Public hearings re Kenneth Hall Aug. 24
Columnist James Ingram
I can remember, back in the day, when East St. Louis enjoyed the luxury of services from two different hospitals: Christian Welfare and St. Mary’s.
The dilapidated Christian Welfare Hospital was eventually rehabbed and reincarnated as Gateway Community Hospital. It’s been shuttered for over 15 years now, due to financial insolvency.
Since that time, St. Mary’s (renamed Kenneth Hall in 2004) has repeatedly been on economic life support. Former St. Mary’s honchos Richard Mark (now with Ameren UE) and Charles Windsor resuscitated the hospital, taking it out of the red and into black, expanding and improving hospital services.
Since their departure, the hospital has repeatedly been on the verge of flat-lining financially. In fact, the hospital is in such grave condition that Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation (SIHF), the current owner of Kenneth Hall Regional (since 2003), recently filed a certificate of need with the State of Illinois.
To their credit SIHF, according to top hospital executives Larry McManus and Robert Kutts, has reduced Kenneth Hall’s yearly budget deficit from $6 million to $3 million. However, the hospital continues its fiscal hemorrhaging, to the tune of $2-3 million per year.
So, as businessmen do, a “cost-cutting” plan has been revealed to merge Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital (in ESL) with Touchette Regional Hospital (in Centreville), eliminating intensive care beds at the ESL hospital, while retaining inpatient mental healthcare and emergency room services in ESL.
The intensive care beds would be transferred to the Centreville facility, leaving ESL citizens with nothing more than a glorified emergency room for the entire city.
What went wrong? In a word, poverty. Kenneth Hall’s losses come as the result of the extremely high numbers of uninsured patients it serves: four times the national average.
Which brings us to the impact of this business move. Movie director Michael Moore points out in his latest film Sicko that nearly 50 million Americans have no health insurance and that 18,000 million of those Americans die simply because they are uninsured.
What does that mean to “East Boogie”? It means that many of the 30,000 residents who now call East Boogie home may soon flee for fear of living in a city with insufficient healthcare.
It means that customers of the Casino Queen, ESL’s greatest corporate neighbor, can’t guarantee sufficient access to a quality hospital should her gamblers (many of them senior citizens) sprain their wrists at the craps tables or dislocate their elbows at the slot machines.
It means that if multiple shootings should occur at ESL’s various nightclubs (which is not out of the question), in the housing projects or at the hands of gang bangers, they might as well call the undertaker instead of an ambulance, in “the 618.”
It may even mean that dozens of Kenneth Hall employees may soon be unemployed because, ultimately, cuts in services mean cuts in areas in which services are no longer offered.
Also, on the horizon, SIHF would like to build a $150 million hospital near I-255 (between Sauget and Centreville). If they succeed, I predict that both the Kenneth Hall and Touchette facilities would be closed, increasing the distance to the nearest hospital, which would compromise the health of many poor African-American residents of ESL, Centreville and Alorton.
The latest move, while economically sound, most likely is the precursor to a death sentence for many poor backs in and around ESL. Increasing the distance one has to travel for emergency and other healthcare can, literally, mean the difference between life and death for those in poor communities.
What can residents do? On August 24 two hearings will be held regarding the proposed merger. The first hearing will be at 9 a.m. ESL City Hall (301 Riverpark Dr.) and at 1 p.m. at Centreville City Hall (5800 Bond).
My suggestion? Either pack these hearings on August 24 or you’ll be packing the emergency rooms and cemeteries (at a later date) if you do nothing.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com.