....but where are we going to go from here?
Let's talk solutions.
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Blog Archive
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2007
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February
(31)
- Letter to the editor...."Let's Do It Danville!"
- Technical difficulties
- "We can take it back"
- A few words from "behind the curtain"...
- Very well put...this deserves to be on the front p...
- Well...? Part Deux
- Letter to the editor - Dr. Smith on improvements i...
- February's City Council meeting...update
- Well...?
- Notes from all over
- Any volunteers...?
- It's been a crazy week...
- How about a little good news?
- Citizens Commission...
- Pssst....
- Talking amongst ourselves is great....
- So....What's your take?
- We couldn't agree with you more, Bill.
- "We get letters..." Lotsa letters in Sunday's R&B
- "A time for answers"
- Deja vu....all over again
- "We have other choices"
- Followup article in the R&B today
- Local media coverage of Feb 6 Council meeting
- WTF?
- High fives all around....there's good news after all!
- Stay tuned....
- Lifepoint/DRMC coverage in Martinsville today….
- The R&B....and contact your City Council
- Okay gang...let's show a little class
- From the outside looking in...
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February
(31)
Letter to Employees, February 7, 2007
Dear DRMC Associates, Physicians and Volunteers:
Thank you for all your efforts to provide healthcare to the citizens of the Dan River Region. Providing healthcare, saving lives, and improving the quality of the lives of our friends, family and neighbors is a high calling, and you are answering that call each and every day. Delivering on the high expectations of those we serve is a tremendous responsibility, shared by everyone – physicians, nurses, technical and support staff, volunteers, managers and administration.
It’s no secret that to be successful in meeting this responsibility, we must work together. We have seen in our Emergency Department the good things that can happen when staff, physicians and management work together effectively. The reduction in wait times and fewer patients leaving without treatment are ample proof. You should all be proud of this accomplishment.
It is our hope that all of us on the hospital team, and indeed the entire community, can come together around Danville Regional and make it a source of genuine pride and positive economic activity for this area. Coming together is way overdue.
When Mr. Bill Carpenter, CEO of LifePoint and three other corporate officers were in our hospital in January, they openly apologized for mistakes made at the onset of the hospital sale. Knowing what they know at this point in time, they would have definitely done things differently. LifePoint has committed the support and resources needed to make DRMC a hospital of which we all can be proud. In addition, we, as leaders in different areas of the hospital, commit our time and energy to that same goal.
The important thing to remember is that on one person or small group can make this hospital successful. It will take the support and commitment of every single one of us who are connected to DRMC in any way. We need your help to make this happen.
Going forward won’t be easy. Any organization of this size and complexity has issues.
But it is time to move on, and move ahead. Constructive suggestions are always OK, and in fact welcomed, because there is almost always more than one “right way” to accomplish goals. Bitter, destructive criticism isn’t OK. There’s a reason they call it “holding grudges,” because the only person who feels bad is the one holding them. It’s time for us to let these go.
Good things can happen if we channel our energies on positive activities. Never has this been more important than now.
During 2006 and 2007 $26 million is being invested to create some good things – the build out of the 5th and 6th floors, the new radiation/oncology equipment, addition of PACS and a new state of the art CT machine. These improvements, coupled with your caring approach, will provide better, more complete care for our patients, close to home.
Recent patient satisfaction scores have improved, and will continue to improve as long as we focus our efforts on providing the best care for our patients and support for each other. We also fully recognize the importance of improving staff and physician satisfaction, and the positive impact this will have on the patients we serve.
We also have a big challenge that will require everyone’s best – our Joint Commission accreditation review, which will occur sometime in the next couple of months. When you think about it, it is not a stretch to say that the lifeblood of this community is dependent upon Danville Regional maintaining Joint Commission accreditation.
Joint Commission accreditation is a key to the continued success of one of the largest employers in the region, and the place where the majority of our citizens come to receive healthcare. An accredited hospital makes the community more attractive for residents who already are here, and also for those people and their employers who are looking for a good place to live, work, play and invest. It also directly impacts the livelihood of all associates and physicians.
We need to place a tremendous amount of importance and urgency around preparing for Joint Commission, because accreditation is vital to all of us. While some might think loss of accreditation hurts LifePoint, the real losers are those of us who live and work in this community. We must join together to protect one of our most valuable community assets. Our region’s economic recovery depends on it.
