Sick and tired of hospital bailout blunders

County leaders, realizing that Prince George's Hospital alone serves 180,000 patients annually, continue to fumble through efforts to save the system.

In 2004, County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) came to an agreement with then Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) for a state and county bailout plan. However, Johnson failed to consult the County Council, who promptly nixed the plan.

Early this year, a $5 million payment was in dispute. Dimensions said the county failed to pay; county officials said Dimensions received the money. The county never admitted error, but the money was doled out soon after the dispute.

State officials later formulated a deal that Johnson supported, but the council rejected it in the waning hours of the General Assembly's legislative session April 9. The council instead settled on another short-term fix.

And the saga continues.

Johnson withheld $2 million last week from Dimensions and threatened to deny more if four members of the system's board of directors do not resign - a demand Dimensions refused Monday.

Johnson said the prior $5 million agreement dictates that Dimensions' board be restructured if it receives more money. Dimensions officials dispute the requirement, saying any recent money received was not part of the agreement and that Johnson did not add the stipulation to other money the county provided.

Beyond the political mess, patients are left wondering whether they will have future care, medical employees remain on standby about their job future and residents are again stuck watching leaders stumble through another fiasco.

It would seem that the county executive, council chairman and the most senior state representatives could come up with a plan to prevent the ongoing embarrassment and panic. County officials made such an effort with the Blue Ribbon Commission on High Stakes Testing, a county effort to evaluate the impact of High School Assessments. Surely, a health care crisis is worthy of such a meeting.

Instead, threats and ultimatums are tossed about, disputes over deals are constantly surfacing and confusion has become the dominant factor in a potentially disastrous situation.

It does not bode well that such murkiness continues to exist in a deal overseen by the man in charge of the county's business.

It's time to put away politics and nail down a deal once and for all.

If Dimensions advisers oppose bankruptcy, it is time to revisit the next best thing: takeover by a teaching hospital system like the University of Maryland.