MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL Readers' Forum Hospitals and competitionWilliam Rothman suggests Marin General will be better off once the hospital reverts to district control and Sutter Health, which has managed the hospital since 1996, leaves (Readers' Forum, June 1, "Hospitals need competition"). Nothing could be further from the truth. As a practicing physician at Marin General, I must correct Dr. Rothman's erroneous statements. Sutter is a large not-for-profit entity that brings enormous experience, efficiencies and success to Marin. When a record 1,200 hospitals closed nationally between 1979 and 1999, Sutter attracted respected physicians and expanded care at MGH. Dr. Rothman, who is retired, decries the lack of competition in Marin despite the major presence of Kaiser. He also suggests that California Pacific and UC San Francisco Medical Centers have high quality because they compete for business. Quality is driven by physicians and independent accreditation agencies, not competition. Quarterly surveys conducted July 2005 through June 2006 found that MGH exceeded the performance of hospitals statewide and nationally in 14 of 21 measurements. It also has excelled in both emergency care and cardiology. Most recently, patients rated MGH "above average" (CalHospitalCompare.org). The hospital and the county's health are in jeopardy once again because Sutter's critics are wed to an outmoded hospital model. Almost a third of the 85 districts in the state have closed, leased or sold their hospitals; some have declared bankruptcy. Are we next? Alfred D. Oppenheim, M.D. |