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Executives from Cottage Health System reported that two cons...

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COMMENT 299733P	2012-07-20 10:53 AM
Werft said the hospital’s health care ranked in the top one percent of patient satisfaction in the United States. THIS CONFLICTS WITH THE RECENT RATING OF COTTAGE HOSPITAL IN CONSUMER REPORTS!!!
COMMENT 299763	2012-07-20 11:34 AM
Yes, Cottage is such a good neighbor. Repeat after me, I love my Cottage Hospital. Helicopter flights and construction projects are our friends.
COMMENT 299773	2012-07-20 11:59 AM
Stop the helicopter flights to Cottage now! Go back to landing at La Cumbre Jr High remote field area. This arrangement worked fine for years. The current arrangement is a disaster. It is a myth that "seconds" count in emergency evacuations. They don't. Particularly when we learn more about what Cottage is calling a helicopter evacuation "emergency". EMT's on the scene are very capable of vital sign stabilization to allow the orderly transport of any medical emergency. They can be transported in from La Cumbre with no loss of "seconds" to stand between life and death, not with the pack of excuses they are now using to land on the roof of the hospital itself. Helicopter transports have increased three fold according to a prior poster - they cost thousands of dollars. No "seconds" were saved between life and death in a single one of them. Stop wondering why "health care" (aka meaningless stunts and gimmicks) costs so much in the US.
COMMENT 299787	2012-07-20 12:29 PM
Turn that rooftop into a nice garden/restaurant/meditation area for patients, staff and visitors STAT!
COMMENT 299810	2012-07-20 01:33 PM
NIMBY's you chose to live next to a hospital. Accept the consequences. Keep the flights!
COMMENT 299822	2012-07-20 02:01 PM
I live in an apartment complex on Junipero St., right on the flight path of the helicopters. I speak for myself and all of my nearby neighbors when I say that I pray everytime I hear a helo landing at Cottage because I know that someone is in critical need of medical assistance. Do I whine and complain about the noise? Of coursse NOT! I am glad to see that we have this type of service in this community. In my opinion, a few minutes of lost sleep does not justify whinning and complaining about the noise the helos generate. These flights are saving lives, children's and adults!
COMMENT 299787	2012-07-20 03:32 PM
Stop the flights - thin the herd.
COMMENT 299868	2012-07-20 04:02 PM
Some years ago Helicopters landed at Goleta Valley Hospital (when it was an independent freestanding FULL SERVICE hospital). They flew down the freeway and down Patterson avenue straight to the main entrance lawn at GVHS and direct to the ER. The flights were safe, they did not have to circle the neighborhoods and I know of no complaints. I've lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. It was only after Cottage took over GVHS that they decreased services to the facility and took the helicopter flights away to feed the big "mother ship" Cottage-diminishing service to a growing citizenship. Ambulance drivers did not have to weave through congested streets or traffic to come directly off the highway straight down the road to GVHS emergency room. If someone had been thinking of service rather than dollars-GVHS would have been named the trauma center because of location. And yes, check the recent Consumer's Report for Cottage ratings. Pretty poor.
COMMENT 299870	2012-07-20 04:10 PM
Never argue with ignorant people.. It is just like arguing with a drunk.... People need to stop badgering the hospital where ONE DAY IT MAY SAVE YOURS OR A LOVED ONES LIFE!!!!
COMMENT 299879	2012-07-20 04:44 PM
Isn't it funny how some people think that they are more important than others.... Oh have the copters fly to La Cumbre Jr High like they did for years. What? So the noise for them is fine but not the complainers near the hospital? Makes no sense. We sure didn't hear the residents near the Jr High whining all the time like spoiled kids!
COMMENT 299773	2012-07-20 05:39 PM
Not a NIMBY issue, since Cottage never had helicopter flights to their rooftop in the first place until now. It was never part of the equation for those living at least 10 blocks around this new hospital feature. Cottage brought the nuisance to us; we did not knowingly move to a known nuisance with notice. Big difference .Cottages is the intruder, plus they misrepresented it in order to get it approved. No points scored by Cottage on this one. They had a previously workable plan that never generated complaints or problems - land at La Cumbre Jr High remote field site. They need to go back to this because these noisy flyovers day and night are not simply not acceptable. No lives lost landing at La Cumbre and no complaints either. Cottage over-stepped themselves this time. They are the ones that have to do something; not the neighbors.
COMMENT 299894	2012-07-20 05:44 PM
According to the ranking system as required by the Health and Human Services dept. (HHS), all hospitals that receive reimbursements from Medicare must participate in a consumer ranking program - i.e. the survey you receive after a hospital stay. Cottage is ranked highly based on those federally mandated criteria, not Consumer Reports, not Health Magazines "Top 100 Hospitals", but a standardized survey that compares all hospitals in the nation against each other. So Cottage is being compared to the "bigs", Mayo, John Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, etc. And Cottage is doing very well. We should all be proud and thankful that Santa Barbara has such outstanding healthcare available. I hope you don't need it, but if you do, you will receive the best possible care.
COMMENT 299900	2012-07-20 05:51 PM
Never argue with ignorant people. It's just like arguing with a drunk. Anyone who doesn't live under the flight path, or in the noise tunnel, doesn't have a clue as to how disruptive some of the helicopter flights can be. To those sycophants who believe that Cottage can do no wrong, and to the knee-jerk ignoramuses in our community, try living in the war zone and see how long you can take it....keeping in mind that many of the flights are NON-emerency, NON-life-threatening, and ONLY money makers for the Cottage Club. The community accepted the helipad on the condition that it would be used for LIFE-THREATENING EMERGENCIES. Cottage LIED. And now the ignorant and the greedy tell the neighbors to stop whining? What is wrong with some of you?
COMMENT 299913	2012-07-20 07:26 PM
Last job I did for them - promised payment in 30 days - 200 days later we got paid - and not in full - Believe the spin machine - they fired all the honest people and replaced them with corp. shrills.... it's all smoke and mirrors from here on out .....SAD ......
COMMENT 299932P	2012-07-20 08:39 PM
The Consumer Reports article this month on hospital infections found Cottage ranking in the mid-range - not the best, nor the worst. Also, Cottage is another example of a unhealthy example of a monopoly in our area.
COMMENT 299932P	2012-07-20 09:21 PM
Cottage is our spouse in a local hospital relationship - we're stuck, thus hope for the best. What executives say is sweet talk - we must learn to bite our tongue, roll the eyes, and be wary.
COMMENT 299932P	2012-07-20 09:23 PM
Cottage Hospital is like our spouse because ______ (complete the sentence, Edhatters)
COMMENT 299733P	2012-07-20 09:52 PM
Not sure if 299894 works in the PR department at Cottage, but Consumer Reports is a highly regarded magazine and I would be you haven't even read the study, because if you did you would find it is significantly more thorough than the data source you are quoting. Furthermore, Cottage Hospital earned a footnote for having a higher than average mortality rate. Talk about dying to get in there!
COMMENT 299733P	2012-07-20 09:54 PM
Oh one more thing 299894, I had three surgeries at Cottage in the past eighteen months, never ever received a survey form after any of them. And the truth is I was actually quite pleased.
COMMENT 299932P	2012-07-20 10:05 PM
Survey form was sent to me and dutifully completed with my specific example of lack of cleanliness observed - I kept the cell phone photo. Not even a form scripted response. Staff was good however. Emergency room close-together-seating seemed unhealthy. Overall impression and care: B
COMMENT 299773	2012-07-21 08:11 AM
Reports of a three-fold increase in helicopter flights since Cottage helipad opened. Dispatchers now claiming every emergency call needs a helicopter evacuation? Follow the money. Cottage claimed no more than 2 flights a week would be expected. They based this on past expectations Something radically happened since Cottage made those reassuring statements to the public? And this does not necessarily mean an unexpected increase in emergency needs. Greed is as good an explanation as anything. Helicopter evacuations get paid only when they get used. Did Cottage lie or did they mis-underestimate.
COMMENT 299992	2012-07-21 08:52 AM
773 and 900... flights are needed, they will not stop.......let it go. Find other ways to fill your weekend. It's nice outside.
COMMENT 299932P	2012-07-21 10:42 AM
How do we know if the helicopter flights are needed, saving lives? Does Cottage Hospital have permit to exceed their estimated two or three helicopter trips a week? Is this primarily about money? Is there objective information about this?
COMMENT 299773	2012-07-21 11:01 AM
Cottage hospital does internal reviews on all hospital operations for efficacy. They need to do an internal review on the criteria used for helicopter evacuations, just like they review everything else. Or else they may hear from hospital accreditation, if this has become an over-used and abusive internal decision malfunction. Controlling medical costs is everyone's business, including Cottage and the medical evacuation business.

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