Brewed Fresh Daily

From the Ideas Project

Will Web-based collaboration enable us to improve on the achievements of a competition-based system?

The citizen’s group has issued an analysis that raises serious questions about the financial consequences of the Med Mart. The report underscores what we’ve been saying in the BFD for some time: The Commissioners committed the citizens of this county to a major project without a business plan.

(Try going to JumpStart or a bank to get start-up financing for a business without a business plan. Your meeting will be short.)

The report highlights the slipshod process the Commissioners designed for making this major decision. (Which raises another interesting idea. Naming rights. Why don’t the citizens of Cuyahoga County simply award naming rights to the three Commissioners. Call it the Hagan Dimora Jones Med Mart. With a big bronze plaque, of course.)

Some excerpts from the report:

Except for public relations platitudes and optimistic, informal estimates provided by the Commissioners and their private sector partner, MMPI, the county has not revealed its long-term plan to generate adequate revenue from the Med Mart/ Convention Center project to finance the required $40 million annual debt service and $6 million in operational subsidies.

No professional documentation of realistic visitor projections based on industry standards or historic industry data has been provided.

Even if the MM/CC facility is relatively successful in attracting shows, meetings and visitors, it is not clear that the Medical Mart facility can generate sufficient revenue from operations and visitor income to cover $40 million or more in annual debt service and operational costs.

[T]here is no known plan or professional study explaining how the Med Mart will spark the development of ANY new jobs or business in the local health care sector, apart from undocumented public relations claims.

Citizens group raises concerns about medical mart funding, Cuyahoga County finances


Cleveland Med Mart Analysis 2-25-2010


Here’s a study in contrasts: the Washington Nationals and the Cleveland Indians.

Thomas Boswell describes how it’s being done in Washington.

You feel General Manager Mike Rizzo’s influence everywhere here. Invariably, his touch is measured, modest, mildly humorous and soaked in lifetime study of how a big league team should be built. But most of all, his emerging body of work is coherent and cohesive, the pieces interlocking.

General Manager Mike Rizzo gives Nationals an offseason makeover

Sadly, the Indians are not inspiring the same level of pre-season confidence.

The Indians opted to strike it rich through a bevy of non-guaranteed, minor-league contracts. Maybe it will work in one or two instances, but it’s not the recommended way to build a team.

Then again, the Indians say they’re beyond the rebuild stage. The 162-game season, which begins April 5 in Chicago, will test a portion of that belief.

Breaking down the big questions as the Cleveland Indians prepare for spring training: Analysis

Follow the PDs Paul Hoynes on Twitter.

Perhaps the biggest key to controlling health care costs will be confronting the burden of disease, Cosgrove said. Three preventable conditions – smoking, obesity and lack of activity – cause 40 percent of premature deaths, 70 percent of chronic disease, and 75 percent of all health care costs.”We can no longer figure that we can live any kind of lifestyle we want and then, when you get sick, expect to be taken care of,” he said.

Innovation Is Key to Health Care Shift From Chronic Disease to ‘Chronic Health’