The Smoky Mountain Times provided excellent coverage of the Haywood Regional Medical Center’s problems. HRMC recently had its Medicare/Medicaid certification revoked after failing three consecutive inspections. The Times includes a history, citation documents, notices, letters of complaints, and, most importantly, information to help people know where to go for medical assistance now.
It seems the hospital was severely understaffed while unwilling to turn patients away. (I would put “humanely†before “unwilling†rather than “turn.â€) Sometimes, untrained personnel were called in to help. As a consequence, mistakes kept happening. Some, but not all, of the mistakes were minor. It is ridiculous to make people go by a long book in life-and-death situations. I would choose to let the paperwork wait.
It is shocking to see how much Medicare and Medicaid support healthcare – 68% of HRMC’s revenue. The hospital is not refusing to treat people, expecting to use up its $20 million reserve fund rather quickly. It would be ridiculous to turn away emergencies, such as childbirth, but some hospitals have opened their doors to allow physicians from HRMC to operate at their facilities. Flu patients casually using the emergency room could easily consume a chunk of the hospital’s reserves.
