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How can the Rosebud Sioux Tribe assume the Rosebud Hospital and improve healthcare?
The future of our healthcare is in the balance. We have suffered from substandard care under the Indian Health Service for many decades. The opportunity for change has come.
"No right is more scared to a nation, to a people, than the right to freely determine its social, economic, political, and cultural future without external interference. The fullest expression of this right occurs when a nation freely governs itself. We call the exercise of this right Self-Determination. The practice of this right is Self-Governance."
The Late Joe DeLaCruz, Lummi Nation
How did we get here?
For over 100 years, the Indian Health Service has operated the Rosebud Hospital (Rosebud Comprehensive Health Care Facility) and has overseen the health care of the Sicangu Oyate people. Although there have been some good health care experiences at the health facility, there are decades of less than standard health care experiences.
Mismanagement of the hospital has caused critical departments to close in recent years.
"Health Care Crisis
at Rosebud' is a 1973 documentary that focuses on the poor health care conditions on the reservation. Unfortunately, these same problems from 50 years ago exist today. You are encouraged to watch the documentary on YouTube.
Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. United States of America, Department of Health Human Services
In 2016, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in federal court outlining the deficiencies and disparities of health care system managed by the Indian Health Service on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation.
In 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) conducted an inspection of the Rosebud Hospital Emergency Department.
The inspection
showed that conditions in the Emergency Department were a risk to the health and safety of patients coming to the Emergency Room. The Emergeney Department was closed in December 2015 causing patients to seek emergency services as far as 50 miles away from the reservation.
The following are the five contributing factors that led to the ED closing:
- Insufficient Hospital Staffing
- Changing and inconsistent leadership
- Inadequate hospital infrastructure
- Lack of oversight by IHS
- Poor coordination with local partners
Six months later in June 2016, IHS closed the surgical and obstetrical departments, which remain closed
today.
The
Emergency Department was reopened after correcting the issues the CMS inspection brought to light.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe won the lawsuit and there was an expectation that the Indian Health Service would immediately address the deficiencies, disparities, and issues at the Rosebud Hospital. To date, the IHS has not addressed any issues.