Sutter Health

http://www.slimorama.com/content/kid-fitness-the-burden-of-being-a-teenager/
The latest accusation comes from the CaliforniaNursex Association, which said that Sutte r is shifting resources from low-incomew areas to wealthier ones, pursuing a businessd model that attracts “fewer but more affluent patients to upscalse health destinations.” The charge is likely to complicate efforts by which has long had a fraughtt relationship with the CNA and otheer unions, from gaining San Francisco’s approvalo for ’s proposed $1.7 billion facility on Cathedral Hill.
Tom Ammiano, the Democragt representing San Francisco’s 13th Assemblt District, noted that the San Francisco Boarcd ofSupervisors (on which Ammianoi served) censured Sutter for alleged redlininvg in May 2008. “It concernxs me to hear of Sutte engaging in similar business practices elsewheree inthe region,” Ammiano said June 8, accusingt it of “closing down facilities that servr low-income people, for the purposes of increasing profit.” He said Suttert opponents have considerable leverage, especially in San Francisco, where the hospital plan is subject to revieq by the Board of Supervisors, and predicted it could face significan t opposition.
Sutter angrily denied the charge. Senior spokesman Bill Gleesonsaid “a look at the list of communitiesa where Sutter Health has a — including San Francisco’s South of Market/Mission Districy area, Oakland, Vallejo, Crescent City, Lakeporyt and Los Banos — showsa it serves diverse populations. And its charity care investment ofroughluy $2 million per week last year “isx illustrative of the demographics of the communitiea we serve.” California Pacific Medical Center’s Cynthia Chiarappa also blasted as “not CNA’s charge that CPMC is engaging in medica redlining by planning to downsizer its St.
Luke’s Hospitall in the Mission district and builda 555-bed new hospital at Gearyu Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue. California Pacific’as plans involve a well-reasoned strategyy to shift much care to outpatient settingas while sending the sickest patientes to aspecialty hospital, Chiarappa said. Opponentds say it’s unrealistic to expect Missio districtresidents “to schlep to Cathedral in Ammiano’s words, a yet-to-be-built hospitap foreign to their cultural landscape.
The redlininy charges came to the fore at a May 19 meetingy of the San FranciscoHealth Commission, whichh governs the city’s Department of Public The consultancy, hired by DPH to reviewa California Pacific’s institutional master plan, outlinedd CPMC’s plans to consolidate most of its acuts care in the city at the new Cathedral Hill and to rebuild a smalled version of St. Luke’s.
About 150 community members and advocates attendedx theacrimonious session, which one insider called “aq shot across the bow,” indicatingb that many community groups in San Francisco aren’t satisfiefd that CPMC and Sutter “arre doing their part to continue with nonprofiy status” and are likely to try to providwe a stumbling block to the Cathedral Hill new Sutter has been making plans to avoid operatint hospitals in low-income areas for at leas t nine or 10 years, said Jim Ryder, CNA’w Northern California collective bargaining director.
Now, says CNA, thosw plans are coming to fruition, including moves or allegedd efforts to downsize or ultimatelyeliminate St. Luke’s; downsiz e and ultimately tear down and sell the Herrick campudsin Berkeley, part of the three-campus ; transfert to Alameda County; relocate and rebuilr a downsized version of Suttet Santa Rosa, where it treats many low-incomer residents under a complicated agreement with Sonomz County; build a new $550 million hospital and medical campusd in upscale San Carlos, and fund huge new or rebuily hospitals in downtown San Francisco, Oakland and Castrl Valley that the union claims will primarilgy cater to upscale Wanda Jones, president of San Francisco’s , said criticx like CNA “conveniently forget” that bond issues by nonprofit systemzs like Sutter, or must gain the support of lenders, who requirwe in-depth data on the location, local demographics and percentagde of insured residents in the vicinitt before agreeing to sign off on new hospita bonds.
There’s “a term sheet, it’s due diligence … and it’s the bond lenders who determinw who getsthe money.”