South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 16

1 i i fm i mm Sun-Sentinel, Thursday, August 4, 1988 70 HOSPITAL FEES More violations found in Sunrise city garage Average patient charge by hospital and category from Jan. 1 to June 30, 1987: Heart failure Simple shock Stroke pneumonia AMI North Ridge $7,143 $6,737 $9,479 Broward General 7,459 9,040 10,367 Coral Springs Medical 15,005 8,253 11,917 Doctors', Hollywood 9,535 8,323 9,229 Doctors' General, Plantation 6,882 9,526 7,693 Florida Medical Center 7.715 11,788 8,818 HCA Northwest Regional 9,728 18,301 15,750 HCA University 8,105 10.295 11,154 Hollywood Medical Center 9,276 11,738 11,652 Holy Cross 6,143 6,035 7,071 Humana, Bennett 8,176 8,567 8,974 Humana, Cypress 8.218 9,696 8,992 Humana, South Broward 7,070 8,718 9.598 Imperial Point 5,740 8,652 12.284 las Ola9 Community 4,807 9,026 5,622 Memorial, Hollywood 8,227 12,088 11,072 North Beach 10,837 9,543 7,589 North Broward 7.161, 8,547 8,495 Pembroke Pines 9,271 10,506 10,849 Plantation General 8,878 10.922 10,006 Broward average 7,963 9,799 9,805 Statewide average 6.504 7,464 8,133 SOURCE: Florida Hospital Cost Containment Board placed in charge of the garage. "It's become so ridiculous it's at the point of being funny. The repeated incidents it seems like there's no stopping it. The police cruiser, a 1984 Ford LTD with 5,400 miles on it, was damaged extensively last December when it hit a raised manhole, according to city documents.

Garage officials contacted three body shops for estimates, and Coastal Ford of Fort Lauderdale came in with the lowest, for about $1,800. However, the estimate was listed as "open" because the hood couldn't be opened and Coastal officials could not estimate damage to the engine, transmission, drive train and suspension, documents state. When the bill was finally presented to the city late in the spring, it totalled more than $4,500. "How can an estimate be so far off?" Rodstrom said. "To me, all these estimates are fallacious, The bill was not presented to the -council, as required.

Instead, Public Works Director Mike Marcincak, and Director of Automotive Set- vices Nick Jateff met with Coastal officials and decided to split the bill into two smaller payments, total-ling $2,405 and $2,145, documents state. Marcincak and Jateff said they never tried to deceive the An employee of Coastal Ford, who identified himself as the manager of the body shop, said he may have suggested that the bill be split, but he said that both Marcincak and Jatleff agreed the bill" "could go through a lot easier" that way. "It was a mutual agreement, I guess," he said. "Nothing was mentioned about the bidding rule. They just said it would be easier to get it, through." The city garage has been the cus of a lengthy state into alleged corruption.

By ANDREW MARTIN Staff Writer SUNRISE The city's scandal-ridden maintenance garage came under fire again on Wednesday as Mayor John Rodstrom said more than $4,500 in repairs were authorized on a wrecked police cruiser without proper bid procedures. The repair work was split into two bills, apparently to skirt a rule requiring that purchases of more than $2,500 be approved by the City Council and be put out for bids, Rodstrom said. He said he was reviewing the matter and may consider disciplinary action against the employees whom he said had arranged the deal. The disclosure follows a similar case where garage officials authorized $4,363 in repairs on a utility truck that the shop owner and two other shops said should have been junked. "It's frustrating," said Bob Baldwin, the city's finance director who has temporarily been been Postal Service picks Pines trict spokesman Nathan Goren.

Other administrators said costs aren't the best measure. "I prefer to choose a hospital based more on quality rather than on cost," said Nancy Weinstein, associate executive director of Pembroke Pines General Hospital. "Cost is one of the things to consider but you also have to look at the Ehysician and the quality of the ospital's personnel." The brochure should not be used as the primary way of selecting hospitals, Cowart warned. "This guide is intended to provide consumers with the information they need to evaluate just one of those factors the cost of health care," she said. The brochures will be available from state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services offices throughout the state, physicians, consumer groups and by calling tients as well as geographic location," Cowart said, i "For example, South Florida, with its higher cost of living, higher medical malpractice premiums and.

other factors tends to provide the costliest health care in our state." The most expensive single category both in Broward and statewide was for treatment of pneumonia in patients over 70. The statewide average was $8,133 and in Broward it was $9,805. The lowest average cost was for normal childbirth: $518 statewide and $540 in Broward. Health officials, including some whose hospitals fared well in the survey, said the statistics were somewhat misleading. In the case of public hospitals, for example, the higher number of more seriously ill indigent patients would tend to push up averages, said North Broward Hospital Dis By MICHAEL SAUNDERS Staff Writer PEMBROKE PINES The U.S.

Postal Service has selected a site near Interstate 75 for a mail processing center" that is expected to employ as many as 1,000 people. The center will handle mail for much of western and southwestern Broward and northwestern Dade counties when completed in 1990 or 1991, postal service officials said on Wednesday. The center will handle mail from ZIP codes beginning with 330, relieving pressure at the county's main post office on Oakland Park Boulevard west of Interstate 95 in OF Broward Mall Broward hospital costs rise County tops state in every category t. By KEVIN ALLEN Staff Writer Costs rose for nine of the 10 most common stays in Broward hospitals last year, keeping the county well above statewide averages in every category reported by state health officials on Wednesday. Statewide, average charges for hospital stays such as childbirth, heart ailments, stroke, back pain and mental illnesses rose anywhere from 8.6 percent to 16.9 percent, according to a consumer guide issued annually by the Florida Hospital Cost Containment Board.

