Bucks
My Wish List, YMCA update, St. Luke Hospital
Dear Friends,
Good morning. For eons, I began each year with a column filled with items that would make life better for everyone, or so I thought. Readers recognized it as Charlie’s wish list.
But this year, I have but one wish…Peace on earth, goodwill to all.
I have no idea how 2007 will turn out. Unfortunately, I don’t think that our President does either. Personally, I believe that the only way to end the Iraqi civil war is to have the United Nations lead the Middle East nations into peace…by force, if necessary. That’s unlikely as long as our President remains in power.
And now to
something pleasant.
Communities are held together by institutional glue, like public schools, hospitals, YMCA’s and local newspapers. A few weeks ago, I had a chat with Doug Hutchinson about the Upper Bucks Y. He and Rob Werner are leading the Y’s fund raising efforts.
We met in Doug’s office where the old Reformed Church was located at 5th and Broad in Quakertown. The sanctuary remains and the Durner pipe organ still works.
Doug is very upbeat about the Y’s plan to convert the 78,000 square foot factory on Fairview Avenue for the Y’s new home. The Y will sell its property at Park Avenue and 14th Street. Plans call for swimming, gymnastics, aerobics, weight training, childcare, and meeting rooms to be relocated at the new site.
The big question remaining is what happens to the tennis program at the Y’s Sport Center on California Road? Hutchinson believes that restoring the tennis facility to six courts instead of the present four will make the property more tennis friendly and therefore more saleable. He hopes that the building will always be used for tennis.
Still, the Y must raise two million to complete the $9.3 million expansion. Hutchinson says that the Y purchased the factory for $3.3 million and the renovations will cost an approximate $6 million. Will the Park Avenue and 14th Street property yield two million? And if not, will the shortfall force the Y to sell the tennis facility?
“We’d prefer not to sell the tennis building,” Hutchinson told me.
We’ll just have to stay tuned.
A few weeks
ago, the President of St. Luke’s
“The Press-Ganey Survey ranked St. Luke’s number one in the state for patient satisfaction,” Nawrocki began. “We’ve had a 23 percent growth in admissions in just four years and the length of patient stay has decreased by one day.
“We’ve added 30 new doctors to the Quakertown facility,” Nawrocki continued. “Our nurses’ tenure averages 11 years. We’ve invested $35 million into the Quakertown Hospital in eleven years. And we’ve been profitable for the last three years.”
That’s a tall order for a small hospital in the national health care scene. Nawrocki explained that the public burden for health care approximates 143 million people. Of the 300 million American population, 57 million are on Medicaid; 40 million on Medicare; and 46 million are uninsured.
Making matters worse, Pennsylvania ranks 47th out of the 50 states in tort liability. So it makes life more difficult to recruit physicians. “Total health care expenditures have risen from 8.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 1980, to 16 percent today, Nawrocki told me.
“Because 800 hospitals have closed across America in just 15 years, the public burden is shared by less hospitals,” he said. “Six closed in Pennsylvania, three of them in Philadelphia.”
It’s not
easy running a hospital. Nawrocki gathers members of the community together
twice yearly for updates. Called “The Ambassadors,” they meet to raise public
awareness and conduct fund raising. You can be an Ambassador by calling Deborah
Willey, the Director of Development at
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith