Opinion
Hospitals are right to protect their viability to serve overall community
LETTER — Posted May 24, 2004
Regarding "Med-staff hospital fights turn nasty and more litigious," (Article, April 19): The idea that a hospital board policy to deny privileges to physicians with competing interests would disrupt the physician-patient relationship is fallacy.
What is any different when an employer changes insurance coverage? The resultant change in insurance company and respective physician panel causes an exodus of patients from the care of one physician to another. These disruptions occur daily.
Physicians dictate hospital choice more than patients.
It is in the community's interest to have hospitals that can provide the broad coverage of care and remain viable. The development of specialty hospitals will be to the detriment of care overall. The carve-out of revenue from procedure-based specialties takes away from the revenue stream necessary to provide care in the broadest sense, to all, regardless of insurance coverage or not.
John Wilder Baker, MD, Little Rock, Ark.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/05/24/edlt0524.htm.
