the uninsured and under-insured to a hospital.
So the surgical center profits enough to run a fancy, clean facility with no bums or drunks in the waiting room. If they have a complication at the center, they transfer the patient to a hospital and go home for the night.
If they don’t make money, they can close without the approval of the state, city, courts, community activists and unions. And you call that competition?
William J. McHugh
Medical Director and
Chief Medical Officer
Trinitas Regional
Medical Center
Elizabeth, NJ
Hospitals’ handicaps
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Hospitals’ handicaps
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Hospitals’ handicaps
