SUPERVISORS PROPOSING HEALTH TALKS : VENTURA COUNTY HOSPITALS AT ISSUE.Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer County officials are calling for a health care summit to discuss issues that have fueled debate between the county government and Community Memorial Hospital. A proposal before the Board of Supervisors today calls for hospital administrators, insurance executives, pharmacists This is a list of notable pharmacists.
``We should open up the discussion to everyone involved,'' Flynn said. ``We should deal with all the providers and not just Community Memorial.'' Debate over a proposed $28.7 million addition to Ventura County Medical Center Ventura County Medical Center is a hospital in the city of Ventura, California, USA. It is a 208 bed acute care hospital. The county also operates a 49 bed campus in Santa Paula. has hinged on the roles of the county hospital and its largest private neighbor. Community Memorial administrators say they could take over county care for indigents with less expense to taxpayers. But hospital administrators accuse ac·cuse v. ac·cused, ac·cus·ing, ac·cus·es v.tr. 1. To charge with a shortcoming or error. 2. To charge formally with a wrongdoing. v.intr. the county of flatly refusing to negotiate sharing these duties. The summit might yield concrete improvements from what so far has been a fiercely political argument, said Supervisor Frank Schillo. ``This summit takes the debate out of the he-said, she-said argument between the two hospitals and puts the issue to the whole county,'' Schillo said. The schedule, format and even topics of the summit will be left open to the health care providers who participate, Flynn said. But the discussions will likely include private participation in the care of indigents, a market that Community Memorial Hospital asserts it is prepared to assume. Until now the county has refused to discuss sharing duties, said Douglas Dowie, a senior vice president of public affairs Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in the Department of Defense. Also called PA. See also command information; community relations; public information. for Fleishman-Hillard Inc. which is representing Community Memorial. The county is only opening up discussions now that it has approved spending $28.7 million on replacing the county hospital laboratory, cafeteria cafeteria: see restaurant. , kitchen and parking structure, he said. ``This is a public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most gimmick,'' Dowie said. ``Calling for these talks would be a lot more valid if they proposed this before deciding to go ahead with a $28 million project.'' Community Memorial administrators are not opposed to including other hospital representatives in discussions, but Dowie said their own role must reflect the impact of the neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. Ventura County Medical Center. A countywide summit could never resolve all the difficulties between the two Ventura hospitals, he said. ``Some of these issues are between the county and Community Memorial, and only they can settle them,'' Dowie said. ``We're not opposed to joining with our colleagues to map out the future of health care in Ventura, but some health care providers from far-flung areas of the county just could not solve these problems.'' While open to negotiation, the county will defend the integrity of its clinic-based system, Flynn said. ``We cannot destroy the safety net,'' he said. ``These systems are too hard to weave together to give up over one debate. We have one of the best public health care systems in California, and we're not going to give it up to the highest bidder HIGHEST BIDDER, contracts. He who, at an auction, offers the greatest price for the property sold. 2. The highest bidder is entitled to have the article sold at his bid, provided there has been no unfairness on his part. .'' |
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