KALAMAZOO, Mich. \u2014 Nurses at Beacon Kalamazoo gathered in Bronson Park on Saturday as part of a nationwide \u201cRed Alert\u201d tour, raising concerns about how federal healthcare funding changes could affect hospitals and patient access to care.<\/p>\n
The event was organized by members of the Michigan Nurses Association and National Nurses United. <\/p>\n
Organizers said the rally aimed to educate community members about potential impacts they believe could result from changes to Medicaid and Medicare funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here at the Red Alert Bus Tour to bring communities across the country awareness about the H.R. 1 cuts to health care,\u201d said Jamie Brown, president of National Nurses United and treasurer of the Michigan Nurses Association. \u201cMedicaid and Medicare are set to lose a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said nurses are concerned about how funding reductions could affect patients, particularly those who rely on public insurance programs for healthcare coverage.<\/p>\n
Cindy Evans, a registered nurse in Beacon Kalamazoo\u2019s psychiatric emergency department, said she is especially concerned about specialized mental health services.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy psychiatric annex is the only unit in its area,\u201d Evans said. \u201cBronson doesn\u2019t have one. There\u2019s no other hospital in our area that has one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans said many of the patients served by Beacon Kalamazoo rely on Medicaid and Medicare, and that reductions in funding could create additional challenges for accessing care.<\/p>\n
Dana Dekoekkoek, a Beacon nurse who attended the rally, said she worries any reductions in services could have ripple effects throughout the region\u2019s healthcare system.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s going to affect everyone,\u201d Dekoekkoek said. \u201cIf we come to the point where our emergency room services are limited here, other hospitals would have to take up the slack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beacon Health System issued a statement in response to the concerns raised at the event:<\/p>\n
\u201cBeacon Health System believes in something fundamental: Access to high-quality healthcare is not a privilege, it is a necessity for every individual, every family and every community. We support our nurses and their efforts to raise awareness about the impact of federal funding changes on hospital sustainability and patient access, particularly for community hospitals serving large segments of our communities who are covered by Medicaid and Medicare. As we approach the one-year anniversary of Beacon\u2019s acquisition of the former Ascension Borgess operations in southwest Michigan, we reaffirm our commitment to continue working with our clinical teams, nursing partners and elected officials at every level to ensure Beacon Kalamazoo remains a strong, accessible resource for southwest Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kalamazoo event was part of a national tour that organizers say is visiting communities across the country to discuss the future of health care access and hospital funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KALAMAZOO, Mich. \u2014 Nurses at Beacon Kalamazoo gathered in Bronson Park on Saturday as part of a nationwide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-702613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}