MASON CITY – Forest Park residents in Mason City are leery of the upcoming start of demolition and construction in their neighborhood brought on by a Mercy Hospital construction project.
On 1st Street SW, rental homes owned by Mercy have been white-tagged and large trees have blue straps around them. The homes are set to be removed and many trees will likely be lost.
The project, which enables Mercy to re-design its docking area and construct an energy center, was made possible when the Mason City Council approved to re-zone the area around 1st Street SW.
Now, Forest Park is seeing the looming construction project begin to take shape and some are not happy.
“We’ve bent over backwards to play nice with these folks and convince them to see how damaging this is to our neighborhood. They simply do not care,” said Mendee Neitzke, a Forest Park resident and frequent City Council attendee when the issue was before the council.
“It’s officially beginning- the chainsaws, demolition, etc. This construction process will be particularly hard for my family since we have no air conditioning and will be forced to listen to the construction until it is cold enough to turn on the heat. Thanks, Mercy and Mason City government- you really know how to treat your neighbors! This on top of making every important announcement to us on the week of a holiday or major event.”
The project could wrap up by the end of 2014, in two phases. Basically, the process would be to install utilities, re-route and build the road system, install green space, and then build.
Mercy Hospital sent the following correspondence to Forest Park residents on July 1st, 2013:
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Dear Neighbors,
This is the first newsletter update as we move forward into the construction phase of the project.. We will send out periodically to notify you of changes to the site and what to expect. First, I am missing some email addresses. I would appreciate if you could pass along to the new resident at 1025 W State and Mrs. Sappenfield’s family at 1 S Taylor and several others did not attend the meeting, Any help would be appreciated so we have a complete list.
Here is the progress to date:
– Design has continued and equipment selection is underway.
– The deed to 1st SW, between Taylor and Linden has transferred to Mercy making it a private drive.
– The shared drive perpetual easement has been recorded insuring access will always be maintained.
– Contracts for the house and tree removal have been issued.
– Contracts for the relocation of the overhead utilities have been issued.
– Preparations for the house demolition are nearing completion.
– Habitat for Humanity has removed usable materials from the houses for resale at the ReStore.
– Applied for and received the storm water
Moving forward:
– We will install signs indicating the private drive status in the next several days.
– We will install silt fencing (a 9″ diameter straw roll) to prevent any run off to the storm sewer, around the perimeter of the site. This is part of our storm water management plan.
– House removal will start on or about July 8th. Navatril Excavating will be performing this services as well as removal of the underground utilities serving these properties.
– Tree removal will be after the house removal and after the overhead utilities are relocated.
– We will erect a 6′ chain link fence as a construction barrier close to the north property line.
Fence Design:
After the house/tree removal operation is complete, we will have a survey team on site to do the final layout of the fence. We are doing this to establish a clear line of sight and evaluate and insure the fence installation will not impact the remaining tree canopy. We will also be able to layout the exact tree protection zone around each remaining tree. We will be share when this work is complete.
The people living across from the ER put up with quite a bit of construction for quite some time too. There were several years on that part of the bend of taking down homes, trees, and having a makeshift building….that lasted for YEARS. The last remaining trees on the ER side were taken down with no vote from anyone else. Does it look different? Yes, but the neighbors survived. And now headlights shine in their house windows from cars in the parking lot. Buying in the area of a hospital is a risk – a risk that they will expand. People in the area knew this years ago. About 20 years ago people knew Beaumont Drive would be closed off – logically, they were going to build something. Houses owned behind the hospital that are being torn down now were probably not acquired overnight. Living and learning in the area of a hospital will make someone a smarter person the next time to check these things out if you buy again. Sadly, things don’t stay the same forever, you just learn to deal with different surroundings.
The main point is how the Board and Mercy went about this. Their total disregard to the people living in the area. Their underhanded way they achieved this, notifications, and how they treated the people. How you respond and treat people goes a long way. Railroading, under the table deals, and dishonesty DON’T!!! Something the hospital management drills, advertizes and preaches about but management DOES NOT follow. Just look at the Dr. Hanson case….. employees who reported it GOT disciplined ….Mercy BROKE the law covering it up and getting rid of evidence. And that people is what goes on at the managing level at Mercy…..there are SO many other things that have and are going on but MERCY runs as if is above the law…..speak out and theres trouble to pay!!!!! I work there and try to make a difference caring for the patients. I love my job, patints, and helping people management expects us to make up for THEIR dishonesty and disregard and that is impossible, it has gotten so bad its embrassing to let people know I work there. Very sad thing! !!
