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Maple • 855-8845 CLASSIFIED GET RESULTS! Call The Jewish News 354.5959 RELEASED page 52 more, doctors often must haggle with payers to extend coverage for patients who need more hos- pitalization than their insurance plans normally allot. Dr. Lesch says, "I've never had an insurance company force a pa- tient out of the hospital. Ever." But Mary Ellen Gies of the Michigan Peer Review Organi- zation believes the quest for cost- cutting has, indeed, prompted medical professionals to cut cor- ners. If insurance companies don't pay for an extended stay, patients generally foot the bill, out-of-pocket. "I think the big impetus is eco- nomics," she says. "Patients have been discharged prematurely. In many cases, the problem is that hospitals do not adequately pre- pare for their patients' dis- charge." The Michigan Peer Review Or- ganization is a Medicare watch- dog agent for the federal government. Currently, it is working on a report detailing pre- mature patient releases. The re- port will be presented during testimony before the U.S. Con- gress, Ms. Gies says. Dr. Reed at Sinai says hospi- tals are working to avoid this phenomenon by establishing de- partments solely for discharge planning. Such departments, im- mediately upon a patient's ad- mittance, prepare for his or her timely release. Hospital dis- charge planners try to assure that home care will provide pa- tients with adequate medical pro- visions to assure their healthy recoveries. Increasingly, hospitals are de- veloping their own home care de- partments. Hospital administrators also are striving to shorten lengths of stay by cutting red tape, stream- lining interdepartmental sched- ules and facilitating the prompt delivery of test results. "You won't have to wait until tomorrow or the next day to get an X-ray done, and things of that sort," says Dr. Reed. In Michigan, trends toward shorter lengths of stays is bal- ancing out because 25 percent of the state's inpatient market evaporated from 1983 to 1995, says Donald Potter, president of the Southeast Michigan Hospi- tal Council. "A lot of conditions that his- torically required a short hospi- tal stay are no longer requiring a hospital stay at all," he says. "They're being taken care of on an outpatient basis." This trend toward more out- patient care has, in fact, some- what lengthened average hospital tenure. Patients who re- main in hospitals these days are generally sicker and in of need close, prolonged attention. Over- all, however, hospital stays in Michigan are still less than they were a decade ago. These combined trends — shorter stays and more outpa- tient care — have accelerated the closing and merging of 18 hospi- tals in southeast Michigan. In 1983, there were 75 acute care general hospitals in the region. Today, 57 remain. Still, Mr. Potter doesn't knock the trend toward shorter lengths of stay. "My grandfather had a cataract operation in the 1950s. After surgery, the doctors placed sandbags on either side of his head and told him to lie there for 10 days," Mr. Potter says. "Now, cataracts can be done in two or three hours, and the patients want to know if they can drive home." ❑ Hoffman To Hit For Foundation he Michigan Cancer Foun- dation will toss its "Part- ners Tennis Challenge" from March 30 to April 2 at The Sports Club of West Bloom- field. The benefit will raise money for the Michigan Cancer Foun- dation's breast-cancer research and hospice program. The four-day, $1,500 singles and doubles tournament will fea- ture Luke and Murphy Jensen, two brothers from Ludington, Mich., who are known for their zany on-and-off court antics and musical abilities. The Jensens ac- quired their first grand-slam ti- tle in 1993 — winning the French Open. T At the upcoming MCF benefit, the Jensens will be playing both singles and doubles, facing a field of current and former world- ranked professionals, as well as Detroit's finest players. In addi- tion to featuring Jimmy Arias, formerly the world's fifth-ranked player, the tournament will in- clude Seth Hoffman, 19, of West Bloomfield. Mr. Hoffman was the No. f- ranked 16-year-old in the Unit- ed States in 1991. He plans to play on satellite circuits during 1995, but will take time out to hit for a home crowd at the MCF Partners Tennis Challenge. The local contingent will be led HOFFMAN page 56