Chatham Star-Tribune
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
It seems a lifetime ago, but can you recall the pride and joy we all felt when our Danville Regional Hospital became officially associated with the prestigious heart center at Duke University Medical Center?
It was an affirmation of the quality of skill and care at DRMC. It also was the culmination of many years of hard work by devoted cardiac-care nurses and doctors and surgeons who wanted to give our community the very best.
Area newspapers were plastered with stories and full-page ads trumpeting this achievement. Without a word to the public, the DRMC affiliation with the Duke Heart Center has apparently vanished - gone with the winds of negative changes brought to us by LifePoint Hospitals.
I only learned this when making inquiries about cardiac care. Apparently, the hospital still shares the services of a cardiovascular surgeon with Duke, but that's it. Clearly, this is an extremely negative development in terms of our community's health care.
Like others, I have been horrified over what LifePoint has done to our hospital in terms of personnel and services, but it seems to me that the heart center development stands alone as an indicator of how bad things are.
Rumors have it that Duke pulled out because of LifePoint's severe cuts in nursing staff. Other rumors have it that LifePoint canceled the affiliation because it did not want to spend money meeting Duke's standards. Is it too much to ask that we be told the truth?
From the beginning of our nightmare when the hospital was sold in secret, a major destructive element has been the fear and confusion arising from secrecy and, in the case of LifePoint, apparently some outright lies.
For example, while they claimed to be fixing everything, we were actually losing our accreditation.
Rumors can be destructive, but they always arise from the sort of deception and secrecy that have been hallmarks of this catastrophe that threatens to wreck our community.Isn't it time for some truth and light? Could we start by having some straight answers about what happened to DRMC's Duke-affiliated heart center?
Kelly
Pelham, N.C.
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24 comments:
Anonymous said...
Let's see now....DRMC no longer affiliated with Duke cardiology program, Preliminary denial of accreditation, massive administrative turnover, citizens committee and Attorney General scrutiny, public commentary from administration that leads people to believe there is something to hide, and an overall air of distrust from within. Sounds like DRMC is ripe for another sale. I will start the bidding at $25. Next bid?
April 12, 2007 12:25:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...
Funny thing that affiliation and all the rumors.....rumors, rumors, rumors. I have yet to hear of DUKE refusing any cases referred to them from community physicians. Open heart cases continue to be done, taken care of as they always have been and so forth.
By the way, rumor has it the sky is falling or was it a large meteor is headed toward earth landing directly in large field of rumor that exists in Danville !
April 12, 2007 5:34:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...
Okay, so the Duke Heart Center is alive and well at DRMC. I assume this info comes from Lifepoint. That's what is great about this site--putting rumors to rest. Also, as a citizen, I'm relieved we still have the Duke program. You have to admit the Duke program is one of the best things about DRMC, and you have to give Lifepoint credit for keeping it. Any one of us could need it at any time.
--Dry Fork
April 12, 2007 8:24:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...
Affiliation?? We have a CV surgeon who consults with Duke regarding appropriateness of cases to do in Danville. Duke also provides coverage for the Danville surgeon to take vacations. Otherwise, there is ZERO affiliation.
Conditions HAVE changed in the manner of care given to the cardiac patients. Ask the nurses taking care of them if you want the truth!!
April 12, 2007 8:56:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...
There is no Duke affiliation , the sign has been taken down in CVICU.
I've seen this.
The only thing left is the one surgeon and only because his contractual obligation is not completed.
TO repeat THERE IS NO DUKE affiliation. Just wanted that to be clear.
April 13, 2007 4:05:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...
Oh, and Heart patients ARE being doubled on the nurses.
April 13, 2007 4:07:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...
When I had my CABG at Baptist Hospital my nurse had two patients also.
April 13, 2007 9:52:00 AM EST
when you were awake, and knew what was going on, your nurse had 2 patients, and that is okay once you are that stable, when you first came from the OR your nurse had one patient, and another nurse to assist her. That is standard practice everywhere else.
Are you saying this scenario does not happen in Danville?
If not, why?
There is almost never a secondary nurse in Danville, and after the 1st 4 hrs the nurses are being pushed to take a second patient even though it is too early. In teaching hospitals there are residents, and nurse practitioners, and help coming out of the wood work if things go wrong. In Danville there is that one nurse, and she needs to be in the room with the patient until he is stable, however long that takes, not in anoother room taking care of someone else. things can go bad quickly, right after surgery, the nurse needs to be there to see the early signs of problems.
