Altru pledges $10 million to UND for indoor practice facility
August 29, 2012 at 5:37 am in Grand Forks Herald
Altru Health System has pledged a $10 million gift to UND through the UND Foundation in support of a sports medicine partnership between Altru and UND, school and Altru officials announced today. Continue Reading
Where did Altru get the ten million from?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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It is not like they are writing a check today for $10,000,000. It will be over time and from their capital expenditures. No real difference than building right on the Altru campus. I find the million for turf questionable though. How does that have anything to do with their mission?
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Furthermore, this is only a start on raising what looks like a 40-50 million dollar facility. Where is the other 30-40 million going to come from? Not like the track and football supporters spend money like hockey fans.
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This has been Kelley’s pet project since he got here. The $20 million he was looking for in private contributions never materialized. Wouldn’t be surprised if a special student fee were enacted, much like with other buildings, to fund it.
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Probably from student fees!
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Visit them once…You’ll quickly find out……And then they are “Non-Profit” so they have no taxes……That’s one big farce that really needs to be addressed….Non Profit my arse
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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My bet is Altru has a boatload of cash it has to distribute to be in compliance with its non-profit status.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Altru got the $10mil from underpaying everyone; especially nursing staff. Lowest paying hospital I know of.
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So, while students graduate with debt up to theuir earlobes, UND is going to pour an 8-figure amount into the Robert Kelley Indoor Practice Center. I wonder how many scholarships that could have funded?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I am sort of conflicted about this since I in NO way support Altru and their non profit farce. However, I do think it’s important that UND have decent sports facilities and since it is tied to their sports medicine program, I think it is a good investment. I hope it’s better than the Alerus center, which is not a good venue for football games. I only wish it was an outdoor stadium like the good ole days.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I’m working class so right away I think of the construction jobs this will create. For that reason alone I support this.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Well, tj, I guess my question would be, Where could Altru’s $9 million ultimately be put to better use: a practice field or a scholarship fund for med students?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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The med students can pay their own way through medical school or settle for something else. If they chose that line of work they can figure out how to pay their own bills.
I am in favor of this build and any others like it for the jobs it will create for our skilled laborers at home…right here…since many of them are constantly having to work on the road.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Then how about having the football players pay for the complex?
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Excellent idea Gene. The players and their fans should fund their sports. Good luck selling that idea to the crowd. It wasn’t widely received in Minnesota but North Dakotans might be persuaded to go along with your idea.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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That goes over so well with pro sports that I’m sure it will breeze through in college sports
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Wait a minute sir….Are hyou trying to suggest that in the realm of sport games and the cost surrounding such games that we’re supposed to consider logic….To even consider such a thing…You sir are a Cad……
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tj, you’re presuming UND will award the job to a local contractor, don’t be too sure. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of vehicles from the Twin Cities on campus.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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All of NDSU’s stuff is done by local engineers and general contractors.. I don’t see why UND’s wouldn’t be from region.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Might prove true for NDSU. UND has hired from all over the place for construction projects.
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Thing is, UND can put out bids, and a big Twin Cities company can lowball it for the contract, knowing other jobs will make up the difference. Like getting a good deal from Rydell and they knowing selling 3 other cars will more than make up the profit.
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Next time you go to a meeting you should bring this subject up. Tell them it’s not right to hire outside firms. Don’t just twiddle on your dingle pad passing the time. Say something.
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Do you actually believe there was any consultation on this?
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No but you weren’t telling me what I wanted to hear so I gave you a jab. Just once could you say something like…”Oh yeah that would be a great thing for the community.” Just one time Gene…
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If it were a sure thing the construction was local, I might have. UND contracts business from all over, even the subs- may be from the TC.
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“All of NDSU’s stuff is done by local engineers and general contractors.. I don’t see why UND’s wouldn’t be from region.”
NDSU hired a design team from out of state just to get a new logo. They couldn’t have their OWN STUDENTS design it…only an out-of-state “expert” is qualified to draw a cartoon buffalo.
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Apples and Oranges Shurkey.. We are talking about Architects and Engineers. I work in construction, I know where my plans are authored. See their logos are on the title block of each page.
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With out of state contractors.
