Street talk: Unhealthy care By Tom Murphy News-Chronicle The first of this month marked the mandate from Aurora Hospital (officially, Aurora Bay Care Medical Center) that all maternity patients under the care of a physician affiliated with the hospital shall have their child delivered at the Greenbrier Road facility. The mandate obviously came from the bean counters at Aurora Health Care headquarters in Milwaukee. In no way, as we noted when Street Talk broke the news, is the edict the directive of a well-qualified cadre of physicians, nurses and administrators. It's the ugly head of greed that threatens health care as we know it in Northeastern Wisconsin. Were it not for its undemocratic, dictatorial preaching to patients, Aurora could become the Wal-Mart of Wisconsin's health care industry. The health care corporation has hospitals popping up and down eastern and central Wisconsin. Not unlike the Wal-Mart coming to your town. This follow-up on the reasoning - we'd like to say logic but that's too complimentary - is provided by reader Frances M. Knutson of Manitowoc. Accompanied by a brief note that recalled our initial comment, Knutson included an article from the current issue of Milwaukee Magazine. It was the magazine's annual Overrated/Underrated rankings for the year, under the sub-category of business executives: "Overrated - Aurora Health Care is the Starbucks of it's industry. a high-cost growth company led by CEO G. Edwin Howe, the 23rd most powerful person in the business, according to Modern Healtcare magazine. "While Howe's not-for-profit board paid him $2.44 million in 2001, he ignored public distress over soaring healthcare costs, pursing practices that helped push metro Milwaukee's costs 35 percent above surrounding states. "Aurora now has $2 billion in annual revenue, more than a billion in debt and billions more in ill will racked up by suing and bullying its way into communities and building opulent resort-hotel hospitals while claiming its high charges come not from extravagance but from higher 'quality,' something it has failed to document. "In fact, in 2003, Aurora's premier hospital, St. Luke's Medical Center, failed to make either U.S. News & World Report's 50 Best Heart Hospitals list or the industry quality benchmark, the Solucient Top 100. "Now a backlash is brewing, and Howe's Aurora is hardly indispensable. "The state's fastest-growing insurer saw business boom after it eliminated Aurora from its network, and in Green Bay, Manitowoc and Pewaukee, company facilities are already underperforming projections. "To earn his pay in the future, Howe will need to find another prescription." Aurora might do better to leave health care to the medical professionals. The corporation's accountants should provide transparent cost and profit/loss statements that afford quality patient services. And Aurora's board of directors should remember what happened when Tyco, World Com and Enron directors all abdicated oversight responsiblities and went on their merry way with directors' fees. CLASSIC MUSCLE Retro is the way to go these days.In cars, too. So Classic Car Lot, featuring models from the 1960s, '70s and '80s, will open in early March on Highway 54, the far west-end of Mason Street. The street address is 3711 W. Mason. Mark Wilson, a long-time auto afficianado and owner of Reliable Recycling at the same address, is owner of the new venture. Jim Murphy (no relation), a veteran of 20 years in the automobile sales business, is sales manager. "We're going to have the classics and muscle cars from years ago," Murphy said. "This includes Mustangs, Corvettes, Barracudas, Camarros and other familiar names from years ago." Classic Car Lot will have an indoor showroom in a new, 7,200-square-foot building. Weather and inventory will dictate use of outdoor space. The site is two miles west of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and across the highway from the former Hobart landfill. Curbside Direct Development, the contracting entrepreneurial company on Green Bay's Main Street, has started www.directdevelopmentinc.com to broaden its exposure. Begun by John Hopfensperger some 10 years ago, Direct Development has been instrumental in renewing the Broadway and Main Street areas in Green Bay. DD also is in new construction as evidenced by the mall under construction on Hoffman Road at Libal Street in Allouez. The company has three divisions: construction, renovation/development, and property management. Murphy, a longtime local business writer, writes a weekly column for This Week. Contact him by calling 920-432-2941, sending mail to P.O. Box 2467, Green Bay, WI 54306-2467 or by sending e-mail to [email protected].