CNA Presents New Data on Sutter's Medical...(o just 6% at CPMC. -- 40 percent of i...),Health

-- 40 percent of in-patient hospital expected payments at St. Luke's are

Medi-Cal -- compared to just 7 percent at CPMC.

-- 51 percent of St. Luke's patient discharges come from just three zip

codes adjacent to the hospital -- compared to 22 percent of CPMC's

hospital patients, an indication that St. Luke's patient base is drawn

heavily from surrounding neighborhoods.

-- From one-fourth to nearly half of St. Luke's patients from five zip

codes that account for 63 percent of all the hospital's discharge have

incomes under 200 percent of the poverty level. For the five top zip

codes for CPMC patients, the comparable income levels range from 8

percent to 28 percent.

"There can be no mistaking this data," says Castillo. "St. Luke's serves a far greater percentage of Latino and African-American patients than CPMC who will be unfairly harmed by the closure."

"The data also demonstrates the impact on low-income neighborhoods, who are already medically underserved, and who typically have a much harder time traveling to medical facilities away from their neighborhoods," said Castillo.

A report in the October 24/31 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association documents the health consequences of declining income levels in the U.S. One of its points is that for lower income Americans, "traveling across town to access better resources or health care facilities is often beyond their means."

"All San Franciscans will be harmed by the closure of St. Luke's and the unwarranted loss of hospital and emergency care services. It stresses the entire medical safety net of the city, which is especially dangerous in the advent of an emergency, from earthquakes to fires to major traffic gridlock," said Castillo.

"But some communities will endure greater harm than others. Sutter's desire to re-apportion its patient base to higher income
'/>"/>