Health Commission to Proceed With Prop Q Hearing on Dec 4 as Originally Planned

After considering CPMC's request to postpone the Prop Q hearing on the planned closure of the NICU and Pediatric Ward, the Health Commission has decided to not delay the Prop Q but to proceed on the original date of Dec 4 at 3 PM. They ask that CPMC give them a progress report at that time on the negotiations and deliberations that have been going on weekly at the request of the St. Luke's doctors and nurses determined to preserve these services for the sake of the surrounding communities they serve.

Meetings and discussions of the possible fate of Inpatient Pediatrics are proceeding, as St. Luke's doctors argue that care has been excellent in spite of the low census, and that it meets all the standards that are used as official guidelines for community hospital children's inpatient care. St. Luke's Pediatric Ward has a documented record of excellent quality including a State of California award for the treatment of pediatric asthma. CPMC administrators have tried to justify closure on the basis that, in general, statistics show that wards with low census have lower quailty of care. It would seem they should applaud St. Luke's for having unusually high quality of care for such a small unit!

Without St. Luke's, our pediatric patients would need to be hospitalized at either Seaton Hospital, SFGH, or across town at the California Campus of CPMC. Hospitalization of sick children at St. Luke's Hospital, allows families to have their children cared for in their neighborhood where vital family support through visitation and over night stays in the hospital, is much easier. This is especially true for our many families who must use public transportation to bring their children for care, or to visit them while they are hospitalized. This would fulfill the important promise of Sutter's now discontinued "Revisit St. Luke's "marketing campaign... "Quality Care, Close to Home."