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I have no problem with the facility. I do however have an issue with a non profit donating $9,000,000 to it with an additional $1,000,000 going for new turn at the Alerus. Wasn’t it this spring that Altru came to the city to help refinance its bonds for the purchase of the competition hospital that was going to open? I don’t care if the money is being spent over time…it is still being spent. With the money they are pouring into this and the No Choice Wellness Center couldn’t they have paid down debt, used it for some scholarships for future medical professionals or better yet, used it to lower their operating costs. For once I agree with Gene and his statement about raising student fees to pay for this. They may get a majority in donations to pay for the construction, but what about upkeep? Same goes with the No Choice Wellness Center. What happens when their high membership numbers that they need to run the place don’t materialize? As a single person, why would I want to pay $53 per month when I can join Planet Fitness for $99 a year (newest promotion)? How many city employees are getting reduced membership fees there. I know for a fact altru employees are getting a very good rate to join. How is this fair for the rest of us? How is this fair for private business that are providing the same service?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I guess it’s pretty obvious that the corrupt and unethical management of Altru is hiding profits they shouldn’t be generating in the first place, in “pet projects”. Those “pet projects” then divert tax money that shouldn’t have been collected, in order to further subsidize something that the taxpayers DIDN’T ASK FOR to begin with.
From front to back, top to bottom, and both sides, the customers of Altru, and the taxpayers are being screwed. AGAIN.
Pretty obvious that the No-Choice Fitness Center tax-dodge worked so well that Altru is doing it again.
We wonder why medical care is so expensive. “Overcharging” would be a one-word answer.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Wait until people get to start paying for a 500+ Million facility in Fargo.. Boy the crows should really start screaming then.
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Imagine the costs that can be saved when we have patients requiring a level 1 trauma center. Once the new Sanford is complete, we can fly them to Fargo instead of Hennepin County.
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You think there will be savings? I think it will ultimately cost more. Time will tell I guess. But then they will just say it is due to rising health care costs.. amiright?
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I always wondered why we had to vote on the library but not an athletic facility? I agree that fees are never going to come close to covering the expenses of the NO Choice Wellness (I like that No Choice). How long before property taxes rise to cover the loses instead of raising fees? They will argue if they raise fees they will lose members. So people that had no choice will get to pay for people to use it?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Imagine how much more of a gift Altru could give had it not been greedy and paid $67 million to eliminate competition.
You cannot escape the fact that as much as Altru tries to paint itself as an asset to this community, it is just as much a detriment.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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let it go nevertru. That place was never going to open and you know it. Why they hired and started to train people is a mystery. They didn’t pass multiple inspections and there are massive renovations going on in the building to bring it up to code. I guess Sanford giving milliions to many sports related ventures around the area is fine with you.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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No, we as a community should not give in to a bully. The only reason it didn’t open was because Altru bought it out from under them so that they didn’t have to improve to stay competitive with it.
You can believe otherwise, but then you’re just wrong.
If anyone from Sanford is reading this, you have no idea how badly we want you up here.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Rumors are that most of the rest of the $10 million is already spoken for with other secondary gifts (a few $1 million gifts as well as lesser amounts). The secondary donors will have banners displayed with their names in the building, as well as certain training and study rooms named in their honor.
The Old REA has been gutted of valuable stuff – including seating that has been sold as a souvenirs – and is ready to be demolished. UNDERC wants part of the land that the old REA sits on.
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Rumors were that the REA would come down if the nickname were changed. Rumors mean nothing.
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altru pays RN’s more than sanford… just saying
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Not necessarily true. In my pay and grade I would get $1.50 more at Sanford. Definitely not enough to make the drive worthwhile. Cannot speak for new grads, clinic nurses, etc. Sanford is going for Magnet status so they want everyone to have a BSN. You won’t get their bonus without one, regardless of your experience. They are definitely shaking up things in Fargo. It will be interesting to see how the other hospital responds.
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EERC expansion would be better use of the land
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Will the Soccer team be able to use the training facility also or is it only football?
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Way to appreciate a 10 million dollar gift to improve our football recruiting, becoming a fcs contender let alone having a nice facility in the community. Let me be the first one to say THANK YOU Altru. And every other donor that will make this possible.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I agree eric…. I have seen seen some drawings posted on another forum of what may be the future athletic complex there and this is just one piece of the puzzle along with a renovated Memorial Stadium to make it larger. Goal in the long run is to move up to FBS, but much work needs to be done before then.
