Now the financial expert that was brought in to save the children’s hospital has resigned.
It looks like the ship is sinking.
It was built on false economics.
After multiple studies they finally found one that said it might work, if.
Then the people behind this built a hospital even bigger than the one that the last study said would be marginal.
The children’s hospital needed to be a part of a general hospital, not a separate entity that would draw money away from our county hospital.
The charges from the county hospital were poorly planned. To this day no one has explained why the children’s hospital has to pay rent to the county hospital when the construction was financed by a separate bond issue specifically promoted to build the children’s hospital. The charges for services that the children’s hospital has to pay the county hospital are unreasonable. If children’s was in fact a separate entity they could have at least managed those expenses to be within their means.
The revenue projections, as optimistic as they were, were based on reimbursement from the state and feral governments. Planning to have a steady revenue stream from those two was just wrong.
Now both hospitals are in trouble.
The children’s hospital chief executive has resigned. Is the situation beyond fixing, or would the solutions not be acceptable to the people in power who got us into this mess originally?
We will soon get to see the new county hospital budget for next year. I won’t be surprised if it too is based on false economics.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I think the proper terminology is “Ponzi Scheme” to describe the 2 hospitals.
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Healthcare is NOT FREE..somebody here is not paying their bills and so it goes….Two different ships and only one is sinking!
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Fraud is defined as “wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.”
Synonyms include: fraudulence, cheating, deceit, deception, double-dealing
“A person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.”
This whole situation and all of the decisions and financial matters involving both of these hospitals constitute fraud. Legal perhaps, but still fraudulent.
It’s ironic that this is all happening right in the middle of our city leaders trying to market El Paso as a world-class city for healthcare.
Yet, Valenti still has his job.
The UMC and Children’s Hospital boards are just as incompetent as the previous EPISD board. They should all step down.
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UMC and Children’s Hospital boards needed to analyze the budget variances on a timely basis and inform taxpayers of any budget surplus or deficit. It is very obvious that top officials from CH and Valenti were trying to hide and manipulate the current deficit before the external auditors released the audited financial statements. The boards need to be accountable for not providing timely financial information to the public and for covering up Valenti’s false economics.
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I talked to Valenti when this scam of a Children’s hospital started. I told him that it’s not fair that taxpayers have to fund this hospital and yours, but private hospitals have to survive on their own and still pay a myriad of taxes that go to these public hospitals. He said that it is fair, and I went to the point to almost saying to him that I think we are being scammed, but I was more cordial. Look at the effect now. I guess all those ritzy meetings with doctors serving caviar and wine got back to Valenti as well.
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Valenti sold the whole children’s hospital concept, now he is blaming them for his smoke and mirrors.
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Most people WITH Insurance do not go to UMC or Children’s Hospital. (Insurance companies are the only ones with deep enough pockets to pay a Hospital)
Most people without Insurance end up at UMC or Children’s Hospital.
(Who has 10’s of thousands of dollars or even the income to actually PAY UMC or Children’s Hospital?)
But, I’ll tell you this:
IF you arrive at Thomason (MY perfered NAME of the hospital instead of UMC) and you arrive ALIVE, by ambulance, pretty much, you will be saved and alive and well when you walk out.
They are GOOD at what they do and are a Trauma Center.
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