We’re living with it now
To the editor:
The column, “Looking at the long run,” (Jan. 7, page B6) stated: “We can debate forever the merits of selling the hospital and the manner in which it is being operated, but that is in the past. We are focused on the future.”
Perhaps debating the merits of selling the hospital is in the past, but the manner in which it (the hospital) is being operated is clearly not an issue of the past and is worthy of discussion. How is it affecting individuals, families and our economy in the present? Are people from our area presently seeking hospital services and care at other hospitals? Have qualified, experienced hospital employees and staff been lost because of present management practices and policies? Are physicians leaving our area due to the present management of the hospital? Has our local economy felt a negative impact because of the hospital’s present management
The city’s Web site still refers to Danville Regional Medical Center as a “private, not for profit” facility. The Web site posts 2005 data showing “Health Care and Social Assistance” as the area’s second-largest major industrial sector with 170 establishments and 5,109 employees. (Manufacturing was the largest with 45 establishments and 6,069 employees.) The same site has an excerpt from the office of economic development which states, “More than 125 physicians and 40 dentists maintain community health in Danville.” How have these statistics changed since the sale of the hospital?
We cannot afford to minimize the importance of area health care and the present management of Danville Regional Medical Center. I guess, if necessary, we could request that the Danville Regional Foundation fund the hospital to provide better services in the future.
F.C. MAUTE, M.D.
KAREN MAUTE
Mount Cross
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1 comment:
The Lifepoint folks are taking their profits off our backs and away from hardworking decent folks locally and returning them to Tennessee, all in the name of satisfying shareholders. If that profit were being kept here as it was before DRMC was swindled, then the purchase would be a fine thing. But steps have been taken to reduce costs, decent people have lost jobs or "retired" early. If all employees were to refuse to charge for hospital supplies for patient services the losses for Lifepoint would surely mount. After enough loss occurs for these people they will surely sell DRMC just as they have every other hospital that doesn't satisfy their appetite for cash. GET WITH IT!
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