I would like to provide clarification on the recent presentation made before Fairfield County Council by Fairfield Memorial Hospital’s CEO and CFO. It is my understanding that there may have been some difficultly hearing all that was said during the meeting.
Each year Fairfield Memorial Hospital and other County related agencies submit their annual budget requests to the County for approval. The County and the submitting agencies equally understand that the request includes everything we want from the County; however, neither party anticipates the county to fully fund the requests.
The funding request presented to Council on Feb. 26, 2018, in the amount of $4,000,801 is not the funding request the Hospital anticipates is needed to keep the Fairfield Memorial Hospital operational until Providence Health Fairfield Freestanding Emergency Room opens.
On Feb. 5, the hospital submitted a request to County Administrator Jason Taylor for $2.7 million. This is our anticipated cash shortfall until the end of 2018. If the new Emergency Room opens sooner, the anticipated loss will decline.
It is our goal to preserve much needed emergency room services in Fairfield County. The Hospital Board continues to monitor and direct to be implemented, all additional expense reductions possible. This facility saw over 3,500 patients during the last 6 months. We also provided services to people who had no other option but to seek care in our emergency room.
Thank you for listening to my concerns.
Catherine Fantry, Chair
Fairfield Memorial Hospital Board
I have to say I’m surprised that the ER saw over 3,500 patients in 6 months especially since the population of our county is less than 24,000 total! At this rate the Emergency room will see 30% of the county population in 2018. Something seems amiss in the reported numbers. 3,500 patients at the ER is also an average of just under 600 patients per month, or about 20 per day average. We apparently have lot of sickness and injuries warranting emergency care for a county with such a small population. And the projected “SHORT FALL” for emergency care of $2,700,000 for the next 9 months…. wow! Do none of the patients have insurance or pay for their care? I know medical care is expensive… this boggles the mind. Do all counties subsidize the hospital within county boundaries?
We need $2.7m but asked for $4m????? Dishonest approach to start with. The hospital should be in a ‘shutting down’ mode…minimum essential!!!!! It is as if we are still in denial. It seems quite unlikely that there were 3500 bonofide emergencies in this county in 6 months and IF there were the hospital should be fully funded with billing from them. With the number of vehicles, flat screen TV’s and smart phones, Medicare and Medicaid, welfare in our county, there should be adequate provisions to pay one’s health bill if bilking is pursued. ‘Provided services that people had no other treatment options?’…..In other words we are a county funded Doc-in-a-box treating people for non-emergent symptoms which should be taken to a doctor’s office rather than an ER? Do we have a triage system in place to redirect a toothache to an appropriate level of care outside the hospital setting? If not, the hospital is guilty of encouraging incorrect behaviors at a cost to taxpayers. We are just rolling over and accepting behaviors which we know are wrong? That is not responsible leadership and stewardship to the taxpayers of this county. The new Providence ER will not put up with this. And is it true we are fully staffed with senior management positions in the hospital currently when on a given day we have NO in-patients? The story just does NOT hold water.
I believe nothing the hospital says. NOT ONE WORD! The incompetence is only surpassed by the insincerity of their leadership. How can one look themselves in the mirror without crying in shame? A man came into the ER for stitches in his finger, cutting them with a log splitter. There was 1 other person in the ER, after waiting 3 hours and bleeding into a trash can supplied by the hospital. He was told to go to Providence, they would not stitch his hand. They did nothing for him but, 3 months later the billed him $450.00 and never billed his insurance. Of course, this is SOP standard operating procedure for the inept and illegal. CLOSE this place up today PLEASE.