Looks like there is one less hat in the ring:
Karmanos wants to move cancer operations to Riverview Hospital
Detroit Medical Center plans legal fight over transfer
April 23, 2007
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER
The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and the St. John Health System, which owns Detroit Riverview Hospital, will announce Tuesday morning that Karmanos has signed a letter of intent to buy Riverview, according to information obtained by the Free Press.
Karmanos would abandon plans to build a 123-bed, $57 million hospital by next year on the Detroit Medical Center campus, where it is headquartered, and move all of its clinical operations to Riverview.
The move threatens to disrupt emergency care and obstetrics on Detroits east side.
Given the stakes, the announcement has ignited bitter hospital politics, including a vow by Karmanos current partner, the Detroit Medical Center, to fight the move in court.
Some $20 million in improvements are planned for the Riverview campus, where Karmanos hopes to open in 2008. Many hurdles face the project, including state approval to move costly radiation and imaging machines essential for cancer treatment.
Dr. Jack Ruckdeschel, president and chief executive officer of Karmanos, called the plan wonderful for the city of Detroit. If you look at this, St. John has been struggling for years with investments in Riverview that have not borne fruit. One option was just to close it. What could have been a real problem has been averted. Our intent to invest and expand there is significant.
Ruckdeschel envisions the cancer hospital serving both the region, as it now does, and a growing aging population in Detroits Indian Village and Riverfront communities. He hopes to continue to provide cancer care to DMC patients and said hed keep research staffers on the DMC campus, at least for a while.
But others see the closing of a 230-bed hospital, with an emergency department that served 30,000 last year, and where 1,500 babies were born, mostly to single women with Medicaid insurance, as cause for grave concern.
Mike Duggan, chief executive officer of the Detroit Medical Center, said DMC attorneys will take quick legal action to oppose the sale. The DMC has a 100-year history of providing cancer care with Karmanos and its predecessor agencies.
The closure of Riverview is a moral outrage, Duggan said. Its a total abuse of their tax-exempt status and needs to be investigated, he said Monday.
St. John system has closed two of its other Detroit hospitals, Saratoga and Holy Cross, since 2003, Duggan said. The taxpayers in this state are subsidizing this behavior.
Eliot Joseph, chief executive officer of the St. John system and a former DMC administrator, said he doubted whether the DMC could succeed with any legal challenge.
We have an enormous commitment to the poor and the vulnerable, Joseph said. He can be outraged all he wants. Its just theatrics. Joseph said DMC should gain $10 million in business, and the Henry Ford Health System somewhat less if Riverview closes.
Both health systems, as well as St. Johns flagship hospital on Detroits far east side, on the Grosse Pointe Woods border, have extra capacity to serve more patients, he said.
Detroiter
DMC drama goes hand in hand with the drama of the city! If they were smart... they would MOVE OUT to the suburbs!
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:19 pm
MADEINAMERICA
It is so very sad that no one with any influence sees, or cares, that former prosecutor Mike Duggan continues to drive the good doctors out of the DMC. Me and my veteran friends thought he might be good for the hospitals but after 3 years, all there seems to be is bad blood. It us such a shame.
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:41 pm
James K
Michael Duggan and the DMC are the actual crooks in this case.
The DMC has historically tried to strongarm all the hospitals on or near the Detroit Medical campus into becoming "partners." And more then one were taken over by the DMC with tatics that the business world would consider to be a "hostil takeover."
The karmanos Cancer Institute is Independent. DMC likes everyone to think that Karmanos is owned by them. They throw out the word "partner" like they have some kind of controlling vested interest in Karmanos, which they do not. Michael Duggan is still pissed that he has not been able to takeover Karmanos.
I cannot Blame Karmanos. They have put up with the DMC's Sh$# for years. If I was on the Board at Karmanos, I would have decided to move too. Get away from the DMC's "Hospital Politics" and drama.
Truth is that the DMC is nowhere the Giant, Stable, Hospital Enitity they like everyone to believe they are...
And Michael Duggan's Statements are just Plain Ludicrous. St. John can no longer afford to keep Riverview Open. CURRENTLY Taxpayer dollars are subsidizing the hospital, while many other hospitals in the area have open Beds.
If Karmanos moves to Riverview there will be a huge Cash infusion for St. John, which can be used to improve thier other hospitals. ALSO, Riverview will no Longer be a tax burden on anyone.
(sigh)
Mr. Duggan statements are contradictory. He claims that closing Riverview would be bad for the East Side of Detroit because he wants karmanos on or near the DMC Campus. He makes it appear that the residents of the east side will have no where to go if Riverview closes, and they it is going to be St. John's and Karmanos'.
HOWEVER, on the opposite end, he also does everything in his power to embelish the image of the DMC, trying to get patients to drive to DMC Hospitals from all over michigan and Beyond. (what a contradiction).
TRUTH IS, Michael Duggan is not a Doctor. He is not an advocate for Medical Patients. He is a POLITICIAN and a shrewd business person. And a bold, hard nosed one at that.
Michael Duggan is the Former Wayne County Prosecutor. Now he is the President and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center? Can anyone explain any logic to this, except to defer it to politics?
Bottom line is, Karmanos does great work for Cancer research. The DMC has tried time and time again to take contol of this, which would ultimately detroy the integrity of karmanos. They want to Move. Michael Duggan and the DMC are not getting their way, and are willing to Lie and politicize thier way to get what they want... Even if it continous destroying Karmanos.
(Do not ever take anything Michael Duggan Says for the Truth... Ever)
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:37 pm