Loma Linda University Medical Center Expands
15 July 2008
Loma Linda University Medical Center Expands
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According to this story in the Press-Enterprise, Loma Linda University appears to be spreading out in one of the fastest growing areas of California.
The university plans to build a new $1 billion children's hospital in Loma Linda and in the last two months has either opened, broken ground or announced partnerships with other medical groups for five other facilities stretching from Colton to Murrieta.
"We are not growing because we want to grow," says Dr. Richard Hart (pictured), CEO of Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center, the parent organization of the university and its medical center and children's hospital.
"We are growing because we want to keep pace with the demand."
...
As a Level 1 trauma center, Loma Linda takes patients with the most severe injuries and medical problems from as far north as Bishop and as far east as the Arizona state line. But most of its patients come from the Inland Empire.By building a new children's hospital, Loma Linda wants to free up hospital beds for the most seriously ill patients, Hart said, and then convert the old children's hospital to use by adult patients.
And the reach is not just through Southern California. The Daily Bulletin provides an update on the Medical Center's commitment to the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital in Kabul since the 1960s.
Loma Linda University has a team of eight doctors and support staff members there, and while they live on the hospital grounds, which are generally considered safe, their security remains a concern. The drive from Kabul's airport, known as Airport Road, is a favorite choice for insurgents to place explosive devices and wait for a passing vehicle with Westerners.
You might not realize it, but Afghanistan is becoming the proverbial tip of the anti-Western insurgency's spear.
In the past two months, combat deaths there have exceeded the numbers in Iraq, and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's hold over the nation weakening, the future there remains cloudy, at best.
It's just another example of the flawed thinking that led to the invasion of Iraq because after American forces dismantled the Taliban's reign, the chance for truly helping Afghanistan was very, very real.
But most of the U.S. military was diverted to Iraq.
The remaining Taliban leaders scurried for safety in Pakistan and elsewhere, and the notorious warlords that control various regions of the country were allowed to remain in power.
Today, the Taliban is coming back, and the warlords remain as dangerous as ever.
But for Hart, the problem is that bureaucracy remains as much of the problem as ever.
"The government is totally inefficient and controlled by personal interests," Hart said, explaining that bureaucrats have thrived in a "survivor's economy" for so long, they either refuse to relinquish some control or don't know how to make it better.
It can be frustrating for people like Hart, who want to help Afghanistan heal. And now, given the United States' struggling economy and continued focus on Iraq, Hart is unsure what will happen when the university's contract with the United States Agency for International Development expires next year.
"We don't know what we are going to do," Hart said.
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Comments
Should Loma Linda Medical Center Expand its children's services? Yes of Course!
Should Loma Linda Medical Center expand its adult care services? Yes of Course!
Should Loma Linda Medical Center be in Afghanistan? Yes of Course!
Should Loma Linda Medical Center remain a part of the General Conference family of institutions? Yes of Course!
When my family moved to California in 1958 there were less than 15 million citizens. Today there are over 36 million and growing.
The problems of financing a major project at this time are of great concern about control. Without sound fiscal policies the project could end up like Battle Creek. There are very few thinkers and planners with a billion dollar vision. Richard Hart, the Lord bless you and your planning and fiscal staff. Bring it on! By the way at least 30 percent of the 36 million Californians can't pay billion dollar hospital fees. Will there be a sign over the entrance: "Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me and Forbid Them Not for such is the Kingdom of Heaven"! If you do you'll find your billion and more. I wish I was 33 again--this young man would go West again. Even eat out on Sabbath, David gave us a few good hints. Just wish you could bring back Paul Heuback and Graham Maxwell to the University Church==then Heaven could wait. Tom
The MCA book "Who Watches Who Cares" was received in this afternoon's mail and is a real eye-opener. Many of the named events have been known but the particulars are fully documented. The usual method of the clergy as the largest group of boards of hospital and other SDA institutitions with few qualified financial experts to oversee, has resulted in millions of tithe dollars lining the pockets of both clergy and entrepreneurs who preyed on the gullibility of "the brethren" as well as laymen. When questions were asked, or there were whistle-blowers revealing such fraud, they were summarily dismissed.
Has anything changed? Scams flourish in religious groups and it appears SDAs are not exempt.
Rumor has it that a group of SDA researchers are trying to find the Missing Loma Linda Link. They operate secretly because they don't want to be labeled. Funding for the project is reportedly being furnished by an anonymous supporter who is also financing a group of SDA Raiders of the Lost Ark. Members of both groups were laughing as they entered a local bank...
If the Christian Community is to gain credibility it will have to discipline itself. It must see need. It must see opportunity. It must control expendatures, It must demand accountability. It must offer rational alternatives, It must refrain from spoofing the labor and vision of others.
The original LLU Hospital and Clinics was budgeted at $46,000,000. 3 million were added to build the research wing. The Proton Accelerator cost almost as much as the original budget. The physicians office building added additional millions, The parking deck more, The V.A. in the %50,0000,000 range. and on and on. In today's dollars, 1 billion is about 10 times the current investment and in line with the plunging dollar. When I was at Loma Linda, my highest salary was $25,000. That is less than a month's income today.
We have no control over the value of the dollar. We have control over its use and over the its intended benefits.
The Loma Linda expansion may become the greatest fiscal mistake the Church has made since they made Neal Wislon President of the General Conference.
Never-the-less there is no questioning the need for better care for needy children in a state of the art environment.
If the news blog was intended as a joke it was a very poor one. One does not play games with the lives and health of people.
Finally, does one stop planning, visioning, expanding because there are crooks in the world?
