HEALTH CARE WITH A HEART - HEALTHCARE IN OUR HANDS


YOUR DONATIONS CAN SAVE OUR MARINA HOSPITAL!

On April 8, 2003 Tenet announced that they would keep our Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital open indefinitely. Less than nine months later - here we are again.


Tenet announced plans on Jan. 28, 2004 to sell and close more than 27 hospitals in the United States, 19 in the Southern California region – 15 in Los Angeles County! The impact of Tenet’s decision is devastating to our healthcare system. It is like being hit by an 8.5 magnitude earthquake with no plan of action for the aftermath. There are no guarantees that all of these hospitals will sell and/or stay open.

The Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital and ER is on this list. We are the closest hospital to LAX, which is the #1 terrorist target in the State of California. Together in Phase I, we made history by Saving Our Marina Hospital from closure. We will make history again in Phase II with a plan of action that calls for conversion of our hospital to community ownership.

We CAHRE – Community Action for Healthcare Reform and Education, was created to continue the work of SOMH - Save Our Marina Hospital. We CAHRE is about helping to save lives and we care about your health and our children’s health care future!

We CAHRE has applied for a 501(c) 3 designation to be the non-profit public benefit corporate arm of SOMH.

We CAHRE’s mission has had two goals since our inception:

We CAHRE has educated and exported our SOMH experience to others in need across the country to help them protect their healthcare delivery systems, saving lives and vital health care jobs from for-profit hospital corporations.

We CAHRE has a business plan in place to take over ownership, operations and management of the Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital on behalf of the community, in anticipation of Tenet’s plans to abandon the hospital, emergency room and medical office building.

With the full cooperation of legislators, medical staff, hospital employees and the community, We CAHRE will create a model health center for Los Angeles and for the nation. Our team of healthcare professionals and community leaders who have been working on this plan for the last two years, will reinstate this hospital to its former non-profit status, and improve it to serve the needs of our rapidly growing population.
Projections indicate that that there will be six million more residents in Los Angeles by the year 2025 - a dramatic increase that will require 66% more acute care beds beyond what now exist in Los Angeles. (Source: Solucient Studies 2002)

Tenet’s decision to divest itself of its community hospitals, including ours, will result in a higher morbidity rate in the community. Without our Marina Hospital, residents requiring ER care may die while en route to a more-distant hospital – and that is a tragic possibility! And even the more-distant Westside hospitals will not have the bed or ER capacity to handle the flood of patients. Most likely many physicians will be unable to continue to practice in this area due to the lack of hospital beds!

HOW YOU CAN DIRECTLY HELP – We CAHRE needs EMERGENCY donations of any amount. We, the community, own our hospital and control our destiny.

If each person in the 350,000-population area served by our Marina Hospital generously donates just $54.00 or more per person and becomes a stakeholder in We CAHRE, this will provide sufficient funds for acquiring the hospital, ensuring its operation during the transition, and having the reserves necessary to provide proper stability and steady growth. We will need a few years to complete the transition, and will need funds set aside for major equipment upgrading and careful program additions to fit the growing needs of our community. Seismic retrofitting will also be a part of our capital improvement plan.

Here’s an opportunity for each and every member of our incredible community to participate and take pride in the future development of our Marina Hospital. If ever there was a time to donate generously to a cause so vital to our well being, it is now. With all of your help and hearts we will achieve this monumental challenge together.

Please contact us through our website (www.somh.org -- Save Our Marina Hospital) to add yourself to our email database (so we can keep you informed) and visit our website daily for updated information.

PLEASE MAKE TAX DEDUCTIBLE CHECKS PAYABLE TO:
We CAHRE, P. O. Box 5393, Playa del Rey, CA. 90296

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING TO MAKE HISTORY!
Julie Inouye, Executive Director
We CAHRE – Community Action for Healthcare Reform and Education
Founder SOMH – Save Our Marina Hospital
www.somh.org • 310.306.1487T • 310.306.5045F • JulieInouye@WeCAHRE.org




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Posted: Mon - March 1, 2004 at 05:27 PM          


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