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The stadium pictured in those drawings doesn’t seem to have room for the east /west footprint indicated in the drawings. It looks like it would have to use the west wall of the new indoor practice facility as its east endzone resulting in no end zone seating @ that end. It seems like the west end would be able to include the present grandstand as refurbished seating & yet it is hard to tell if there would be room for it.
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Actually the picture with this story makes it look as though the present stadium is gone except for the tower where the present football offices are. I say that because the caption says the view is from the NW corner of the athletic complex, about where the new parking ramp is.
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It isn’t the gift, it’s what UND plans to do with it. While sucking students dry with spiraling tuition so they graduate with 5-figures in debt, Kelley builds a practice field for the footbal team. This is only exceeded in egregiousness by Allen High School in Texas building a $60 million football stadium.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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This guy owns 300,000 acres of mineral rights in the Bakken. That’s potentially $3 billion in value. As a grad of UND, he’s given mineral rights to UND in the past.
http://www.greatplainsexaminer.com/2012/08/29/frank-bavendick-north-dakotas-original-landman/
“When Bavendick bought his second batch of mineral rights later that year, he began another tradition – philanthropy. He secured the mineral rights on 735 acres just south of Watford City for $2.21 per acre from a family that had sold their farm and contacted Bavendick to see if he would buy the mineral rights. As soon as Bavendick struck the deal, he gave half of the mineral rights to Bismarck Junior College and UND.”
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There can’t enough emphasis on physical fitness & sports medicine in this day of obesity becoming epidemic. The synergy of the UND med school, Altru & UND sports has the potential to make GF the envy of the Midwest. All the shortsightedness expressed here is symptomatic of “anti-gubmant” types posting here as they champion their own greed.
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WOW
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I know how Altru builds 10 million in revenue.
By charging $170.00 for a 5-10 minute visit by the doctor to tell you your kid has an ear infection.
So with medicine that $ 200.00 dollar for an ear infection.
So when you buy out your competition, you can charge people over a thousand dollars an hour for a doctor.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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That $170 for 5-10 min. exam is paying for many support staff you don’t see but are a part of the infrastructure that needs to be pd. for so you have a hospital with 24/7 coverage for your convenience.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Sounds like you paid for this yourself since they would have olny charged Blue Cross $60 for the visit.
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That’s what happen when your employer changes to a high deductible health insurance.
It’s like having no insurance until you meet your deductible.
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I don’t quite understand why some people condemn Altru yet praise Sanford. Sanford is doing what Altru did a thousand times over, literally. Face it folks, Grand Forks is lucky to have what services they have available from Altru. Since the residents of every outlying community once received their services at Altru are now going to Sanford, Altru must protect the patient population they have locked in.
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Not wanting to be contrary, but sucessful businesses do not try and “protect” their customer base, they earn their loyalty.
As I have said many, many times before: Altru administration is committed to GF. They take their local charter very seriously. They are also needlessly phobic of competition.
In many ways they are just as good as Sanford. They need to act like it. That means spending more time doing what they do best and less time trying to prevent others from entering their catchment area.
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Thank you, Altru, for this most generous gift……you are truly an asset to our great community!
The negative comments on this are unbelievable! Sanford does this type of giving in every community they are in, and people seem to be OK with that. But when our own, locally owned health care facility does the EXACT same thing, a bunch of ingrates go negative; how incredibly rude.
Altru, you’re the best! Again, thank you.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Really? Altru robbed me for years during my childhood by diagnosing me with a “disease” that I didn’t have. I bet you can guess who pulled me off everything Altru put me on. I’ve never been better.
The fact that they now take out the competition to try to restrict us to them infuriates me. I seriously hope everyone wronged by them never goes back until another option arrives here like it should have just months ago.
Note my username. Everything Altru told me was never true.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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When I worked there I always wondered why Altru spent so much money to sponsor and advertise at the Ralph. They are the only game in town when it comes to inpatient services. Unless you want to take a serious drive, you are pretty much a captive audiance.
At least with this and the No Choice gym, the buildings they are sponsoring are health related.
That said, employees at Altru still do not earn 1.5 on holidays because the organization “can’t afford it.”
Do not respond with I do not know how budgets work, or understand the different piles of money the various expenditures come from. Trust me, when it comes to Altru, I do. I also know it is the Borad of Directors who decide how much goes into each pile.
They have been saying the same thing for over ten years; for the most part they are losing their credibility on this one point.
