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Articles , Letters, Comments
A compilation of comments from email, blogs, and submitted articles.

As articles, comments and letters are submitted we will publish with respect to the level of privacy desired.

I have been an employee at SGH for over 22 years. If you were to ask, you would find that many of the employees have been there greater than 10 years. Why? We love working in a community hospital where we are able to give excellent care to our patients. Patient satisfaction surveys have shown that SGH patients are more than satisified with the care they receive there. Recently, we have been asking patients admitted to our floor why they chose SGH. Everyone has said that they would not go to AGH!! What will happen to these people if SGH is closed? A survey has shown that many of the patients that come to SGH come from outlying areas. This shows that SGH is the preferred hospital of choice. Doesn't Dr. Olivia see this? Doesn't he realize that these people will choose another community hospital instead of going to AGH or West Penn? Please, for the sake of the community and the employees, don't turn our beloved hospital into an urgicenter!

DD

Below is a letter that I am sending to Mr. Burfitt and Dr. Olivia--(you may post it on the saveoursgh website)

March 28, 2010

I am an employee who works regularly at AGH-SC , but I also work occasionally at AGH-Main. I am part of a small number of people who are familiar with both campuses. I am writing to voice my support of continuing acute-care services at Suburban. I believe it would be a mistake to change our current mission of providing quality medical care to our patients.
There are several reasons to support my belief.
#1 Patient satisfaction surveys consistently rate higher on our campus than many, if not all, of the units at AGH-Main. One of the units at Main that does well on patient satisfaction surveys is the Stroke Unit which has a higher than average nurse:patient ratio. This indicates that patients prefer the personalized, individual care that Suburban provides without needing to have high nurse:patient ratios.
#2 Community hospitals benefit the individuals who use it by providing a shorter commute, less traffic, and free parking. West Penn Hospital in Lawrenceville and AGH-Main on the North Side are in more crowded and congested areas–neither can provide free parking. Many people who use our hospital will be reluctant to use AGH-Main or WPH for these reasons.
#3 Suburban employees function in a remarkable level of cooperation. Ask anyone who has ever worked at Suburban–all departments work together to provide caring, individual attention to our patients. This attitude should be encouraged and touted as an example to the rest of WPAHS, not destroyed by changing or eliminating our mission.
#4 Suburban, to my knowledge, operates within budget. Suburban is not a drain on AGH or WPAHS. How would changing or eliminating acute-care admissions help the current financial situation? The services at Suburban should be studied and copied, and probably expanded, rather than deleted.
I believe Suburban should remain a vital part of AGH. Use Suburban and AGH-Main as an example of how a large teaching hospital and a small community hospital can depend on each other–each filling a role the other cannot–not only surviving, but thriving.

Sincerely,
AMG

This Hospital should not be closed down. There are many elderly people in
the community that needs that hospital. They don't drive or have a means
of transportation to get to another hospital. The people of Bellevue and
Avalon need this facility. Please DONT CLOSE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you,

DM

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03-26-2010 07:49 PM

I have heard rumors that SGH is closing or may become an urgent care facility only. This hospital has been part of our North Boros community to have this happen to the citizens. This was a well funded hospital until it's involvement with AGH and I think some explaining needs to be done. Please fight to keep this hospital open.

Thank you.

M N

Mt Nebo

Thank you for helping all those concerned have a voice. Only a very small percentage of our Suburban family (patients and staff) can show their support through this site and the Facebook page. For all those that need to be looking at and listening to the community, remember-many of our patients are elderly and not on Facebook ect. that doesn't mean that this hospital insn't everything to them. Many of them don't have family, we are all they have.

Thank you

T B