Vital Signs

A mother and her disabled child leave a promising diagnosis. She calls her sister about her healthy fetus. Her first child sits in her chair, attempting to smile or look away in disbelief. Behind the mother, a yellow column attempts to create a vibrant atmosphere of what is a sad place. Seeing these individuals, the trust they put into a county hospital, makes everything that happened with Jackson Memorial Hospital over a year or two ago appear insignificant.

In 2010, Jackson Memorial Hospital was on the brink of financial ruin. It had no choice but to close its other locations north and south of its original, 12 Avenue location. What did residents do when the other branches closed down? While administrators and financiers tried to keep the locations, it only shadowed the reality in a media frenzy and a hurricane-style watch of Jackson’s fate. The economics overshadowed the many mothers and children left without a place to go. Of course, other hospitals profited from the inopportune moment. Where does this leave the uninsured or unwilling to accept matters beyond their control?

Patients’ trust in Jackson is not new. Since its inception in 1918, Jackson has strived to provide advanced medical care regardless of socioeconomic status. Dr. James M. Jackson took the helm and organized a leading group of physicians that set a precedent for decades to come. When the 1926 hurricane devastated Miami, the hospital in its dying breath admitted patients. It saved 700 victims and established relief stations around the most affected areas.

A century later, Jackson should learn from its past and create relief stations that can save them from a $229.4 million deficit. Committee Commissioner at the time Javier Souto rejected the plan. He worried that Liberty City riots would ensue after having already lost two other clinics. And the 30 percent unemployment marker was not too favorable. Though this suggests a classic example of the suppression of a culture, this next line places Souto and therefore Jackson in the context of Miami.

“The riots, Souto explained, would cause a decrease in the amount of tourism and worsen an already bleak economic situation.”*

Thus, the suppression of a culture by aloof politicians will affect the vacation capital. Here, the cornerstone of Miami’s dualism of reality versus spectacle coincides with the three major groups: locals, mobiles, and exiles. Apparently, the city caters, even in matters as universal as health care, to select groups. They fear that a voice as united and powerful as the locals will destroy Miami’s hallmark. Jackson’s situation symbolizes a climax of this ongoing struggle, a tension that has yet to find resolution.

*Quoted from http://fla2010elections.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/third-largest-u-s-public-hospital-close-to-bankruptcy/