Discharge This

“Get over to Vista Isles. Their nursing home division wants to get rid of Medicare patients and replace them with private payers. They’re loosing fifteen grand per bed per year. Guess who got the removal contract?”

“How are you getting rid of them? You’re not killing them, are you?” asked Flag.

“Of course I’m not killing them!” said Zaragosa. “I’m, uh, liberating them.”…

What Zaragosa was doing was driving them out of state. Most were senile or had Alzheimer’s disease. He’d strip them of ID and pack them in vans. Then he’d drive north and scatter them around bus stations from Macon to Shreveport.

Tim Dorsey
Hammerhead Ranch Motel

So is Mr. Dorsey a healthcare consultant? Will he be handling the medical center’s re-organization of the discharge planning process? Nope, we have social workers trying to get people out of the hospital and since Cambio came along we have fewer and fewer of them (down five and one with a foot out the door). So how has our leadership responded to this crisis? Well, the department head apparently requested nine computers and a corner office, instead of additional social workers.