TVHD board looks to improve hospital admissions
TVHD board looks to improve hospital admissions
By: News Staff Report
Description: Patients needing more care are often transferred or sent home
Topics:
Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
Viewed 321 times
0 responses 0 comments “I’m concerned about people who are sent home because they don’t meet the criteria of a Bakersfield hospital, but do meet the criteria of being admitted to the hospital.”
— Dr. Michael Santillanes
Efforts to to boost appropriate inpatient admissions to Tehachapi Hospital has led to a proposal by administrative staff to contract with a new type of physician, a hospitalist, who can handle both emergency and in-house patients.
According to Tehachapi Hospital emergency physician Dr. Michael Santillanes, local doctors often transfer patients to other hospitals or send them home rather than admit them to the Tehachapi Hospital.
“We understand that as a small rural hospital, Tehachapi Hospital will not be able to keep every admission due to a lack of an intensive care unit and specialist physicians,” Santillanes said. “We do feel, however, that we can keep more patients than have traditionally been kept in the past.”
On-call doctors are community physicians who have historically donated their time on a rotating basis to admit patients to the local hospital.
Ray Hino, Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District CEO, said the new program is not intended to slight community doctors who have supported Tehachapi Hospital for many years. He said the program is intended to let doctors enjoy their time off and let the emergency room doctors, and hospitalists, who are already on-site and who have already evaluated the patient, perform the necessary steps to admit a new patient.
“Local doctors may still admit their patients to the hospital,” Hino said. “The new program applies to patients who do not have a local physician, but who require a hospital admission.”
Santillanes believes the new program will be popular with the Tehachapi Hospital patients.
“I’m concerned about people who are sent home because they don’t meet the criteria of a Bakersfield hospital, but do meet the criteria of being admitted to the hospital,” Santillanes said.
He said patients wants to know why they have to be transferred and why they can’t be “here near their family.”
“When I tell them they are going to be admitted here, they almost break down and cry. They are so happy to be able to stay here,” Santillanes said.
Due to a change in policy last year that no longer requires doctors to be on call, the TVHD began paying $100-per-day stipends to those doctors who are willing to be on call.
While the TVHD recognizes needs for changes in the on-call program, Hino said this issue is not just a local one. He said most hospitals in California now pay physicians to be on call because fewer and few physicians are willing to volunteer their time for that duty. Hino said he doesn’t blame the doctors.
“It’s a burden to not be able to relax at at the end of a busy day,” he said.
He recommended to the board on May 17 that the TVHD contract with a hospitalist group.
Although the board supported the proposal to have a hospitalist work in the emergency room and stop using the on-call doctors, local physician Dr. Gary Olsen said the on-call doctors needed to be informed of the proposal before the final decision was made.
Nevertheless, board member Elizabeth Lask voiced her support for dropping the on-call doctors.
“It’s no secret that we can’t get on-call doctors to admit patients,” Lask said. “We can’t keep the hospital open if we don’t admit patients.”
Similarly, board member Bill Steele said believes that the lack of admissions adds up to a “huge amount of lost revenue.”
The board approved the motion to contract with a hospitalist group, pending notification to the medical staff.
| Send to a Friend | Report a Violation |
