St. Mary's Continues To Even The Playing Field

As some of you may have noticed if you've been in St. Mary's lately, St. Mary's now has a NEUROSURGEON.

And, not just any Neurosurgeon. Dr. Terrence Pencek has been a neurosurgeon in Springfield for many years, and is highly respected from what friends in Springfield say.

Dr. Pencek will not be practicing alone. Another doctor will be joining Dr. Pencek this fall, and a THIRD will be starting by the end of the year! When all is said and done, St. Mary's will have three neurosurgeons, AND, soon the county's ONLY STROKE REHAB UNIT will be at St. Mary's!!

And if that wasn't enough, employees of Caterpillar are no longer forced to use only DMH for their medical care. St. Mary's has the same arrangement with CAT's insurance that DMH does. This means that the out-of-pocket for CAT employees is THE SAME FOR ST. MARY'S AS IT IS FOR DMH. The DMH Herald & Review had a full-page ad for St. Mary's in Sunday's paper, and my aunt said there's a bill board on South Franklin street that's getting the word out, too.

CHOICE. Choice of neurosurgeons. Choice of a neurology rehab unit (oh wait, Ken doesn't have one of those....darn.) Choice for CAT employees to go to the hospital of their choice.

What will Ken pull next? Will he get his Consociate buddies to make it impossible for patients to go to St. Mary's? Will he fire his primary care doctors, now that he has their patients via the hospitalists? Will he strip away even more benefits from employees? Will he continue to let the number of employees drop so they save money on payroll? Will the quality of patient care continue to decline as the number of employees goes down? What will the Department of Justice do when he pulls his next stunt?

Keep your eyes and ears open. The feds are moving in. The creative accounting will soon be revealed.