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BlueWaveNeverEnd

(7,537 posts)
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 10:01 AM Jun 2023

CA Rural hospital closed, some have accepted they may die in emergency

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-06/madera-county-rural-hospital-closure-some-residents-brace-for-death

This rural California county lost its only hospital, leaving residents with dire healthcare choices

MADERA, Calif. — It was dinnertime when Sabrina Baker, a mother of six, felt the familiar twinge of contractions.
At first, she brushed it off as Braxton Hicks, false labor pains not uncommon in the late stages of pregnancy. But after dinner that night in early January, the pain sharpened and radiated to her back. The contractions intensified, and Baker knew this baby girl was coming fast.

She had a decision to make — and the options weren’t good.

Two days earlier, Madera County’s only general hospital had shut its doors. The abrupt closure of Madera Community Hospital and its affiliated medical clinics capped years of financial turmoil. Still, most residents in this rural county in California’s geographic center were caught off guard, unaware of just how much was at stake until their hospital was gone.


Baker knew she couldn’t make it to the next closest hospital, in Fresno, a roughly 45-minute drive.

Twenty-five minutes after the first contraction and two pushes later, she delivered her daughter, alone, on her tan love seat. The baby was breech, which upped the anguish and the risk during delivery. When it was over, Baker tied the umbilical cord with new shoelaces and wrapped Onax in a San Francisco 49ers blanket. An ambulance rolled up 20 minutes later to take mom and baby to the hospital.

“I mean, I’m lucky,” Baker said, standing outside her home in a swath of Madera County surrounded by cropland and almond groves. “We could have died.”

-------------

Madera Community Hospital shut its doors and by March had filed for bankruptcy.

Residents were anxious. Many don’t have cars and worried about how they would get to hospitals in other counties. Longer wait times at those remote emergency departments meant they would miss the work and pay they need to survive.
21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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CA Rural hospital closed, some have accepted they may die in emergency (Original Post) BlueWaveNeverEnd Jun 2023 OP
The greatest health care system in the world. niyad Jun 2023 #1
A Joke NowISeetheLight Jun 2023 #3
In Canada we do not have tv ads on prescription meds riverbendviewgal Jun 2023 #5
It's baffling gratuitous Jun 2023 #18
You would think California bring fifth largest economy in the world would have jimfields33 Jun 2023 #4
One would think. niyad Jun 2023 #6
Gov Newsom did this last month: BlueWaveNeverEnd Jun 2023 #14
Thank you. niyad Jun 2023 #19
Gov Newsom is on it: "Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the Distressed Hospi BlueWaveNeverEnd Jun 2023 #13
It's not even close to as rural as you would think either. It's more like 20 minutes from Fresno. onecaliberal Jun 2023 #2
True. Not that Madera shouldn't have a hospital. vanlassie Jun 2023 #10
Yes, the distances are as you describe. onecaliberal Jun 2023 #11
I just don't like exaggerated news even if it's vanlassie Jun 2023 #12
+1 dalton99a Jun 2023 #16
I guess compared to the Los Angeles Area and Bay Area, the writer considers it rural BlueWaveNeverEnd Jun 2023 #17
For Profit health care is immoral Johnny2X2X Jun 2023 #7
Under a Canadian style system, more rural hospitals would stay open. roamer65 Jun 2023 #8
What a sick, twisted, commie system!!! Sky Jewels Jun 2023 #21
Madera is a city of 70,000 people. patphil Jun 2023 #9
She named her kid Onax? Snooper9 Jun 2023 #15
Well, if rural people want to have hospital access, they might want to stop voting red. Sky Jewels Jun 2023 #20

NowISeetheLight

(3,941 posts)
3. A Joke
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 10:18 AM
Jun 2023

After working in hospital revenue cycle at the upper mgmt level I can honestly say our healthcare system is completely broken. We spend twice what other industrialized nations do per patient, have worse outcomes and don't cover anyone. All to pad the profits of insurance companies, pharmaceutical , for profit healthcare and device manufacturers.

