A coalition of community activists joined forces on Friday, Aug. 31st to stop Jackson management’s dangerous proposals to privatize our hospital’s Emergency Room services, including the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center.
Community groups represented at the meeting included Miami-Dade County Commission for Women, Sisterhood of Survivors and Building Empowerment by Stopping Trafficking. Senator Gwen Margolis, State Rep. Annie Betancourt and Jackson caregivers were also present. About 30 people attended.
“It’s not Mr. Migoya’s right to change the mission of Jackson,” Sen. Gwen Margolis said. “It’s our mission. It’s our hospital.”
Dr. David Woolsey, an Attending Physician in the ER for the past 22 years, said Jackson’s mission of providing a single-standard of care for everyone in the community is a bad business model for a private company hoping to turn profits. Instead, companies would provide the bare minimum of care before sending patients out the door.
“If they see nothing in your wallet, they’ll discharge you as fast as they can,” he said.
At the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center, patients are served with highly specialized care consisting of a network of doctors, nurses and social workers. Jackson’s caregivers provide a setting of physical and emotional support, said Carol Robley, ARNP, who works at the center and sees between 35 and 40 patients each month.
“We see patients at their most vulnerable, most victimized state,” she said. “To take this center and turn it for profit is not in the best interest of patients.”