Hospital system overwhelmed

[brewer]

The community does have a say, they can go to the hospital and ask that they expand services and capacity. If the hospital management rejects the request they can start soliciting/enticing competing medical care.

Talk about living in a dream world....  Simplest answer to that is it doesn't work that way and you know it doesn't.

BTW, I didn't mention it before, but the biggest hospital in my area actually owns 5 hospitals and numerous clinics in the metro area, including some smaller towns.  There is very little competition.

My mother lives in a more rural area about 3 hours away and she is of course advanced in age.  She and my father often have to wait several weeks for appointments to see a specialist.  This is due to the fact that there just aren't enough of them around.  Some of them are based in a large city and have satellite offices in a radius of up to 100 miles.

County Dept of Health and State Dept of Health works that way. Then there are Federal agencies that can step in for reviews, audits and accreditation. Hospitals are required to have acceptable emergency plans. 

I grew up in a rural area, I know the score. My wife has to wait months to see her eye specialist, unless it's an emergency, and we're large city adjacent.