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So one way, I’m charged too much for medical insurance, and the money goes to Altru via inflated fees, and they regift the money to UND for a sports complex. Or I’m taxed by the state and they give the money to UND for a sports complex. I guess either way it really doesn’t matter. It looks to me like I’m out some money, and some kid at UND gets a nice place to hang out and practice for 4 years. Do you think they would at least let me write my name under “donated by” on one of the bricks?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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This practice facility will be available for non varsity athletes for intramural team field sports during the winter. That will attract students that now don’t have a facility for that other than the outmoded Hyslop Fieldhouse which is now too small for indoor winter flag football, soccer, rugby etc. The UND Wellness center is great for many types of exercise & the Ralph is great for intramural hockey but there is nothing for previously mentioned team sports in the winter.
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You’re drinking Kelley’s Kool-Ade. This is first and foremost about a practice field for a mediocre football team. All the other stuff is part of the scam. Besides, no amount of exercise is going to straighten the backs of the students who are carrying enormous debt.
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So the football team uses the indoor practice field off & on for 3 mths. in the fall & a mth. in the Spring. Students are gone in the summer. That leaves 5 mths. for exclusive non varsity student use for the other 5 winter mths. Sounds like a winner in this climate. Indoor tennis too.
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How many students? Would UND build an academic building for that number?
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This facility was in the works long before Kelly came here.
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Strang, I don’t recall anything about a practice field nor a $20 milllion drive for contributions before Kelley got here. Kupchella was too busy with his $18 million parking monstrosity.
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I do.
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That’s right. You still believe that the all the hokum about a $100 million+ stadium renovation was something more than a sting operation on the Alerus during contract negotiations.
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Not going to argue with FN since i already know he knows everything. However, no time and a half for holidays at Sanford, apparently we cant afford it down here either.
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That is really interesting. The nurse recruiter told me they did when I was checking into the bonus (bonus’ are common in most other places but viewed akin to kiddie porn in ND). I am doing my utmost to stay away from hospital nursing so hopefully I won’t have to find out.
It does not surprise me though. Supply and demand. It works both ways. If the employees put up with it, then that is what they get.
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My point was grand forks is not a booming metropolis. It is not large enough to sustain two hospitals without the surrounding communities. Where do you think the sick patients from hospitals in TRF, bemidji, Northwood, mayville, Hillsboro are going? Hint… It isnt Altru
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Altru is a mediocre facility at best. If you need your tonsils out or a stitch or two it will suffice. But lets be honest…anyone with a serious illness goes elsewhere. I highly recommend that they do.
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If it were based on anecdotal evidence, who knows whether to go there or not. As many swear by Altru as swear at Altru. My experiences have always been ok, while friends would never set foot in the place.
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I’m still working on forgiveness Gene. I’m not quite ready to let it go. Soon…but not yet.
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I would urge people to head just across the river to the sanford clinic there versus doctoring at Altru. MUCH better in a number of ways.
I was first warned about Altru years ago by a nursing educator affiliated with UND. Had a really lousy experience there with a UND student a couple of years back that showed nothing had changed.
Grand Forks really lost in quality of care and cost when Altru bought the building out from under the planned new medical facility.
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Anecdotal evidence isn’t scientific. I could tell you that people complain about service @ the Mayo Clinic too. I had a bad experience @ Georgetown Hospital in DC but that doesn’t make it a bad place. It’s always the institution in your back yard that gets run down because that’s what you are aware of. It’s all relative.
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Not anecdotal. The issue some years ago was quality of care brought on by a focus on $$ as the primary goal. Training of staff, ongoing education, was below the standards of the day in order to save $$. This came from someone with direct knowledge of their operation.
Our recent experience was with a UND student. The student had come down with a very nasty bacterial bug that didn’t respond to normal antibiotics over xmas break while at home. The doctor there did correctly diagnose the problem and had the student on very strong antibiotic drugs. Seemed to do the trick–but after the student got back up to Grand Forks it came roaring right back with a vengeance. On a weekend.
The student’s main clinic–Sandford– that insurance required be visited was closed on the weekend. However insurance allows visits to urgent care centers.
The kid was instructed to tell the urgent care physician exactly what was going on and what drugs had been prescribed to fix it. My concern was that the doctor would not run tests and send the kid home with a common antibiotic, which would be worthless against this bacterial issue.