'It's not where I would like to see health care costs," said Dr. Marie Cowart, vice chairman of the board, which has published 150,000 copies of The Patient's Guide 6. The guide compares the costs for the 10 most frequent ailments treated in Florida hospitals in the first six months of 1987 to the same period the previous year. 'Average charges for those 10 ailments, not including doctor fees, were computed from the data the approximately 250 acute-care hospitals in Florida are required to report to the board. Averages in Broward hospitals increased in every category except psychoses, according to board spokesman Janet Dennis.

The average cost of treatment of psychoses dropped 4.5 percent. The biggest jump, 19.6 percent, was in the cost of treatment of stroke. The smallest increase was the average cost for non-surgical back problems, up 6.3 percent. "Average charges are influenced by many factors, among them technological changes, local influences such as competition for pa- Judge OK as bailiffs foil attack Man served sentence for previous threats By KURT GREENBAUM Staff Writer A man 'armed with a 10-inch carving knife lunged at a judge in the Palm Beach County Courthouse on Wednesday, two days after the man finished a prison sentence for writing death threats to the judge, courthouse officials said. Circuit Judge Harold Cohen was shaken but uninjured after the 1:30 pCm.

attack, which ended when four bailiffs tackled Thomas Epps, 24, and pinned him to the floor of the courthouse hallway. Police said Epps had boasted at a Lake Worth bar on Tuesday night that he intended to kill Cohen. But the judge's bailiff was not told that Epps had made such a threat. "It could have been real bad," said acting chief bailiff Warren Marschat, who said Epps was only feet from Cohen when Epps pulled the meat-carving knife out of his trousers. tWhen Marschat saw the man Sold the knife over his head, he and iree other bailiffs tackled and disarmed him in the third-floor hallway outside Cohen's courtroom.

The judge, an outspoken critic of courthouse security, declined to comment after the attack, Epps was in custody on Wednesday night at the Palm Beach County- Jail, charged with attempted first-degree murder and carrying a concealed weapon. His bond was set at $15,000 pending a court hearing today. 5 Epps, of Lantana, was released on Monday from the River Junction Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, where he was serving a 2Vt-year sentence for writing death threats to Cohen, i Cohen, notified of Epps' release, wrote a memo asking Sheriff Richard Wille and Chief Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley to assign a bailiff full-time to his side. Epps pleaded guilty in November 1987 to threatening Cohen.

According to court documents, Epps wrote several letters demanding that Cohen drop another felony charge pending against him, even though Cohen was not handling that C3S6 Epps went to the hallway outside Cohen's office after lunch. Sheriff's spokesman Robert Ferrell said officials became suspicious and alled a deputy clerk who could identify Epps. At the same time, Epps' former attorney, Donna Le-f ine, was in the clerk's office and overheard the discussion about Epps, Ferrell said. Levine headed to Cohen's office to help. At about the same time the bailiffs confronted Epps, Cohen tnwranf fmm his office.

CLEARANCE FINAL site for center by any post office. "We need a post office Pembroke Pines Mayor Charles Flanagan said. "I'm glad we can put this to rest." Flanagan said he received a let- ter on Wednesday from postal officials in Memphis. The letter, dated: July 29, said the Postal Services found the proposed site to be the best among seven possible locair tions in Broward County. The postal service has not ly announced the selection because-; negotiations to buy the land are not: finalized, said Bryan F.

Pease, of-the Realty Acquisitions branch for? the Postal Service's district head' quarters in Memphis. 40 OFF 50 OFF 60 OFF AVE 40 TO 60 Oakland Park. That post office now processes mail from ZIP codes starting with 330 and 333. Post offices in Broward County employ 2,599 people, spokeswoman Lydia Mazzarese said. Some will be transferred to the new center.

The 27-acre site is at the southeast corner of Pines Boulevard and Southwest 160th Avenue, about a mile west of 1-75. The land is owned by the William Lyon a California-based development firm that owns thousands of acres in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The mail center, which will be the largest in Broward County, also will provide full-service customer windows for all services performed FLORIDA ShirtsBlouses IX Save on selected groups of merchandise in every department. w.A if PV 0 1 t'4 If Sportshirts 40 OFF Knit Shirts 40 OFF Casual Slacks. .40 OFF Suits 40 OFF OFF Dress 40 OFF Assorted famous maker and designer neckwear NOW $5.99 Originally $17.50 and more! Dress 50 OFF Hosiery, Robes 50 OFF 50 OFF (Pajamas available at selected locations.) Savings are off original prices and do not include new fall merchandise.

Intermediate markdowns may have been taken.There is a nominal charge for alterations. Broward Mall mm i .1 Featuring Hart Schaffner Marx Clothes' When Levine said hello to Cohen, Epps pulled the knife from his pants and raised it over his head, Marschat said. fci. fci. i ft fr fi i i.

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