@Area. I get what you are saying but unfortunately this is not really a case of “live and learn”. Mercy hospital has made this much worse than it should be by being deceptive and dishonest about their plans. They’ve said that the homes behind us (now destined to be a road) were kept as a buffer and much needed living quarters for residents. They also told employees in meetings that they would never expand to the north. It seems logical they wouldn’t when they own so much to the west. Furthermore, the most recent “Master Plan” of Mason City shows the street now granted to Mercy as a designated bike path. In addition, memos that are public prove that Mercy was planning for a very long time before the surprise disclosure to residents. (They were advised against this by the City.)
I personally urged many members of the city council and the mayor to use this current issue to press Mercy for more details about their plans for future growth. They chose to collude with Mercy instead. No plans for what they will do with all the other property they own are public, to my knowledge.
It is a ridiculous notion that no one should move to such a lovely, walkable neighborhood with beautiful examples of architecture just because we can’t figure out in which way Mercy’s chainsaw will lurch next. It is the responsibility of the city to homeowners and tax payers to make plans, make them public, stick to them and look out for our interests. (Don’t get me started on the false “greater good” argument that Mercy leans on. If it were really such an issue they would have done this before the ER.)
Sadly, in this case the city chose to collude with Mercy hospital to give away our neighborhood street by street once again. And who now is forced to pay for this expansion? My family. Sorry, it’s not bad luck. It’s bad leadership from Mercy and Mason City.
Correction to previous- memo’s which are *now* public.
Reminds me to add that a lot more will become public when this goes to court and it won’t be pretty.
I would hire a lawyer to check if every step the city and hospital followed was legal, done legally, all paper on file that needs to be, and all policies of both parties was followed. Management doesn’t expect anyone to check or question them to that extent. They function as above the law, I’m sure if someone checked they would find inappropriaties.
I was surprised that after attending nearly every City Council meeting and meeting held by Mercy, and serving on one of their committees, that my email address was one they didn’t have. I learned of this announcement from a neighbor. Thanks, Mercy, it continues to be a pleasure to work with you!
Ok, those who want facts other than those spoon feed to us by the Sisters of Greed (not my words, phrase coined at the beginning of the LAST century to describe Mercy Hospital) here are my observations from a visit to the new ER:
Wait times for people sitting in ER;
80+ year old with broken knee cap – 4 hrs.
Young child, apx. 6, with 102+ fever and severe cough – 4 1/2 hrs.
Infant, under 6 months, with fever and hadn’t slept or eaten for 12 hrs. – over 4 hrs.
Man with partially severed limb – at least 1 1/2 hrs. (the person with him had to go get fresh bandages twice due to saturation of blood, wa still waiting when we got in.
If this is how they treat “patients”, no wonder they railroad their neighbors.
And by the way, I really don’t see how a new loading dock will cure ER wait times or fill patients needs but I do suspect it will allow them to increase their profit so… Those who think most “non profits” are there for altruistic reasons really need to wake up.
DO NOT TRUST MERCY
@Peter L.-try getting medical care for a vascular blockage when you have no insurance.
Mayo is not the be all, end all. I was treated extremely rudely by their neurology department when I went for chronic pain and found they did not listen, just judged. However, they finally sent me to a musculo-skeletal specialist who found I had a terrible spine that was the cause of all my pain, but they did not do all the tests they needed to do. They failed to do MRI’s and missed several spots of spinal stenosis that were causing problems. I had to come back to Mercy to get MRI’s, get diagnosed, and have surgery.
Peter, your experience sounds awful. I hope you can find the treatment you need. I will now look upon Mercy and Mayo with a skeptical eye after reading of your experiences there.
@Peter L.- that is the one good thing about Medicare. They review all medical procedures and most have to be approved in advance and the medical field knows this. Medicare only pays so much and that is it and I have seen where they refuse to pay. I get reviews asking if they did the procedures all of the time. The hospitals hate it but the program is so massive they can’t refuse it. There are some doctors that are refusing it now but they lose a lot of their patients.
