The Lowdown on D.C. Hospitals: The Good, the Bad and the Expensive
Federal healthcare wonks just unveiled a cool new site that lets you compare treatment at hospitals around the country, including eight in the District. A quick test drive reveals some pretty stark differences.
For instance, only 40 percent of patients received treatment to help prevent blood clots within a day of some surgeries at United Medical Center in Southeast, while 96 percent of the similarly bedridden were given their meds in a timely fashion at George Washington University Hospital, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Hospital Compare site.
Howard University Hospital, meanwhile, earned the dubious distinction of charging more for less patient satisfaction. Howard charged Medicaid more than twice as much as any of the other District hospitals in the ranking - an average of $19,201 - for treating heart attack victims. But only 47 percent of Howard patients surveyed said they would recommend going there.
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7:01 pm
Not surprising that the SE hospital & Howard are the two worst. Black people in DC have shown that they are incapable of running anything except gangs that prey on their own black neighbors.
& then they elect Marion Barry - whose "service" is on par with the SE hospital's & Howard's. You get what you deserve, & black people in DC apparently think they deserve two bad hospitals & a bad council man.
Good luck, folks. I'm in Georgetown & Farragut Square & avoid SE & Howard like the plague. Have fun killing each other & stealing from each other. No white man involved to blame in this one.
8:50 pm
Hey Angry Al look things up before you open your mouth. I'm sure you just love Adrian Fenty and you deserve him.Guess what I didn't vote for Barry but he talks to the people not just using them for a photo op. By the way Barry doesn't run SE hospital ie:Greater Southeast it is none other then David Contania. Use your brain.
10:52 pm
Sorry, fedup, you're wrong on all counts. As everyone who knows me knows, I think Fenty is a moron. As for the hospital in SE, I'm talking about the people who work there & go there for treatment. Whatever the name is now or was, it's always been a dump & probably always will be until black people change what they've been doing for the last 145 years.
As for black on black crime, same thing. 60 years ago before desegregation, black Americans didn't kill each other by the thousands each year. Then they got more freedom & used it to start murdering each other. They need to get their shit together.
As for Barry, you say "he talks to the people not just using them" - uh, right. Right - O.
11:05 pm
Hey Angry Al. What's with the hostility? Are you familiar with all the black-owned businesses that succussfully serve all citizens of DC? Are you familiar with the black colleges that have produced so many black leaders, doctors, lawyers, etc., etc.? I am one of those products. Gonzales is your surname. Are you familiar with the race of the victims of MS 13 and other Latin gangs? How about the victims of the meth trade in Appalachia? Who do you think most of the victims of the Triads (out of China) are? Most crime is committed by folks on folks they're familiar with and around where they live. So don't get so high and mighty.
9:58 am
Hye, KJeff - no hostility here, just anger. You're right, the vast majority of black people are good people, just like the vast majority of white, Latin, Asian, etc. The thing is, the problems are huge in the black community & the black community has been unable to cope. Eventually, the white people have to step in, & they carve a solution that's least harmful to them - usually just trying to confine the problem to the black community.
The hospital in SE & Howard are perfect examples. Both are dumps. Both have been dumps for decades. White people don't care b/c they almost never go to either. They have GW & Georgetown & Sibley. The only way those problems are going to get fixed is if the 70% of good black people do something. So far - for decades - they haven't. & Howard is one of the great HBC institutions!
Barry is another example. The white people are going to get him this time on the earmark frauds, unless Barry's underlings take the rap - again. Yet Barry still gets reelected & still gets wide support.
Rap music & thuggish athletes are another example. Instead of holding Tim Duncan, we get Carmelo Anthony & Allan Iverson promoted - thanks to the white media, but widely supported by black community. So instead of a champion with great character, we see lowlife thugs who have never won anything.
Gangs & "no snitching" are bad in the Latin community as well as the black community, you're right. & most crime is committed on neighbors, so it's likely to be confined within one race. Yet that only supports my thesis -
Unless & until the black community rejects Marion Barry, we'll all be plagued by him. & the same goes for the bad schools, bad hospitals, etc. Yet as much as the failures of the black community hurt the whole of society, those failures hurt the black community exponentially more. You sound like an intelligent, perceptive person, & I hope you're able to make some progress in improving our society as a whole.