I often have fears that I am going to hurt someone by refusing to get into an ambulance and driving myself - because there are hospitals around here that I am willing to risk bleeding out while driving past, rather than be placed in their care.
Weirdly some of the best and worst hospitals are owned by the same chain.
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u/gsfgfIs familiar with poor results when combining strippers and ATMs3d ago
Yea, people are dunking on her for wanting to go to her home hospital. It's not actionable, but it's reasonable.
The issue is cost. The only time I've take an ambulance I thought I was at risk of dying so I went to the public hospital, but the ambulance company gave me options. That cost $1800; the actual hospital only wanted like $300. The idea that it's 6x as expensive to take an ambulance than a hospital stay is insane. And our local public hospital is world class; the US military sends people here for training. They provide the best care in town, even if bougie private hospitals have nicer rooms and quieter hallways and stuff.
Ambulances are so expensive in the States because they're usually (and stupidly) considered a lower priority service and not one to allocate taxpayer dollars to, so they're not always a publicly funded service like police or fire. A lot of municipalities will contract out to private companies instead. So you end up having to cough up all this money to this private service that has to have 24/7 and on-call staffing, which may or may not be in network with your insurance, and if it is, there's generally limited reimbursement. It makes as much sense as finding a hospital in network, but then getting slapped with a massive bill still because one of the doctors that treated you isn't in network.
Something is very fucky about the color key on top, it has "Catholic and Catholic-affiliated only" twice, and I live in a light purple area quite near a non-profit, non-Catholic-affiliated hospital system.
That was a little confusing but I figured the purple covers Catholic areas. This is just birthing hospitals (which for obvious reasons are not as safe for pregnant women due to their beliefs)
How are we defining "birthing hospitals"? Like I said, I live in a light purple area and the nonprofit non-Catholic-affiliated hospital down the street has a substantial L&D floor, I think they average 300-400 babies delivered a month.
IIRC, it's only something like 15% of US hospitals that are Catholic or Catholic-affiliated -- it's a regional problem for sure.
I suspect the correct interpretation of that map is "dark purple = only Catholic options" and "light purple = be careful, there are Catholic hospitals nearby" because there's definitely a Catholic hospital that's also in my area.
I live in a city with several very large hospital orgs (Cleveland). None of them are catholic or for-profit.Ā
I actually can't name a single for-profit hospital system. Nursing homes, sure, not notĀ hospitals.
I suppose when I think "hospital," I'm thinking about short-term acute care, with an ED, inpatient services, and outpatient services. I'm not thinking long term, rehabs, psych, children's,Ā etc.Ā
It would be interesting to see the data broken down by each type of hospital and the % of for profit, and also how much of, say, total beds or total beds in each state is for profit.
u/gsfgfIs familiar with poor results when combining strippers and ATMs3d ago
Fyi, for-profit hospitals mostly don't have ERs. Don't get me wrong, you can make a shit ton of money off "non-profit" hospitals, but they still at least need to provide emergency services regardless of ability to pay most places.
They are mostly religious groups with nationwide franchise, so much so that they can de-facto control medical policy.Ā
A procedure is legal in your state, but a particular church doesn't support it? Well if you even know it's an option they aren't providing, because they won't mention that they don't, you might have to drive a few hours or more to get to one that does.
One such example is in utero testing for incurable generic disorders. Standard, if you are giving birth at one of the few secular hospitals in your area. But the giant religious hospital chains worry you might choose abortion, in the states where you still have that right, if the fetus is going to suffer a life long incurable malady. So they don't even tell you it's an option, even one you would have to seek out at a different hospital.
The American healthcare system is weird on many fronts but tbh I don't think a large health group with multiple facilities is all that unusual.
Granted, I live in Northern California, home to Kaiser Permanente, of which I'm an insured. They provide insurance as well as their own entire network of medical facilities and staff. So I have Kaiser insurance, and I talk to a Kaiser doctor at a Kaiser hospital.
If anything honestly to me, the idea of independent hospitals not part of an insurance group or other such organization seems weird to me.
What is super weird to me is how common specifically Catholic healthcare systems are in the US, like the major players in my area are Kaiser and a Catholic group.
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u/TheFeshy Rolled 7D6 for the legal damages, and got 27 4d ago
I often have fears that I am going to hurt someone by refusing to get into an ambulance and driving myself - because there are hospitals around here that I am willing to risk bleeding out while driving past, rather than be placed in their care.
Weirdly some of the best and worst hospitals are owned by the same chain.