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Los Angeles County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
Smart Voter

The future of Antelope Valley Hospital

By John J. Manning, MD

Candidate for Member, Board of Directors; Antelope Valley Health Care District

This information is provided by the candidate
Healthcare costs are high throughout the nation and there are large numbers of Americans without insurance coverage. National efforts are being instituted to control both of these issues and those measures will have significant impact on all hospitals and healthcare districts. We going to have to meet those challenges.
In order to control costs the federal and state governments under the Medicare and Medicaid programs will significantly reduce payments to hospital and other providers including your own doctors. Private healthcare insurers are sure to follow the same pattern.
Furthermore payments to hospitals will be in significant part be dependent on specific quality of care measures as patient as well as patient and their family satisfaction results. This is perhaps as it should be and I agree with the concept even tho the specific requirements are as not yet fully known.
Mandates will require an integrated teamwork approach throughout the entire hospital as well as a change in the overall culture of the past. This is not unique to this institution but is generally the same throughout the nation. I welcome the challenge. The Antelope Valley portion of Los Angeles County is below the norm in many aspects of healthcare such as obesity, infant health, drug addiction, diabetes control, among others. Attending to this critical issue is a mandate of the healthcare district and we have lost this focus as we have had our attention directed virtually entirely on the hospital. It will surprise many that perhaps a majority of California healthcare districts have no hospitals in their area or the district has no connection with any hospitals that do exist. Their function is essentially public health and we need to return to that aspect of our mandate.

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ca/la Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 11, 2012 14:51
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