Shriners hospitals to remain open

This had better be real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Article #1:

Six Shriners Hospitals – including Spokane – to remain open
Filed Under (Business, Health, National, News, Washington) by Jason Ford on 06-07-2009 The Shriners Hospital in Spokane will remain open.

The Shriners national board meeting in San Antonio this week, has voted down a proposal to close six Shriners hospitals, including Spokane’s.

The six hospitals faced closure because an endowment that provides money to operate the 22-hospital system has shrunk, from $8.5 bilion to $5 billion.

Delegates will allow the six hospitals to explore partnerships with state-run or for-profit hospitals and other ways to cut costs, including billing insurers and Medicaid for the first time, and calling for budget cuts of 6 to 7 percent across the hospital system.

Other hospitals saved from closure are in Galveston, Tx., Shreveport, La., Greenville, S.C., Erie, Pa., and Springfield, Mass.

The Shriners hospitals in the United States provide free medical care to 125,000 children each year who suffer ailments ranging from clubbed feet to severe burns.

The 170 employees at the Spokane hospital handle 8,500 patient visits a year, and closing the facility would have forced children and their families to travel to Portland or Salt Lake City for care. (Shreveport Times, Spokesman Review, AP)

copied from http://www.koze950.com/2009/07/06/six-shriners-hospitals-%e2%80%93-including-spokane-%e2%80%93-to-remain-open/


Article #2

snagged from http://news.coldstreams.com/?p=4029

July 6, 2009 in City
Spokane Shriners Hospital expected to stay open
John Stucke


Tags: Shriner’s Hospital
The Shriners Hospital for Children in Spokane has been given a reprieve and will likely stay open .

Delegates to the charity’s annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, voted Monday to withdraw an agenda item that would close six of the 22 hospitals.

There are few storylines as compelling as healing crippled children, and Shriners from around the country were not ready to bow to recessionary pressures and close hospitals that have spent decades helping children.

The issue could be revisited later this week, but local Shriners indicated last week that there was support for other scenarios, including billing insurers.

Local Shriners spokeswoman Sally Mildren said the Spokane hospital will hasten more intensive talks with Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center regarding possible collaborations.