-By Warner Todd Huston
Fox News did an interesting report a few days ago that showed that most Chicago-Area Emergency Rooms are not properly equipped for trauma cases. It seems that it might depend on what part of the city you live in if you will survive a car crash, falling off a building, a gun shot or other such life-threatening trauma. Naturally, if you live on the north side you have a better chance of finding a good emergency trauma center than if you live on the south side.
Fox reports that one of the few southward trauma centers is Advocate Christ Medical Center of Oak Lawn.
The main problem is, of course, money. An unfortunately large number of trauma patients are not covered by insurance and when these patients come through a hospital and are treated for their expensive injuries, the hospitals eat much of the costs of care. The state does pay hospitals a small portion of the costs of indigent care, but by no means do hospitals get their costs satisfied in total.
Fox reports that Cook County officials have started to address the situation and so has the Ill. Dept. of Health. Funding, however, has dried up due to the budget crisis in Springfield and plans to correct the disparity in trauma care have stalled.
The Illinois Department of Health is working on a “Trauma Strategic Plan” to help rectify the situation but, for now, it’s on the back burner due to budge constraints and other issues the state has deemed higher priority.
And remember, folks, the sort of payouts to hospitals to cover these sort of things will be cut even further once Obamacare comes into full force. This is likely to cause even fewer hospitals to want to implement top-notch trauma care in order to avoid losing the millions of dollars a year that such care always means.
It is most certainly a difficult situation all around and I wish I had an answer to it all, but I just don’t.
Anyway, kudos to Fox News Chicago for the report. It is something we should all be aware of.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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