Power Crunch Hitting Hospitals Hard Too

April 20, 2001 By KOMO Staff & News Services

EDMONDS - If you go to a hospital, you want to be sure of one thing: the care will be the best available.

That's what we demand of a hospital.

But, Stevens Hospital has a problem. The energy bill is $250,000 above budget, and the bill could double in October:

"It's very, very scary," said Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Todd. "It's unbelievable in fact."

Higher Power Bills Mean Less New Equipment

Take, for example, some of the machinery that allows doctors there to see how you're arteries rare doing.

The machine offers some spectacular views inside the body. But the machinery is old. Stevens planned to order new machines this fall.

Instead, they will pay the power bill.

"Everything that you can think of that is new technology, the rate that we will see that in the Northwest will be diminished by the increase in costs related to energy," Todd said.

Magnetic resonance imaging -- MRI's -- are becoming standard medicine. They allow a look inside the body, inside the brain.

Operator Mike Gomez wants a new machine. He says they're faster and kinder.

"The patient is in a magnet," Gomez said. "And some patients are claustrophobic and can't spend a lot of time there without freaking out."

Mike and the patients won't get the new machine. The money will pay the power bill.

"I'm interested in the potential for some sort of relief from this," Todd said. "I'm not sure the government will provide it, but that's what we need."

Dr. Todd says he's not talking about what he needs, but what patients need.

http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=10525

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 21, 2001

Answers

Here is a perfect example about how the high cost of energy would effect macroeconomics. A hospital would pay a vastly increased energy bill and forego the purchase of new equipment.

That same scenario is going to be repeated millions of times on small scale to a much larger scale. For instance, as we've read many times in Grassroots, 100s of thousands of lower income people are facing utility cutoffs. So they have to give up something in order to have there gas reconnected. Middle income people will have to cut back somewhere, small businesses pass on the cost inviting inflation, larger businesses might shut down altogether causing layoffs.

I think its odd that Wall Street thinks the energy crisis is a minor issue and has already started to celebrate the "recovery". I believe there are going to be quite a few senior citizens that die this summer because they can't afford to use the air conditioning or are afraid to use it because of the cost. By the way, that would be a lot more important issue than complaining about the terminally ill that want doctor assisted euthansia.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@altavista.com), April 21, 2001.