Sine Die
Last day of March Marylyn had a stroke.

Within 15 minutes Paramedics had her in the West Valley Hospital Emergency Room on the way to recovery. We've spent most of April and half of May in hospitals and full recovery seems likely. Rapid response is why. Just a few years ago that would have been unlikely.

It takes medical care, nurture and money to save lives: Third week of April it was reported that on a Star scale from 5 to 1, where 5 was best and the average 3 our hospital was awarded a 2. Ratings were based on customer satisfaction; not lives saved, babies born or patients getting well. Only Mayo Clinic, 40 miles away, was awarded 5 stars. Being an hour away makes Mayo's 5 Star rating irrelevant when rapid response is key to survival.

Quick medical intervention minimized loss and skilled technical and traditional nursing healed Marylyn. What worries me is whether there will be money enough to keep our local hospital open.

Our legislature decided to reduce hospital and provider reimbursement almost $600 million and kept for themselves the almost $90 million the Federal Government pays each year to reimburse the Maricopa Integrated Medical Care System for unpaid for medical care. What's worse they also made it illegal to create an insurance system that might make it possible to keep our hospitals open should the Supreme Court rule against the Affordable Care Act.

Sine die means "to adjourn" which is what our legislature did as soon as they passed the above bills. Let's hope sine die doesn't mean death of our hospital.

1504-JLB