The Bid for Beds

 333 Combined Beds

How many beds should the new RegionalCare hospital in Lauderdale County have? RC has applied for a Certificate of Need that would allow for 300 beds. Its chief "rival" Helen Keller Hospital contends the new hospital needs no more than 234. In order to defend its position, HKH has used a statistical formula that would seem to prove its point.

If we used that formula, would HKH itself have too many beds? Our friend David has sent some extremely interesting data that seem to prove HKH is the proverbial pot:

Using information found on the Internet and according to the 2010 Census the following figures are very interesting:

    

County                        Population               Number of  Hospital Beds                     Ratio               

Lauderdale                    92,709                    300 (proposed)                                           309/1

Colbert                           54,428                     333 (HKH 185  + SH 148)                         163/1

Morgan                         119,490                     543 (DG 273 + PW 120 + HMC 150)       220/1

Madison                        334,811                    1161 (HH 951 + MH 60 + CMC 150)        288/1 

Ratio is the number of citizens per one hospital bed. According to this information Lauderdale County would have the fewest hospital beds available per citizen among the four counties listed with Colbert County having the most hospital beds per citizen. It would seem that closing Helen Keller Hospital would bring their bed ratio in line with the surrounding counties.

Out of 2037 total beds in the mentioned counties, 1702 are controlled by Huntsville Hospital. This doesn't include Morgan County, Lawrence County or Franklin County which all have hospitals in them controlled by Huntsville Hospital.

HKH - Helen Keller Hospital            185 beds

SH - Shoals Hospital                         148 beds

DG - Decatur General Hospital         273 beds*

PW - Parkway Hospital                       120 beds*

HMC - Hartselle Medical Center       150 beds*   (scheduled to be closed this year)

HH - Huntsville Hospital                     951 beds*   (includes 70 bed rehabilitation hospital)

MH - Madison Hospital                        60 beds*

CMC - Crestwood Medical Center    150 beds

* Owned or controlled by Huntsville Hospital

The judge presiding over the hearing will give his decision in a matter of weeks.



Shoalanda