LVS- I don’t want to come across as if I want to impede a physicians inquiry into a patients condition to arrive at a diagnosis or offer a treatment- that is not my intention at all. I’m asking for physicians or diagnosticians to be competent enough to reasonably investigate to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment if one exists for the insurance companies, patients as well as taxpayers benefit. From my perspective it is the incompetence or deliberate corruption by doctors / providers themselves which has screwed up the health care system. Insurance companies may be dastardly culpable in many cases themselves, but it makes me wonder how unwiling they’d truly be if providers didn’t gouge them so much. I suppose the other way to look at this, is that providers have been aware of the huge surplus of money raked in by health insurance industry over the decades and decided they wanted to tap into those profits. All of these scenarios unfortunately disregard what is supposed to really matter here: the patient, and diagnosing and curing illness, at the minimal alleviating suffering the best way they can. I wish our health care system was more Buddhist than capitalist. I actually wish that doctors, nurses and health insurance personnel would directly experience levels of suffering and illness before they’d be allowed entrance into the field , for if they did, their ability to empathize and subsequently help others presenting would be dramatically increased. Like I mentioned before, when you have a doctor or nurse who smokes cigs , parties on their days off, and who is keenly aware of their financial portfolio, you end up with healthcare teams that don’t really understand the real reason they’re supposed to be there. And I patently reject any assertions that you only find good doctors and researchers who are driven by capitalism. That’s false propaganda ushered in by capitalist oligarchs and plutarchs who enjoy their vantage point and view.
@Peter L.-Good points. The doctors all think they should make a million dollars a year. What is wrong with making a decent living at 150K to 250K? Until we can get a handle on the greed I don’t see it changing. Medicare is really after the providers right now. It is probably the only good thing to come out of Obamacare.
@Peter: It sounds as if those doctors were looking at a herd of horses when they needed to be looking for a zebra, that no one yet to find. I think you’re right that you have an immune problem and are doing right by keeping your system boosted as well as you can. I can see why you say you need a diagnostician like “House” who can see the whole puzzle and put the pieces together. I hope someday soon you are lucky enough to meet up with an immunologist or other specialist who can figure out your problem. It’s too bad there isn’t a medical think tank for cases like yours, where medicine’s finest come together just for the challenge to solve the unsolvable. I hope to see you on “Mystery Diagnosis” some night. LOL
@peter l…did you have a really bad experience at Mercy? Your comments “bumbling inept staff”, “kid saving pidgeons has more compassion”, and especially the comment “mcdonalds runs things better and faster”…that last one was really good! I didn’t know Mcdonalds was in the business of saving lives so drawing a parallel between them shows great insight.
My suggestion to you is this. The next time you break a bone, get very ill, or happen to need medical service get in your car and drive to Rochester, Albert lea, or Iowa City. I am 100 percent sure you will get a lot better health care at those places. You are not forced to use the bumbling, uncaring, non trained shot in the dark doctors at Mercy.
By the way did you state you could run a ER better than the health care professionals at Mercy? I was wondering with your background is that true or do you simply have a very large and overly inflated ego.
@peter l……You are right every one of us will at some time using a medical facility to heal or help us. But you do have a choice, as I said you do not have to use Mercy for your medical needs, and I would suggest you do go elsewhere, unless you feel the entire American medical system is run by head up their asses, incompetent, shot in the dark healthcare providers…if that is the case then I would suggest moving to a different country with a healthcare system not run by incompetants.
Do you know anyone that works at Mercy? I do and they are not what you state they are. In fact I know a lot of people from friends to relatives who provide the absolute best care they can day in and day out to someone like you…who considers them below a mcdonalds employee.
Modern day healthcare in America is not a “fast food” mentality. It is a science that goes many layers deep. Americans don’t want to wait to get their food, or their oil changed, or anything else. They want what they want right now. But in healthcare that does not work it takes time,…time to you help save your life.
I for one appreciate the employees at Mercy…all the employees from doctors to nurse to lunch room cooks, they go to work everyday with a mission to make our lives healthier and better, and also I for one do not consider the employees incompetent. Look around your neighborhood any Mercy employees there?
@Peter L.-The problem at Mercy is they put in lean and to justify the cost they reduced staffing. This is a common mistake with lean. There is the same amount of work so it takes the same amount of people not less. It is different than putting lean into a factory. At the hospital there are to many varables to establish a firm pattern. They all try to do this and it takes a while for the managers who recommended lean to find out it is not working as planned. You can eliminate some support people but not the people who do the work. The 12 hour shifts are a killer long term as well. They get tired and then attitudes go bad. Lean only works when management has the discipline to do it right. They get sold a bill of goods on the process and justify it to the board and don’t want to admit they are wrong when it goes bad.