They claim the extra we pay is to promote innovation and invention, yet drug companies spend twice on advertising what they do on research.

We have insurance companies flying people in India for joint replacements, great hospital care, rehab, including a companion, for weeks. They offer the patients no copay or deductible if they go. Then they come home and it's still cheaper than an overnight surgery here where they go home with limited aftercare. It's a joke... a sick joke.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/health/21abroad.html



riverbendviewgal

(4,251 posts)
5. In Canada we do not have tv ads on prescription meds
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 10:55 AM
Jun 2023

Not allowed. Watching american ads on american stations is astounding at all the warningd.

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
18. It's baffling
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 04:21 PM
Jun 2023

Heavy advertisements for a product you can't buy, that might kill you or do you serious injury, and that is micro-targeted for a very small percentage of the population. For example, Skyrizi is a drug to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, a condition that affects fewer than 10 million people in the country (about 3%). But a viewer can't make it through an evening without seeing at least one extended ad (1 minute or longer) for it during prime time.

But Merck is suing to stop the federal government from negotiating prescription drug prices.

jimfields33

(15,473 posts)
4. You would think California bring fifth largest economy in the world would have
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 10:52 AM
Jun 2023

Saved the hospital with grants from the state at least until they could financially do it.

BlueWaveNeverEnd

(7,537 posts)
14. Gov Newsom did this last month:
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 03:49 PM
Jun 2023
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, which will provide $150 million in zero-interest loans to hospitals teetering on financial ruin. The aim, according to legislators, is to help struggling hospitals stay open and to assist with the reopening of recently closed ones like Madera Community.

BlueWaveNeverEnd

(7,537 posts)
13. Gov Newsom is on it: "Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the Distressed Hospi
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 03:49 PM
Jun 2023

from the article:

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, which will provide $150 million in zero-interest loans to hospitals teetering on financial ruin. The aim, according to legislators, is to help struggling hospitals stay open and to assist with the reopening of recently closed ones like Madera Community.

vanlassie

(5,637 posts)
10. True. Not that Madera shouldn't have a hospital.
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 11:44 AM
Jun 2023

Especially for emergencies. But I’d bet lots of Madera folks use Fresno hospitals anyway. The 45 minute statement is very exaggerated. (However, 40 years ago I chose to drive from Fresno to Visalia, which IS 45 minutes, to give birth in a progressive small hospital.

onecaliberal

(32,489 posts)
11. Yes, the distances are as you describe.
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 11:46 AM
Jun 2023

And they should get to have a hospital in Madera. People are dying because it’s not open.

Johnny2X2X

(18,745 posts)
7. For Profit health care is immoral
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 11:00 AM
Jun 2023

Small town clinics and urgent care centers save lives, but they aren't profit centers so they're being closed across the country.

roamer65

(36,739 posts)
8. Under a Canadian style system, more rural hospitals would stay open.
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 11:06 AM
Jun 2023

In Ontario, the province keeps the rural ones open because it’s not about profit.

It’s about delivering health care.

patphil

(6,035 posts)
9. Madera is a city of 70,000 people.
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 11:17 AM
Jun 2023
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/madera-ca-population

The area around Madera may be rural, but a city of that size needs to have a hospital. I think the state should intervene and get the hospital reopened under new management.
 

Snooper9

(484 posts)
15. She named her kid Onax?
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 03:55 PM
Jun 2023

Is there some new thing where people just throw some scrabble letters up and see what lands LOL

Sky Jewels

(6,862 posts)
20. Well, if rural people want to have hospital access, they might want to stop voting red.
Tue Jun 6, 2023, 06:35 PM
Jun 2023

For-profit healthcare is a crime. We need universal, government-provided care. No insurance middleman are needed.

(Yes, yes, I know ... "not all" rural people vote red ..., etc., etc. My heart goes out to the Democrats and progressives amongst them.)

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