So we go back to our original points: we are fortunate to be in a position to serve others, which is a tremendous responsibility we accept every day. All of us want to make this a better place to work, and a better place for our neighbors to receive treatment. We are committed to supporting you and know that together we will make DRMC the very best it can be. We appreciate each of you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Betty Jo Foster
Chairman, DRMC Advisory Board
Arthur M. Doloresco
President/ CEO
Richard A. Smith, M.D.
Chief of Staff
8 comments:
Its time for change. New Board members everyone resign who sold the hospital. Art, move to town with your family if you really believe in us. Nurses, answer the call lights and quit sitting around complaining. Richard Smith MD ,let a real leader be chief of staff. Otherwise lets all drive to Lynchburg and Greensboro.
Nicely put! Get the "interested" parties out and let people with all of our interests at heart find uses for the money. Have Lifepoint have local leadership. Who lives here? CEO, CNO, CFO, COO?? Get a doc who does not get his pay from Lifepoint stand up for physician rights.
To the person who said "Nurses, answer the call lights and quit sitting around complaining", I hope you don't work at DRMC. None of the nurses I know have the time to sit around. We may be complaining but we are working our-selves to death trying to care for our patients the best way we know how, with what we have left. Everyone who remains at DRMC should be praised for sticking it out, and hanging in there through all the changes. These people have shown that they truly care about their patients and patient care in this hospital. This is our hometown hospital, and those of us who are left here, are trying to keep it safe for our citizens. We have family and friends who come here for treatment, and we want them to get the best care possible. That's why we are still here. We want everyone to get the best care they can. Some of us still believe in DRMC and we think is can be a "world class hospital". We just need the right kind of administration and leadership. Hopefully, with a lot of prayers being said for DRMC, Lifepoint will go away one day (wishful thinking, I know), or maybe, just maybe, the Lord will have mercy on us and Lifepoint will see the errors of their past
practices, and turn this hospital around to what we all know it can be. Danville, please keep the pressure on , City Council, don't stop what you have started, and Mr. Castiglione (pardon the spelling) and Mr. Saunders, God bless you for your support and your comments. Please continue to fight for us.
does anyone know someone at centra or moses cone? :)
Nurses are doing the work of angels and need all of our support. It's a shame that they even have to engage in this debate. I'm not related to any nurses, but I do know the skills and compassion that they give even to the stranger on the road.
Sorry, but I think Lifepoint will never change. They will only promise to change. That's corporate America. We were sold down the river by men who are wannabes in corporate America. They were playing like big boys, and they wrecked our most precious asset.
The only hope is for Lifepoint to throw in the towel and sell the "property" to one of the fine community hospital groups in the area that wanted us to start with. The pressure should be on the people who got the $210,000,000 to use that money to help make it happen.
Yes, and may God bless Sherman Saunders and Pete Castiglione for their courage and honesty. May they lead others in power to see beyond the tax take and realize the importance of getting back our hospital.
--Frequent Patient.
Yes, we all need to come together. Expecting Lifepoint to fix everything is not the way to go. We have a stake in this, too. This is our community, our friends, our families. And if you think staff (nurses included) do not goof off...alot...you must not be paying attention. I have been there 20 years. In my job, I have been all over the campus at various times, day and night. There are alot of staff who are not giving 75% much less 100%. We all need to step up.
Oh , yes I know many persons at Cone...ask them about where the Cone of yesterday went.
Ask them about the 2 yr turnover rate in their Cone ED, the low staffing in 2 of their 5 critical care units and of the number of endoscopy nurses who lost their positions 2 weeks ago. Seems as though the gastroenterology doctors in Guilford county are also moving more procedures doen in the hospital to their offices to recoup more $$$ .
Only 1 endo nurse is on the bubble to be reassigned...the units from Wesley and Cone will be combined for outpt. endos but both hosp. will still have endo labs for inpt. A group of 6 endo docs did open their outpt clinic and it was a move that lowered the number of o/p endo procedures being done. The endo nurses all agreed to drop to .9 fte while retaining their benefits so everyone could keep their jobs. lifepoint did not even offer this option to drmc staff. I don't know if there are any of the critical care areas understaffed, but rest assured the patients are covered and that is better than drmc can do with only 1 critical care unit. The Cone of yesterday is the same Cone of today...a good place to work, that values the community and their patients and their employees..lifepoint should take note of this..Cone doesn't have to pay big buck bonuses, that money goes back into continous improvements in the health care system. biker.
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