WPAHS makes antitrust charges against UPMC and the Blues

Honnête et Sérieux · May 18, 2009

I'm not trying to explain anything away, just pointing out that your point of view is your opinion. Your opinion is not necessarily fact. I think that WPAHS understands the dynamics of the western Pennsylvania market very well. I hope that both health systems survive, as I have family working at both. Competition is a good thing, and as the late Allegheny-Singer Health Corporation demonstrated a few years back, you can never get too big to fail.

WPAHS is a dismal failure at understanding the dynamics of the Western PA health market. If they understood the market, they wouldn't be sitting around in a pity-circle trying to figure out why the don't matter anymore.

oramar · May 19, 2009

WPAHS is a dismal failure at understanding the dynamics of the Western PA health market. If they understood the market, they wouldn't be sitting around in a pity-circle trying to figure out why the don't matter anymore.

I really don't understand what it is AGH is accusing UPMC of doing. I can see it has something to do with money.

oramar · May 19, 2009

I am an old time South Side resident, sitting here watching my community hospital go away. I have to admit, quite a few of us old timers grumble about this and that and UPMC, especially me. However, more and more I notice the main thing in the air is resignation. People just seemed resigned to their fate. Once the steel mills controlled everything and now health care giants control everything. Most grumbling is under the breath.

K98 · May 19, 2009

I am an old time South Side resident, sitting here watching my community hospital go away. I have to admit, quite a few of us old timers grumble about this and that and UPMC, especially me. However, more and more I notice the main thing in the air is resignation. People just seemed resigned to their fate. Once the steel mills controlled everything and now health care giants control everything. Most grumbling is under the breath.

The real grumbling will start if and when the government takes over the healthcare system. No more health care giants, just one GIANT.

Honnête et Sérieux · May 19, 2009

I am an old time South Side resident, sitting here watching my community hospital go away. I have to admit, quite a few of us old timers grumble about this and that and UPMC, especially me. However, more and more I notice the main thing in the air is resignation. People just seemed resigned to their fate. Once the steel mills controlled everything and now health care giants control everything. Most grumbling is under the breath.

Well, I suppose thinking pragmatically it makes sense to blame UPMC for closing southside, but the reality is that you can't possibly know that Soutside would remain open if it were affiliated with any other hospital or tried to remain a stand-alone. And the reality is that I can't think of any good reason why the hospital should stay open; is it because Mercy, at 1.4 miles away, is too far to travel? Presby at 2 miles? Even if you decided to go with AGH (four miles) or Shadyside...how does it seem unwise to keep this concentrated cluster of hospitals open in a city with a declining population? It makes more sense to me to 'relocate' the hospital into an expanding market, which is exactly what UPMC is doing in Monroeville.

Even WPAHS failed to keep a facility open after taking over, but even here the closure of Citizen's was blamed on UPMC, not the health system that actually took it over. I believe that if UPMC would've taken it over, that hospital would not only be still open, it would have expanded services for the folks of Allegheny Valley.

wonderbee, BSN, RN · May 20, 2009

UPMC has definitely got the guilded touch. Ruthlessly successful.

Honnête et Sérieux · May 23, 2009

UPMC has definitely got the guilded touch. Ruthlessly successful.

No doubt.