I learned that the 148-year-old community hospital that I did my residency at will be closing, and I am angry. Who am I angry at? Myself. Oh, and you. I’m angry at us because we as a country have turned our backs on one another. And in the end, your relationship with your own doctor is in jeopardy.
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, home of Memorial Hospital, used to be a prosperous mill town. There were two dozen hotels, a half-dozen movie theaters, and spectacular mansions. Currently, there is one motel, no movie theater, and a soon to climb (from 7.1 percent) unemployment rate. It’s the same old story you’ve heard before; the mills were boarded up, and the jobs went overseas. The formerly prosperous Memorial Hospital began its economic tailspin because, without paychecks, the patients could no longer pay their bills.
Before you stop reading, let me tell you how this impacts you. In 2013, Care New England purchased Memorial and began to slowly strip away its soul. They overturned doctors’ medical decisions and led nurses to fear spending those few extra minutes with patients that really matter because, after all, time is money. Then, in a final touch of class, the administrators with clipboards (and no medical training) announced their “restructuring plan” on National Doctors Day.
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