LVS you nailed it! Cuts were tuff to work with before Lean, but staff all pulled together to help each other makiing sure our patients careto was notyou compromised. After lean and now that is almost impossible one person has a patient load that is unsafe. When staff is concerned about their own patients safety things need to addressed. We hold their lives in our hands and take that very seriously. Lean is fine in a factory to work in the least amount of time to produce profits where the product is the same, repetitious work, but not where each patient has a different degree of problem needing attention. You can not see and treat a chest pain the same way and in the same amount of time you would a cold. But yet that is how management runs it. It is NOT just in the ER it’s that way in the clinic and all over! 5-10you minute Dr. Appts? You can barley tell them what your there to be seen for and symptoms are and the time management has allowed for your appt is over. Staff and Drs can not adequately do their jobs in the “time” frame management has set forth. Because the budget needs each Dr. To see a certain number of patients a day to keep profits. Its not slow or inept staff why you wait, and wait to be seen it’s management …..greed is the evil of all. Of course operating costs have increased BUT we are not talking about products in a factory being produced…we are talking about PEOPLE who need health care….A PERSONS LIFE SHOULD be treated differently and count more then a product in an assembly line. We have come to the point where it can’t be covered up anymore. Management can not admit it is not working, people are speaking out, people are getting fired for saying enough, our patients neeed better care then we are being ALLOWED to give. Mercy will end up dooming itself before long. Greed eventually catches up.
@Fed up-lean was designed to be used in manufacturing, not hospitals or offices. It is only part of a full program that includes Kaisen and ISO. There are six disciplines involved and it works well when done properly. It was supposed to reduce costs and make peoples jobs easier so the would be more productive by being better rested and have better home lives. It also improves quality and improves customer satisfaction with on time delivery’s. The issue is management is sold a pie in the sky and they justify it to the board that way and then they don’t want to admit they are wrong so they start reducing people to get the savings they promised. It is self defeating the way they are going but by the time the management gets fired (and they will) a lot of good trained people will be gone and if it goes on long enough it will destroy the business because they will lose control. Greed is so STUPID.
Its not the the employees and staff, its the unethical and uncaring corporate hierarchy,that run the place. They destroy the ideology of this hospital. MERCY is something these boys know nothing of; our Sisters of Mercy would fall to their knees if they only knew what goes on.
@Katie…..I don’t get your last comment. Why would you go to the ER for a simple blood draw? The ER is for as the name dictates Emergencys…Also I don’t believe radiologists can write a order for a blood draw, they simply can take the xrays…maybe I am misunderstanding your comment but I simply don’t get it.
I’m not Katie but I’ve been in a similar situation. I had to have a CT scan of my kidney with a contrast that can cause kidney damage, especially in combination with a med I take. 48 hours after theCT scan I had to have a blood draw to make sure my kidneys were functioning okay before I restarted the medicine. CT was on a Friday so had to go to the ER for a blood draw on Sunday. The clinic was closed so I couldn’t go there for the draw. As for radiologists, they are MDs or DOs and do a hell of a lot more than reading X-rays.
now I get it.
I see there’s not much common sense …huh man?
@Common Sense Man-There is also a drug they can give you to protect your kidneys when getting a CT Scan. They check your kidneys with a blood test before the scan
@lvs…like I said now I get it, having a blood draw at the ER, thanks for the info.
@fed up…..that last comment was just simply lame, but you probably didn’t have time to come up with something witty…what with all the cars going thru the drive thru wanting their burger and fries.
@Anonymous: Thanks for answering for me. You are 100% correct. I had to argue with the nurse to get her to have the radiologist to write the order for the blood draw. She also was under the impression that a radiologist could only read x-rays! I told her he had MD after his name and could do surgery if he wanted to and he sure has heck could write a simple order for a blood draw when he had proof in front of him that I had had a CT scan with contrast and needed a follow-up blood draw that day. She was actually afraid to go ask him to do it because she didn’t really believe me, but I told her to ask him nicely and he did it willingly.
I would suggest the home owners that live near there place fence posts at the curb to prevent large trucks from driving across lawns. especially at the intersections. red flags on them would also be a good idea. or a bed of spikes to pop tires if they drive on the grass. or a banner reading “not wanted” or the above chain saw photo would look nice on those fence posts. another good photo for NIT too.
Mercy has had title to those homes (and many others) for years. They were purchased long ago with the clear intention to expand as health care needs demanded. The neighbors were not blind sided by this plan nor were they treated unfairly, financially or otherwise. Mercy can and should do with their property as they please, within reason, just like any other home owner.
