Monday, August 4, 2008

OSF's Hypocrisy Continues...


The Peoria magazine, InterBusiness Issues, has an article in the August, 2008 edition.

The article was written by Keith Steffen, Administrator of OSF-SFMC in Peoria.

Mr. Steffen starts out his brief article with this sentence:

“Being able to serve all the patients who come to us is our primary priority.”

I wonder if Mr. Steffen really believes this. He cut all funding for Haitian Hearts patients in July, 2002 and OSF-SFMC is denying care to past OSF Haitian patients who need repeat heart surgery.

Two young patients, Jackson Jean-Baptiste and Maxime Petion have died in the last couple of years after they were refused surgery at OSF-SFMC. Four other Haitian Hearts patients need repeat surgery soon or they will all die.

Mr. Steffen also writes about OSF’s Milestone Project which is costing about 400 million dollars.

“The Milestone Project will use 47,000 square feet of glass, 22,000 cubic yards of concrete, 143,000 pounds of rebar (used for reinforcing concrete) and nearly 10 million pounds of steel.”

He then ends his article with the following paragraph:

“This new facility will help us to better “serve persons with the greatest care and love in a community that celebrates the gift of life”. And that is the OSF HealthCare mission.”

Notice that he put the mission statement in quotes…possibly distancing himself from this philosophy.

Many Haitian patients and their families wouldn’t believe this if they read his article. And I am sure the hypocrisy of Mr. Steffen’s words are not lost on many people in central Illinois.

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