(Birmingham, AL June 19, 2013) – Healthcare providers in Jefferson County will gather at a second community forum to propose solutions for patients who are falling through the cracks in Cooper Green Mercy Health Services’ broken indigent healthcare system.
The forum is set for 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, at the Richard Arrington Jr. Auditorium at the Downtown Public Library (2100 Park Place, Birmingham, AL 35203).
Last month, the Jefferson Medical Society declared the present model at Cooper Green “an abject failure.” Dr. Max Michael, Dean of UAB’s School of Public Health and architect of an alternative indigent care system that county was supposed to model, called the current situation “a horror story” worthy of a Stephen King novel. He made the comment earlier this month at a meeting of the Over The Mountain Democrats.
Tuesday’s forum is an opportunity for the public to hear how area healthcare providers are working to treat poor and under-insured Cooper Green patients whose health is failing because they can’t access primary care doctors before their conditions worsen.
County officials have been working to address the exodus of primary care doctors who left because of uncertainty at Cooper Green. The Jefferson County Commission voted to end in-patient hospital care and emergency room services on Aug. 28. Cooper Green was down-sized and re-opened as an urgent care center on Jan. 1.
But doctors say the new system isn’t working. Michael and other medical professionals have said their repeated attempts to offer solutions have so far failed. As a result, Cooper Green patients who can’t access care are suffering. They are also overwhelming other local hospitals, which could lead to insurance rate hikes for more affluent patients.
This community forum is sponsored by The Cochran Firm and hosted by: Birmingham View Magazine; Weld for Birmingham; The Terminal; Urbanham.com; What’s Happening Birmingham; W.N. Walker Public Relations, the Metro Birmingham Branch of the NAACP; the Public Health Network; the Social Concerns Committee of Noble Chapel CME Church; and the Committee to Protect the Homeless.
