Fewer illegal immigrants is good news for Copper Queen hospital

Jonathan Clark:

Three or four years ago, Jim Dickson, CEO of Bisbee’s Copper Queen Community Hospital, was not feeling very upbeat.

He had had to cut back on employees and hours, shutter his skilled nursing facility and close the hospital’s maternity ward. The reductions, he says, were largely due to a massive influx of patients from Mexico — illegal immigrants or residents of nearby Naco, Sonora — who could not pay for services.

Today, however, things are looking brighter for the hospital and its CEO. Federal funds that provide partial compensation for treating undocumented immigrants have finally started to come in. And even better, Dickson says, the number of undocumented patients at the hospital has gone into rapid decline.

“It might be the increased number of Border Patrol agents in the area or it might be the notoriety of the Minutemen,” he said. “But there are just not as many people crossing from Mexico (into the Bisbee area).”

“Whoever is doing it, they are doing a good job because it has meant financial viability for us.”

As evidence, he points to numbers from March and April — traditionally two of the busiest months for undocumented patients. In the past, these were months when the hospital would write off as much as $30,000 in uncompensated losses. But Dickson says the amount has now dropped to less than $7,000.

Pausing to knock on wood, Dickson says he has not been called in at night in the past two years — a common occurrence in years past.

Statistics from the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector also support Dickson’s assertion that local illegal crossings are declining. The agency reported 10,230 apprehensions of undocumented immigrants in Cochise County in March 2006, less than 50 percent of the 21,232 recorded in March 2005.

Illegal aliens threaten U.S. medical system