If you drive a car, you have been had six times before breakfast. So unless you have something of improve the vision and opportunity for service get off the line. Tom
If the Christian Community is to gain credibility it will have to discipline itself. It must see need. It must see opportunity. It must control expendatures, It must demand accountability. It must offer rational alternatives, It must refrain from spoofing the labor and vision of others.
The original LLU Hospital and Clinics was budgeted at $46,000,000. 3 million were added to build the research wing. The Proton Accelerator cost almost as much as the original budget. The physicians office building added additional millions, The parking deck more, The V.A. in the %50,0000,000 range. and on and on. In today's dollars, 1 billion is about 10 times the current investment and in line with the plunging dollar. When I was at Loma Linda, my highest salary was $25,000. That is less than a month's income today.
We have no control over the value of the dollar. We have control over its use and over the its intended benefits.
The Loma Linda expansion may become the greatest fiscal mistake the Church has made since they made Neal Wislon President of the General Conference.
Never-the-less there is no questioning the need for better care for needy children in a state of the art environment.
If the news blog was intended as a joke it was a very poor one. One does not play games with the lives and health of people.
Finally, does one stop planning, visioning, expanding because there are crooks in the world?
If you drive a car, you have been had six times before breakfast. So unless you have something of improve the vision and opportunity for service get off the line. Tom
My comment: Rumor has it that a group of SDA researchers are trying to find the Missing Loma Linda Link. They operate secretly because they don't want to be labeled. Funding for the project is reportedly being furnished by an anonymous supporter who is also financing a group of SDA Raiders of the Lost Ark. Members of both groups were laughing as they entered a local bank...
Tom's comment: If the news blog was intended as a joke it was a very poor one. One does not play games with the lives and health of people.
My response: I thought laughter was the best medicine. Live and learn.
What percentage of the total health care expenditures in the United States is devoted to prevention? The pathetic answer to this question is the real playing of games with the lives and health of people. Isn't this the game of how much fame, fortune, and power can be achieved? Isn't it time to get serious about prevention?
orthodoxymoron
It is not the medical profession standing in the way of prevention. It is the manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, marketers, and the taste buds they have created. Most preventatives are diet and lifestyle related. So we tax and spend on treatment.
The store closest to the local high school makes its profit on coke and moon pies sold before first morning class--I would assume that that is breakfast.
More money is spent on chewing gum than on dental care. Imagine Congress taking on the chewing gum industry.
An enemy hath done this! Would you just let the enemy get away with it? Build all the fences you want--people will demand to drive over the cliff.
Now the Republicans in Georgia have made carrying handguns legal. The Gov. has even urged his citizens to carry weapons into airports, if they don't intend to take a flight.
The equivelant of the passengers and crew of two 747 crashes die each day in the U.S. A. from tobaco related illnesses despite the warnings and the taxes. Aggressive therapy( costly) saves over 10 percent.
As long as sin abounds therapy will also have to abound.
Particularly for the infants and children who are the primary victims of our folly. Tom
P.S. laughter is good medicine as long it is not at the expense of someone else. Butt jokes are not fun or funny.
If you didn't agree you would use your real name.
I'm currently finishing up my studies at Loma Linda School of Public Health and from my perspective as a student LLU has no choice, but to expand. Right now LLU is running at max capacity all the time and the emergency room waits take forever. If they do not expand they will not be able to keep financially viable. Many people living in the Inland Empire use the Emergency room and Loma Linda as their primary care facility. Once they have used these services they do not pay the ensuing bill. The expansion will allow LLU to provide services that actually make money so that they can help those that use the Emergency room.
I agree with Ortho that there needs to be more money and time spent on prevention. And I am happy to say that I have friends in the Medical school here at LLU that are working on developing a Weimar like institution down here in the Inland Empire to fight the cause of prevention. In addition the School of Public Health has a new residency program that is focused on prevention and lifestyle education. Great things are happening all around us if we look for them instead of looking for the bad that we can sling. :D
The Adventist tradition of public/preventive health is one of our unsung, but increasingly in-demand fields of service.
Thanks for the positive heads up, Boaz.
Comments:
It is not the medical profession standing in the way of prevention. It is the manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, marketers, and the taste buds they have created. Most preventatives are diet and lifestyle related. So we tax and spend on treatment.
As long as sin abounds therapy will also have to abound.
P.S. laughter is good medicine as long it is not at the expense of someone else. Butt jokes are not fun or funny.
If you didn't agree you would use your real name.
Response:
It sounds as though Satan and his fellow snakes have the upper hand, and no one dares do too much about it. Aren't we supposed to fight evil? I thought we were in the pro-responsibility, anti-irresponsibility business. Why isn't this a theological, political, and legal issue? If a company is complicit in harming and destroying the American public and the environment...why aren't they put in the hot-seat...and out of business? Anyone for a boycott? Are we content to be Iniquity Janitorial, LLC? And basically clean up after the Devil, put band-aids on his victims, and charge exorbitant rates to do so?
I'm sorry for my retentive-hate jokes. The Missing Loma Linda Link Research Team(MLLLRT) and the SDA Raiders of the Lost Ark(SDARLA) are threatening legal action. The proctololgists are after me too. This is in addition to the Jesuits and Opus Dei(including Silas). Black helicopters from the 7th floor heliport are circling my house.
I use the name orthodoxymoron because I'm paranoid. And just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me. I like orthodoxymoron so much that I'm considering changing my name. I'm proud to be known as orthodoxymoron...it's sort of like being...Super Blogger! I am somebody!
Mr Straight Contradiction
Soory you are in a mid life crisis. I hope you handle it manly. But I do detect a hint of hot flashes also--check you library on preventive care--help must be on the way. Tom
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