@Arms Bearer-you are partially right. Mercy did own the houses but not the street they are on. The damn city gave that to them. They also have a responsibility to treat their neighbors right. Disrupting their lives for the whole summer or even longer is not treating them fairly. This whole project has been handled badly. People resent it when they are railroaded into something.
One cannot have new things without change and all change brings loss.
@Anonymous-generally change is good. It does not have to mean a loss.
If they don’t care about their patients and employees, what gave these people the idea that Mercy would care about their neighbors???? It is no longer the Mercy we all loved, trusted, and were proud to work for years ago…..Mercy does not live by or run as their Mercy stadards to live and work by state. Medicare pays for performance, the best I can say is to fill out your surveys you get after a visit and answer all questions as low standard care and force them out or new managment in.
@fed up…You sound like a disgruntled employee, or ex-employee. You make a alot of statements that Mercy does not care about its patients or employees and are nothing more than money grubbing whores doing under the table dealings to smash the little person. You say be sure to fill out your surveys. I went and looked at the surveys done by medicare and Mercy ranks about average compared to other hospitals in the U.S. Also one of your biggest compalaints is you have to wait 4 hours in an ER to be seen. Medicare reports that 69 percent of patients say they received help as soon as they thought they should while the national average is 67 percent.
So all in all your “proof” that Mercy is out to destroy Mason city sounds farfetched. I have a question for you….when you are in a car accident, have a heart attack, or become very ill…how much complaing are you going to do when the Mercy employees and staff save your life.
Please answer.
Re reading a couple of your “facts” you must be not only an disgruntled ex-employee, but a disgruntled ex chief financial officer. You know exactly what it costs for a urgent care vs. er visit and of course Mercy makes a patient wait in the ER so they can make more money it would have nothing to do with the level of care the patient requires. You also know exactly what Mercys annual profit or loss is 21 vs. 23 million per year. I would think as a ex CFO you would of moved on to a different job by now.
No, no common sense, I’m not an EX disgruntled employee. I am a current employee. I , like most employees love our job, patients, and co workers. As to answer your question what would I say if I had to be saved by them….They are good Dr’s and employees and can save lives. Reread my posts ….I am talking about management, cutting staff to dangerous levels. When you do that your staff is tired,to many patients to take care of safely and adequately. Management does not want to hear it, employees are told to keep there mouths shut, your not “on board” managements motto is ” on board or out the door” They have made examples of some and they are no longer employed. There is only so much employees can do. They cut staff with more and more work done and want us to make sure the satisfaction surveys to be excellent. 67% you listed sounds not to bad…BUT what info you don’t have is that everything has to be 70% or higer to count on the scale. So on the scoring level if you dont rank 70% or higher. Higher precentages more reembursment. SO on the oay scale we are not cutting it for management. Money cuts, write off, and state help to NON FOR PROFIT hospital were cut by milliins and Mercy is making uo the difference with employee cuts, benefi cuts, getting rid of the higher paying employess that are not management …….THUS effecting pt care. You don’t have to be an EX CFO to know this common sense info. But maybe thats why he’s the EX ….maybe he spoke out about how things were running. Nicee try trying to discredit me by calling me disgruntled, an ex, and ranting…. but in truth I’m just a employee WANTING to be able to care for patients safely and to the best of my ability. I’m sorry if my speaking reality of what is going on at Mercy sounds disgruntling but I’m not going to sugar coat it for you Mr. Common sense…you should start using yours!!!
Mercy expanding to better serve the people of North Iowa. There, fixed that for you.
Thanks!!
Nice straight up “objective” reporting: You’ve done a good job creating the image of some poor soul peering out from behind partially drawn blinds because their world has become “leery”, homes are being “removed”, tress will be “lost”, and construction is “looming”.
Oh the horror of it all – what’s next? Aliens descending from the sky? The mayor with chainsaw in hand? What will the evil council do next? One can only wait & wonder in great apprehension!!
It is time you people realize the majority of the city is fed up with a crooked city council and the crap that has been let to happen. Including the payoff from Mercy to have this approved. People are fed up with Mercy sucking up everything. The integrity, trust and adequate care is no longer there. The council and Mercy are only about profit…they are not bettering the community ….they are lining their pockets at everyone else’s expense ….and HEAVEN FORBID IF ANYONE SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THEM….
