THE MARIN grand jury's recommendation that Marin General Hospital should be sold comes in the 11th-hour of a much-debated public process.
In just 13 months, the Marin Healthcare District will take over Marin General, the county's largest hospital, and end its longstanding and controversial lease with Sutter Health.
At a time when the district is building a management team and planning for what the publicly elected board hopes is a smooth transition of the hospital's management, the civil grand jury has concluded the district's prognosis is risky. "Hope is not a strategy" is the title of the grand jury's report.
Citing today's difficult economic market for hospital care and the district's tradition of political dysfunction, the grand jury holds out no hope that the district can pull off a successful transition. The report urges the county to step in, decommission the district and sell the hospital, with voter approval.
County supervisors, who until recent years lacked the political courage to get involved in the embarrassing tug-of-war over Marin General, have loaned the district $20 million to help in the transition.
The district board, which is banking on the advice of consultants and voters' support of directors who back the transition, is moving ahead in assembling a well-paid team of professionals to turn MGH into what it hopes will be a top-notch public hospital.
The board has done a good job of focusing on business rather than indulging in the political histrionics that have plagued the district's leadership for far too long.
We appreciate that the grand jury is concerned about the district's ability to end the lease with Sutter and successfully operate a full-service public hospital. We too are concerned. This is not a sure thing.
But the marriage between the district and Sutter Health was a public-policy disaster that could not be mended. Last-minute overtures to patch things up were unsuccessful.
Giving up public oversight of the hospital was a nonstarter with voters, who for 20 years elected harsh critics of Sutter's management to the district board. Overtures made to other private and not-for-profit hospital systems drew no interest.
Even longtime Sutter backers call the grand jury's recommendation "counterproductive."
Concerns raised in the report are valid and should not be ignored or dismissed. Healthcare District director Sharon Jackson, who has expressed reservations about the district's plans, should make sure those concerns are discussed.
There's always a valid role for constructive dissent The grand jury's recommendation to sell Marin General Hospital deserves thorough and thoughtful responses from each board member - and the county.
Should it cause the Marin Healthcare District board to stop preparing for a seamless transition in the management of Marin General? No. But the grand jury's report, while late in the game, should serve as a reminder to the board and the public of the risks and responsibilities facing the district and Marin General.
http://www.marinij.com/ci_12488664?source=most_emailed
1 comment:
Is it time to do away with the County Grand Jury (Civil) system, that some call archaic, that resides in the Counties of California? I know that every response, to every Grand Jury report, prepared by every County and District hospital starts with paying homage to these noble volunteers and the history and causes the Grand Jury pursues. But the truth is most of the Grand Jury’s in California are made up of old busy-bodies that are looking for something to do in their retirement. It is not that I don’t like old people or that I am envious of retired people, I just wonder if old retired people can keep the pace in the new world. Kind of like our parents trying to understand “New Math” for those that remember that time.
Some Jurors were probably successful in their past, have years of life experiences and do really want to help society. My concern is do they really understand today’s business, healthcare, and government world? Sure I can sit back and armchair quarterback every decision that our government makes and for the record I usually do at 6:00 pm every evening when I watch the news but crying and moaning about the news on my own couch is much different than having the authority that the Grand Jury does and then publishing a public report with a response required by the government agencies they investigate.
These Grand Jury’s cost the various government agencies thousands and thousands of dollars in staff hours with their voluminous and frivolous document requests and demanded testimony. In the case of public hospitals the data is time consuming to prepare because the Jury does not know what exactly to request and then once they have the data they have no clue how to interpret it.
They could give a damn that the person they want to interview, usually an elected official that serves without compensation, has a real job and it is not convenient to attend their demanded interview date and time. They don’t care if you have to drive for hours to their required interview location; all they care about is that it doesn’t interfere with their Thursday afternoon bridge game and you damn well better be there.
I read the responses that legal counsel for the Healthcare Districts and County Hospitals prepare to the published Grand Jury reports and it almost every report they spend paragraph after paragraph correcting the Grand Jury’s finding and then their flawed recommendations. Then some government agency that has little or no control over the situation also prepares a report indicating they don’t have control and they have no opinion. This is ludicrous.
I am not sure that it is all the Grand Jury’s fault that their reports about hospitals and probably other agencies are so flawed as the Counties provide them very little support or expertise. A hospital consultant is not available to them to explain the nuances of a very complicated business nor is a healthcare attorney. These poor well-meaning people are given an assignment to investigate and then left to their own means to figure it out. Hell, I have been in the hospital business for 25 years and I can’t figure it out, much less ask me to figure out the water, waste, or sewer business.
Maybe it is time for the Grand Jury’s to investigate the Grand Jury system in the County’s of California. I suspect they would conclude it is inefficient, costly to taxpayers and produces marginal results if any, but then again, who the hell knows how these people think or if they do.
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