Is This a Hospital or a Hotel?

New York Times ^ | 9/21/2013 | Elisabeth Rosenthal

[Mike Darancette]

As the new St. Joseph’s Hospital in Highland, Ill., prepared to open in August, its chief executive exulted, “You feel like you could be at the Marriott.”

In the $63 million community hospital, patients all enjoy private rooms, with couches, flat-screen TVs and views of nature. Its lobby features stone fireplaces and a waterfall.

Some hospitals in the United States, like Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, have long been associated with deluxe accommodations, and others have always had suites for V.I.P.’s. But today even many smaller hospitals often offer general amenities, like room service and nail salons, more often associated with hotels than health care.

[Mike Darancette]

I don't think this will be covered by an Obamacare Bronze Plan. Probably only for government and union boss piggys.

[ClearCase_guy]

I was just talking about this sort of thing with my wife. A lot of kids go off to college and live in fabulous dorms, and eat in sumptuous cafeterias with vast quantities of delicious food. And a lot of sick people spend time in very tastefully decorated luxury apartments which come complete with nurses and doctors.

Somehow, our society has decided that luxury is a base-level requirement. If it's not luxurious, then it isn't good enough for me.

And then we also complain that everything is so expensive.

I'd much rather live in a society that was less materialistic and less stressed, and more free. But I think we pissed all that away, didn't we?

[Hildy]

Yes, we did. And we only have ourselves to blame.

[Patriot Babe]

Yep it would cover BamBam and the Wookie but not for us peons. We get the window view of a Brick wall, and a broken fire hydrant as our lovely waterfall. =)

[Kirkwood]

You should work for obama since you seem to want to decide what people are allowed to have.

[clee1]

Nothing new....

A nearby county-run hospital (see lots of indigent patients) has a whole unit that is like a luxury hotel; complete with personal chef/menu, fulltime one-on-one nurse, etc.

Of course, it costs about 10K a night to be there...

[beelzepug]

If the tax payers are footing the bill they have every right to decide what amenities people should have, above and beyond basic care and necessities. As for me, I’d be happy (and amazed) if I could get a nurse to answer a damned buzzer in less that 30 minutes.

[spokeshave]

all the new hospitals are built with single patient rooms ....stops the spread of infections like flesh eating bacteria.

[usconservative]

I was at the new Silver Cross hospital in New Lenox, IL in April 2012 for a heart attack --- it really was like being in a 5 star hotel. (Having actually STAYED at 5 star hotels the comparison is accurate.)

From what I'm being told, so-called HIPAA rules no longer allow patients to "share rooms." The days of pulling a curtain and having a "private" conversation with a patient are over. Those conversations now happen in private rooms with patients.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Its possible to make a comment on the state of society, without plotting how to take away people's property.

Its a mixed bag -- one of the driving ideas behind the US was that through hard work you can achieve a high standard of living. And if you've sweat and bled for everything you have, you appreciate it.

But its a historical fact that when a people cease to be hungry, cease to strive, they lose what made them great. America is no different, and the fact that luxury is assumed and expected without any effort most assuredly contributes to our fall.

[Nepeta]

Somehow, our society has decided that luxury is a base-level requirement. If it's not luxurious, then it isn't good enough for me.

I have watched the spread of "luxury items","affordable luxury" and such for some time, amazed at the expectations of people. Not so long ago, a good, well-made pair of shoes cost a lot of money, but they lasted and looked good for a long time. Now, "fashionable" shoes can cost hundreds of dollars, and people pay that!

"Designer clothes" are another source of amazement to me. WHY would anyone pay for a product with someone else's advertising on it? 40 years ago, companies gave away cheap tee-shirts with their logos for boxtops or proofs of purchase--now people pay good money for them!

Then there is ostentatious home architecture, houses with windows on faux third floors that do not exist. (Whatever happened to attics, anyway?) And what is the purpose of a shower big enough to use as a wash stall for a horse? And those bathtubs raised up several steps off the floor, so if you don't trip going into the water, you will surely slip getting out and disembowel yourself on the fancy faucets in the front of the tub, entertaining the neighborhood since the tub is set into a bow window!

[Kirkwood]

The problem is that the poster says he wants freedom of choice, and yet he criticizes the availability of choice in the same sentence. How messed up is that logic?

[9YearLurker]

Both those examples—higher ed and health care—are cases of third-party payers run amok. With neither colleges nor hospitals competing on price, they can load up the amenities to win customers—then stick the third-party payers and, ultimately, the taxpayers, with the bill.

[CodeToad]

Sky Ridge in Denver is known as Spa Ridge.

[sportutegrl]

There is a hospital in New Orleans called the Hotel Dieu. Hotel is the word for Hospital.

[BwanaNdege]

Probably less change of infection at a Marriott. Plus, Room & Board, without the medical charges, is WAY higher in a hospital, any hospital, than in a decent hotel.

[esoxmagnum]

Jelly much?

[grania]

I would much rather be in an average Holiday Inn Room than in a hotel (or nursing home for seniors). Besides being nicer, it would be cheaper, cleaner, have better bathroom facilities, a window with a view, and a choice of restaurants to order takeout from. I could set the temperature to my comfort level. So why does it cost the average hospital so much to have people living in crowded squalor?

[RetiredTexasVet]

Sound familiar....remember the British princess ... had her baby in the “private wing” of the socialized medicine hospital away from the unwashed masses. Just a little preview of CommieCare .... do you have the mark of the beast for entrance to the private wing or the hospice wing.

[JoeTheGeorgian]

No, “hôtel” is french for “hostel”.

hôpital is “hospital”.

Note the carat above the ‘O’ in each word. It means that there used to be an S after it, somewhere in time.