Health Fund For MGH - The Coastal Post - Oct 1999

The Coastal Post - October, 1999
Community News

Health Fund For MGH

At its special meeting September 17, the Marin Healthcare District Board voted to accept the offer by the Marin Health Fund to make up to $500,000 available to the District to support its effort to restore local control of Marin General Hospital.

George Stratigos, Sausalito City Councilman and Executive Director of the Marin Health Fund, made the offer. "The District Board has documented that quality of care at MGH and particularly emergency care has deteriorated," Stratigos stated. "To restore health care worthy of our trust, the Marin Health Fund Board of Directors has come to believe that returning public control of the hospital is crucial."

Upon resolution of the dispute, the funds are to be repaid, which will then allow the Fund to support other health policy needs in Marin County.

The District Board focused on Marin County's draft trauma plan. Ardeth Hamilton, Program Administrator of Marin Emergency Medical Services, and Mike Williams, President of the Abaris Consulting group of Walnut Creek and author of the trauma plan, presented the plan to the Board. The plan proposes that a coordinated system be developed in the county for the care of trauma patients.

If adopted, the plan would preclude the creation of a Level II Trauma Center at MGH as advocated by the District Board. Many of those in attendance expressed concern that implementation of the plan would result in an even greater number of patients (estimated by MGH Corp. to be 250 per year) being transferred to hospitals outside of Marin County and that would further reduce MGH's emergency services. Further, it was noted that trauma experts, including the American College of Surgeons, recognize that a decrease in trauma patients being taken care of at local hospitals will result in the de-skilling of trauma care.