Why isn’t Stroger at Stroger Hospital?
Saturday, Mar 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Phil Kadner addresses the phony issue of the hospital John Stroger was taken to.
“I don’t think that’s relevant at all,” said Dr. Quentin Young, who was once chairman of the Department of Medicine at Cook County Hospital some years ago and is an advocate for national health care reform.
“The mission of Stroger Hospital is to care for the indigent and those without medical insurance,” Young said.
“In a way, it would have been an abuse of the system if Stroger, who has very good health insurance, would have taken a bed away from someone else who needed one and couldn’t afford to go to Rush.
“In addition, had he gone to Stroger he obviously would have been given special treatment at a hospital that bears his own name. Doctors and nurses would have been hovering all around and, while you might think that leads to better patient care, it sometimes can have the opposite effect.
“Just by being a patient in the hospital it would obviously divert resources from other patients. John Stroger might not demand any special attention, but he’s the boss of the hospital so he would get it.
“And if that happened, reporters such as yourself might rightfully ask if that is proper.
“I think Stroger absolutely did the right thing by going to Rush.”
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: Stroger poll watcher accused of coaching voters.
- Levois - Saturday, Mar 18, 06 @ 10:16 am:
This makes a lot of sense.
- Hagiograph - Saturday, Mar 18, 06 @ 1:24 pm:
This issue is exactly why it’s not a good idea to name things (buildings, roads, hospitals, streets) after LIVING elected officials. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. At the very least, they should have waited until AFTER he retired from active office. Imagine if Rod Blagojevich had named the entire tollway the Blagojevich expressway, instead of just putting up signs with his name. Or if Mayor Daley renamed O’Hare to be Richard M. Daley Field. I agree with Kadner that it’s probably a good thing he’s not at Stroger, but it would have been much less of an issue if he didn’t let his vanity get the best of him.
- Bubo - Saturday, Mar 18, 06 @ 1:47 pm:
Heck yeah it was a good idea for him not to go to Stroger, he is trying to make it to see the General elections! If he would hire qualifed people to run the hospital and stop letting nurses get 60 hours of OT ( I believe it was at Stroger), the care wouldn’t be such an issue.
As for Blagojavich renaming the Exressway after him, it would be quite similar to the Stroger hospital story, he never uses it. If they named a heliport or airstrip that he uses to get to and fro Springfield, that would be fitting!
- Cal Skinner - Saturday, Mar 18, 06 @ 2:07 pm:
Perhaps the better question is why a politician would name something for himself while he is still in office.
- Anon - Saturday, Mar 18, 06 @ 3:11 pm:
I don’t like Stroger at all. But this is such a non-issue. I can’t believe anyone is even talking about this. Whether or not the hospital is named after him or not, someone with insurance and the means to pay for health care has no business going to Stroger hospital.
- county doc - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 7:24 am:
As an employee/physician at Cook County Hospital ( I refuse to call it Stroger hospital) I can tell you that to all the staff, nurses, doctors etc that work at County hospital are once again enraged that President Stroger was transferred to Rush….which is literally across the street from “Stroger” hospital. The part that is so confusing to me is that most of the doctors at Rush are the SAME doctors at County. Meaning many doctors have privileges to practice at BOTH hospitals. Furthermore, the new physical plant at “Stroger” is just as nice, and much newer than that at Rush. Clearly the big problem with County hospital in terms of patient care is the system, which makes patients wait hours to be able to see a doctor, or wait months for operations etc. Do you think that president Stroger would have had to wait to see the same doctors he saw at rush? Do you think that he would have had to wait for an x-ray, or a nurse to come to his bedside? It is true that he would be taking resources that could be given to other patients at County, but as I can tell you no matter how we stretch the resources and no matter how hard we try to give the patients at County hospital service, the line of patients waiting for care is never-ending and never gets shorter. Giving “special care” to president Stroger, I can assure you, would have no effect on the services and care given to others at county hospital.
The mission at County hospital is to give care to people WITHOUT regard to their insurance not to serve only people without insurance. In fact there are many people with Medicare and Medicaid, as well as private insurance who come to county hospital. Should we tell those people to go across the street to Rush?
To the staff of Cook County Hospital who try their best everyday to deliver quality care to ALL our patients, president Stroger being transferred to Rush is just another slap in our face. That why I work at Cook County Hospital not “Stroger Hospitalâ€.