Mississippi's Problem should stay Mississippi's Problem

Augusta is a great town if you are sick. You can go to MCG if you are a trauma patient, if you keel over with a heart attack; tell the ambulance to take you to University. If you are having a baby, there are several hospitals in the area with wonderful women's centers. If you are a burn patient, go directly to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctor's Hospital.

Evidently, Mississippi is also telling its burn patients which road to take to the burn center at Doctor's. In an article from the Tuesday, August 2nd edition of the Augusta Chronicle, it states that currently Doctor's Hospital now takes patients from South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama. According to the article, that list might include Mississippi in the near future.

Mississippi's only burn center stopped taking patients May 31, 2005. All new burn patients will now have to find a place to go. Doctor's Hospital has volunteered to make room for these displaced patients.

The question becomes, why is Mississippi having such a problem with burn patients? It is a drug problem. Due to the methamphetamine labs that have taken over the state, over a third of burn patients in the Mississippi burn center were caused by fires related to methamphetamine labs and methamphetamine usage. The financial strain from treating meth-lab burn patients has shut down this burn center.

This weeks Newsweek cover story was on the catastrophic problems caused by methamphetamine usage. This drug is cheap, easy to make and obtain and is highly addictive. It is a drug that began in the heartland, and has quickly spread to the south.

My concern is not over the 'sharing' of our world-class burn unit. But who is paying for the cost of treating Mississippi's burn patients? The average cost of treatment for substantial burns is well over $200,000. Are these burn patients from out of state taking up resources, beds and funds that could otherwise be used by Georgia residents?

Before we allow Mississippi's problem to become Georgia's burden; we as citizens need assurances that our thin Medicaid/Indigent budget not be stretched further by these patients.

~Sarah 

Written in the mid 2000's