MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL Friday Readers' Forum Compare health care numbers There were two interesting and contrasting items in the June 13 IJ. One was a letter to the editor from Dr. Alfred Oppenheim about the quality of care at Marin General provided by Sutter Health. The other item was a story about a Los Angeles hospital that let a woman die on the emergency room floor because they refused to help her. These two items are especially interesting because they relate to Dr. William Rothman's opposition to letting Sutter Health continue to operate Marin General Hospital. I have nothing but praise and thanks to Sutter Health for the way in which they treated my wife when she was a stroke patient there this year. I'm wondering what operators Rothman would propose to replace Sutter and and how his choices stack up against Sutter on standardized criteria, such as: quality of doctors, patient complaints, cost for comparable procedures or any other relevant measures.It also would be good if Rothman would further clarify his opposition to Sutter Health beyond saying we need competition like California Pacific Medical Center and UC San Francisco Medical Center to achieve high-quality care. Also, it would be good to compare these two hospitals' record with Sutter Health's operation of Marin General Hospital using standardized criteria. Just how good are they? We don't want to kick out Sutter Health and wind up with an operator that would let a patient die on the emergency room floor at Marin General Hospital. Robert Slate, Greenbrae |