Let’s get ready to rumble!

You and the Law

Richard S. Allen, Attorney at Law

Let’s get ready to rumble!

 

Think of your classic hatreds. The Hells Angels vs. the Mongols. The Bloods vs. the Crips. U of M vs. Ohio State. Cops vs. Weight Watchers. All are unforgiving and all mean a fight to the death when they meet. Just such a fight is brewing right now on McEwan Street in Clare. It’s Central Michigan Community Hospital [we’ll call it Mt. Pleasant Hospital for short] and MidMichigan Regional Medical Center [Clare Hospital.]

 

If it’s possible for corporations to loath one another, they do. Mt. Pleasant Hospital thinks of this area as its turf. MidMichigan Regional Medical Center, one branch of a medical octopus headquartered in Midland,

seized Clare Hospital early on and started building. And growing. They regard this as MMRMCC sacred soil.

 

The two organizations have fought it out for years. Docs have come and gone. Patients have been stolen. Casualties have been taken as they fight for every healthcare dollar. Now it looks like Clare is going to experience a Gettysburg on its main street. A medical Armageddon. The heavy weapons are signs. The battlefield is in front of the former Punches Pharmacy building.

 

Until recently that building housed Tom Claringbold, D.O., a mild mannered Ophthalmologist affiliated with Clare Hospital [ MMRMCC]. Claringbold puttered along

in this isolated outpost on the north side of town operating on peoples eyes and asking what eye doctors do…” which is better, one or two?”

 

Out in front of the building is Doc Claringbolds sign, the blue and white proclaiming his allegiance to Clare Hospital. Like Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941 he didn’t know what was coming. It arrived in the person of Joe Hough, M.D., agent provocateur and point man for Mt. Pleasant Hospitals sudden move into MMRMCC territory.

 

Joe, a local boy, is what biker gangs call a “full patch” member of Mt. Pleasant Hospital. He’s moved into the Punches building and, as expected, a huge sign has been put up above the Clare Hospital sign proclaiming that it is now Clare HQ for Mt. Pleasant Hospital. Anyone looking at the sign poles now would believe that the building is part of Central Michigan Community Hospital. At the top it proclaims that it’s the office of Joseph Hough M.D. Claringbolds little Clare Hospital sign is at the bottom.

 

Actually neither outfit owns the building, they both rent space. But it’s perceptions that count.

 

The insult is too much to be borne. Not only did they put up their sign, but they’ve left spaces to add more docs names!

 

Larry Barco, President of Clare Hospital has declared this to be a “day that will live in infamy!” He’s called upon all of the 5 Families [MidMichigan Regional Medical is a big outfit] and declared it’s time to “go to the mattresses.”

 

All eyes are now on the sign poles next to McEwan. What move does Barco have up his sleeve? At this very moment is a sign the size of a tennis court being built? Will Clare Hospital reinforce Claringbolds outpost? Are trucks full of medical equipment and docs on the road from Mt. Pleasant? Will there be confrontations between Hough staff and Claringbolds?

 

All eyes are on the sign poles waiting for the next move by these medical mortal enemies. Wait for it…