I LOCAL NEWS 1

1989

5750

Sinai And Henry Ford
Agree To Talks

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

S

To All Our

Friends, Customers & Relatives

A Happy, Healthy & Prosperous

NEW YEAR

from The Millen Family

JC1K

■■■

"more than
just a car
wash"

HEALTHY OPTIONS, INC.

ill A ALA

Wishes You And Your Family
A Very Happy
And Healthy New Year

DEA FARRAH, MSW, ACSW

22

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1989

inai Hospital is mov-
ing forward with plans
to merge business
operations with Henry Ford
Health Care Corp.
An executive committee
comprising Sinai Ad-
ministrator Robert
Steinberg, Vice President
Larry Greene, and trustees
Alfred Deutsch, Merle
Harris and Joel Tauber is
expected to negotiate with
Ford officials over the next
three months.
Sinai's board of trustees
last week agreed to continue
talks exclusively with Ford,
dismissing the Detroit
Medical Center as a poten-
tial business partner. Ford
officials said they will
discuss advantages for both
institutions during the
negotiations.
During the past year,
Sinai officials have met re-
peatedly with both hospitals
to discuss possible affilia-
tions. Joining forces with
Ford would help increase the
patient load at Sinai, which
regularly fills between 350
and 400 of its 620 beds,
Steinberg said.
Sinai likely could gain pa-
tients from Ford's health
maintenance organization
with 400,000 participants.
Steinberg has said no
merger will take place
unless Sinai keeps its name
and its Jewish identity. Af-
filiating with another
hospital is part of
Steinberg's plans to revamp
a 36-year-old institution,
maintain a Jewish identity
and rid itself of its image as
a troubled, inner-city
hospital.
Sinai, one of Detroit's last
independent hospitals, is
located on Outer Drive near
Greenfield in northwest
Detroit. Although the
hospital still faces a $4
million deficit, Sinai has
been operating at a small
profit during the past six
months, hospital officials
said.
During this volatile health
care era in which hospitals
throughout the country are
scrambling to survive, Sinai,
like Michigan's other
hospitals, has struggled to
remain independent. Insuf-
ficient Medicaid and
Medicare reimbursements
have contributed to soaring
health care costs.
A merger between the two
hospitals would put Sinai in

line with a growing trend in
the hospital business. By the
year 2000, according to
Southeast Michigan
Hospital Council President
Donald Potter, six major
health care corporations will
dominate southeast
Michigan's medical market.
The industry, Potter said,
will follow a "boutique" con-
cept that provides more
specialized services in fewer
places.
Ford operates 937 beds in
Detroit and administers
hospitals in Wyandotte and
Gross Pointe Farms. In addi-
tion, it runs 33 outpatient
facilities in the metropolitan
area.
Sinai operates an outpa-
tient surgical center in Far-
mington Hills and six
satellite facilities in
Oakland County.

❑

I NEWS

Stones, Fire
Shut Bethlehem

Jerusalem (JTA) —
Bethlehem was declared a
closed military zone last
week after two tourists were
injured by stones and a
tourist bus was set afire by
gasoline bombs.
In neighboring Beit
Jallah, an Israel Defense
Force reserve soldier guar-
ding a water tank truck was
hit in the head by stones and
seriously injured. He was
rushed to a hospital.
The tourist bus in
Bethlehem was parked
empty near a local restau-
rant when it was attacked.
The vehicle was destroyed.
Meanwhile, Jewish set-
tlers in Hebron said Thurs-
day they would carry stones
in their cars to retaliate in
kind if attacked by Palesti-
nians on the road.

West German
Jews Choose

Bonn (JTA) — The repre-
sentative body of the West
German Jewish community
has officially elected a new
secretary- general, replacing
a man who was implicated in
last year's scandal in which
the community's leader was
found to have embezzled
funds.
Micha Guttmann, a 42-
year-old journalist, was
elected secretary-general of
the Central Council of Jews
in West Germany. Gutt-