Fed up – If the council is “crooked” & the majority is fed up then they need to show up at the polls and vote them out. I bet they won’t.
If you think there was a “payoff” from Mercy what is your proof? “The integrity, trust and adequate care is no longer there.” – Again where’s your proof?
Expanding Mercy’s ability to provide more health care and jobs is not “bettering” the community? How so?
Rants don’t make you right – proof of your accusations would go a long way.
Proof… we work it everyday. The management of the hospital has changed drastically …and not for the better. Employees keep hearing how we are to make the patients stay exceptional and drilled to get the survey scores up so eedicare keeps paying. Mercy is one of the lowest ranked hospitals. Look it up …all hospitals are tracked and ranked now…thats your proof… the customers are unhappy with the care. Up to 4 or more hours wait in the ER waiting room, same with out pt tests, the level of care is less then adequate due to being short staffed, patients are not getting proper care due to employee cuts. They tell and want everyone to believe they are over budget but their idea of over budget is only being able to put 21 MILLION in bank instead if 23 MILLION like they “budgeted ” and yes people were talking pure profits after all operating expense. Lets build a bigger new ER to help the patients, patients wait times will be faster but lets build it with less eooms then the old ER…but boy oh boy it sure looks pretty while your waiting hours and hours to be seen. Some one was a pure genius there..NOT!!! Same with the X-ray dept expantion…all the while patients are increasingly unhappy with the care, usually due to 1 employee doing 3 what employees used to. You can sugar coat it all you want, call it bettering the community so they can justify it..but do realize employees and the public know it’s not …its like a profit scam with under the table dealings.
Way to connect dots here. Who would have thought that a possible deal was struck between Mob Boss Bookmeyer and his cronies with Mercy? Mob Boss Bookmeyer railroads through the demolition of Forest Park and in return, Mercy kicks in on the doomed Blue Zone program. After all, Blue Zone is about all Bookmeyer has to hang his hat on as mayor. Zero accomplishments besides destroying Human Rights. This makes sense and is worth an investigation.
We the public are not dumb…and the under the table dealings that the council does…Lol do you think no one knows.Members of the council play together but complain behind each others back. When that happens many secrets get out. The council will end up dooming itself before long. You don’t think ” giving ” roads and such to Mercy are not pay offs? Hows that blue zone going? Is it 5 figures in the hole…wonder with Mercy being such a huge supporter if the council will get an annonimous donation and it will miraculously be out if debt…..time will tell, among other favors.
@Fed Up-I know a guy who recently had a operation at Mercy and was put through the ringer before the operation. Had to see three different doctor, take a stress test (for no reason), have a CT scan, ultra sound and X-ray all for the same thing. It was just running up the bill and was dictated by Mercy. The doctors and nurses however were great. You could tell they were tired after working 12 hours shifts and then being made to work overtime but they did their best.
Moronic accusations and blind observations. Present the supporting facts of your statements.
I thought Mercy was developing a new urgent care location to take the pressure off the ER, thus reducing wait times at both locations.
Yeah, it’s in the works….over a year now…urgent care is usually full too. So how much wait time for patients will be cut down won’t be much. Also the hospital gets more money for an ER patient then an urgent care patient. They have to hire at least one more provider, making it very unprofitable for them. Holding off hoping patients quit complaining about wait times, so they can keep the patients in the ER for the bigger charge they can bill the insurance company….and ones with no insurance are pushed out so fast….it’s just not the ER, urgent care, and out patients but the in patients as well. When the whole hospital cuts staff so dangerously low the only thing that suffers are the patients. All while still putting multi millions in the bank. Greed has corrupted the country…including our community NON FOR PROFIT hospital. They have money to spend on everything BUT patient care. Beautification, more equipment, and expanding doesn’t mean squat if you don’t have enough staff to adequately take care of patients safely. The values and integrity are gone…… sad to see greed as priority and with them merging again it is inly going to get worse. They should have sold iut ti Mayo years ago when they needed financial help. Mayo has the money and integrity to make sure patient care is priority. But they thought they were big enough to compete with them LOL, not join them.
My only problem with Mercy ER has been that the clinics do not fax lab orders to the ER or the ER loses the orders. I have gone to the ER on a weekend for a post-contrast CT required blood draw and there were no orders. I finally pitched a hissy fit and insisted that the radiologist at the ER write the order for the blood draw so I could get ‘er done. This has happened with the hospital and a Mercy clinic as well. Burns my butt!