A Hospital Calls 911

That happened recently in Texas, where a 44-year-old man named Steve Spivey developed breathing problems after spine surgery. No physician was working there when the staff first recognized he was in trouble. They phoned 911, and he was taken to a nearby full-service hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The episode occurred at a small hospital that is owned and run by doctors — one of roughly 140 such hospitals around the country, with nearly two dozen more under development, that are set up to specialize in certain types of procedures like heart surgery, back operations and hip replacements.

The State Of . . . American Healthcare is going from bad to worse. These boutique hospitals are being criticized for only performing the most expensive/profitable surgeries to perform. Many of the doctors practice at full service hospitals and then refer their patients to the boutique hospital to perform the expensive surgery. In this arrangement is what they call a conflict of interest.