So the kid gets a taxi ride to Altru urgent care. Tells the doctor whats up, the doctor says thats a real strong antibiotic they Rx’d you and sends her out the door with a basic one!
Days later she is VERY sick. By now the kid has missed most of a week of school and is panicking. Parent has to get in the car drive to Grand Forks and haul her to Sanford, where they hop right on the issue and get her back on a larger strength dose and longer course of very strong antibiotics. Which has her doing better and back in class in a few days.
And it didn’t end there. Though this kid made an appointment to see an Urgent Care doctor, walked past the urgent care sign and registered at urgent care on a weekend to be sign–Altru billed it as an emergency room visit!
Why? Quite simple. They get paid more! The patient has to pay more than three times as much too!
Now if they ran some tests, took some blood, got on her on an IV antiobiotic etc. I don’t think we’d quibble. But they listed to the symptoms, what a competent facility had found and how they had treated it–and then sent the patient on their way with a simple antibiotic for a bacterial issue that a 30 second google check will show is NOT responsive to typical antibiotics.
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Why not anecdotal? Your experience is real but anecdotal,i.e., based on a small sample & thus not scientific. IOW this story could happen anyplace, Mayo, Georgetown in my case or Sanford.
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Man, there’s lots of venting going on here. A university is a huge economic engine to a clinic/hospital so I understand the loyalty. It rubs me the wrong way with my $1,300/month insurance premium to see the gobs of money medicine has for investment and expansion. I have no idea about practice facilities funded by donations from a hospital, but I hate that having wax flushed out of my ears costs more than my optometrist. Support staff or not, medicine owns our economy and we sit and watch it continue to spiral out of control when we should be balling like little babies. There is nothing more sad in this country and we don’t see it.
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The Affordable Care Act, while not without it’s issues, has created a way forward on this. If the Republicans could see their way clear to actually work on tweaking some part of the act, it has huge cost containments built into it’s features. This has gotten lost in the silly partisan fight.
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I remeber when you wrote that Obamacare was going to help employment in the US as well. 16,000 new IRS agents worth! Obamcare is going to do things to medicine that only the most unsuspecting can appreciate. It’s not a tax, it’s not a tax, it’s not a tax, oops-Supreme Court says to be legal, its a tax and now its OK?
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realist, (and I’m not trying to start a partisan fight here) that’s where you lose me. I see all kinds of benefits in the Affordable Care Act for the uninsured, but for the life of me, I can’t see how it does one thing to reduce the overall cost of healthcare. If I could see that, I would support it in a heartbeat. All I can see is that we have created another entitlement that we can’t afford. Please try and make me understand.
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It reduces the overall cost in that it gets more people covered, spreading the cost out more, and those who now have coverage can get the preventive services needed to identify problems much earlier when it costs a whole lot less to treat than when the problem is out of control.
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Vote tumbs down if you want but getting the formerly uninsured to have care done at the Dr’s office instead of the emergency room will reduce costs for everyone.
Also the Frontier Amendment gives ND providers a much needed increase in their payment level from medicare so now costs are almost covered instead of where they were before where medicare’s payments didn’t come close to covering their costs (ND providers got paid a whole lot less than other states when costs were not that much different). Now that the Drs and Hospitals don’t have that shortfall on medicare patients that they used to, they won’t have to increase their charges to the people who are insured to make up for those losses.
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Sorry Cascade, but I just don’t buy your argument about less ER visits. When Romney instituted “Romneycare” in Massachusetts, emergency room visits only dropped 2%.
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The only way obamacare can exist is to punish the young and healthy by forcing them into the program to cover others. It exempts those 26 and younger by letting them stay on their pareents healthcare plans, those in the military (pretty heealthy), congress (full of BS, but not in the plan) and thousands of other granted waivers. How many healthy people are there left to cover the expenses of this massive bureaucratic monster?
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Like Romney did? What funded Romneycare in Ma.? That’s right folks the federal government.
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this explains the nasty letter saying my tremendous altru bill is due in its entirety. i personally enjoyed the way it was signed “thank you for CHOOSING altru”… as if we have a choice.
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You do have a choice, if you really truly do not want to go to Altru, head to east grand forks, go on over to fargo, crookston… all in all if you are so so upset go someplace else, the drive isnt that far if it will make you feel 100% better about your care.
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