Is Mr. Doloresco aware of this?
Why, sure he is.
Senior management is right on top of everything that's going on these days.
Geez....
Correct, it is now an all out fiesta to generate party money for the Lifepoint bunch. Everything will be used against us to have us fired ( go to an update class and you'll see)We have been told that "they are looking to make examples out of people", how childish.The patients DO NOT matter,The physicians DO NOT matter, The nurses most certainly DO NOT matter.
The staffing grids( which have changed again to increase the load on the staff) DO matter.
The extras done for the patients and families do matter but only if they are done ,you see taking care of patients costs money , money that the lifepoint gang could be putting into their pockets. You see we provided for our patients at one time (when it was DRMC)NOW we provide for CEO's and their greed .Pt's are NOT being cared for and the Joint Com acknowledged this The supposed expert hired to fix everything, drags the poor directors and staff around like yes men and uses up time that could be used for patient care.I wonder what the cost-benefit ratio for her would be since she is VERY well compensated and generates NO income for the Hospital, come to think of it neither does A.D..Someone help us. This situation is going to kill more people. The State of Care at Danville Regional Knifepoint is extremely urgent.
Ok, One more time from the inside : There is NO DUKE AFFILIATION.
There is NO secondary nurse on new CABG arrivals .
Lifepoint WANTS new hearts doubled ASAP.
Is that clear?
Thanks for clarifying the rumors about Duke and making clear that Duke is NOT affiliated with any aspect of LifePoint. We called Duke to see what they would say, and they told my family that bthey have no association with LifePoint in terms of the Duke Heart Center. They recommended that Danvillians should go to the Duke Heart Center at the hospital in Roxboro that is providing the sort of service DRMC used to have before it was canned by Lifepoint. When you ask the people at Lifepoint/DRMC, they dance around and try to act like they are connected to Duke.
Isn't it against the law to dupe people in that fashion? Maybe some of these people need to be in jail.
Thanks again for clarifying.
Sentinel event,
Isn't there some way that the citizens comm. or DUKE could put an ad in the paper that there is NO affiliation with DRMC ?
Isn't it somehow illegal for lifepoint to operate with the public under the assumption that they are affiliated? Isn't it somehow misrepresentation ?
If the Mayor's Copmmission is legitimate, action on the Duke/Lifepoint connection should be an early concern. If people are being falsely lured into Lifepoint's version of DRMC under the false flag of a Duke connection, then the public MUST be warned.
Is this something the Better Business Bureau could consider if the "city fathers" continue to ignore such an important point/
Thoughts: I don't recall Lifepoint attempting to monopolize on the Duke/DRMC Heart Program. Neither to I recall any clarification of the issue made by either parties.
Therefore the responsibility lies with each consumer to do their homework when a decision needs to be made regarding WHERE they should have their open heart procedure done.
The heart nurses in Danville do an incredible job of recovering heart patients in spite of their work loads. Yes, conditions are far from optimal but the nurses are putting forth an excellent effort.
Would like to see stats from administration supporting their staffing decisions related to this speciality of nursing.
If what has been expressed by staff is true, the conditions are not in conjunction with evidenced based practice.
Keep in mind, this opinion comes from outside therefore I do not know if reports from staff are accurate or simply emotional.
Since we have not heard officially from Lifepoint regarding the Heart Program, it is difficult to weed out emotion from fact.
What say you Lifepoint...are you hiding something or is everything on the up-and-up?
A Concerned Citizen
Dear citizen ,
It is that bad
It is that dangerous
The load is that high.
We do have the research.
From
the inside.
From:http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/Hospital/print_3.htm
“When I was a hospital consultant 25 years ago, this was the end of the line if [the local hospital] had to sign on with one of these big systems,” Hurley says. “You’d tried everything else, and now you were surrendering your freedom, your independence. I think there was always something ominous about that. It is a momentous development for a community to lose its independent hospital."
Well, it's obvious we have surrendered our freedom and independence, I am not so sure we tried everything else. I have to wonder how many hospital consultants the boys at the bank questioned before they signed the papers. Oh well, I guess we'll never know since not one of them has had the guts to speak out on this issue since they gleefully announced what a great thing they had done. Is it actually possible these days to have a large enough pile of money to hide under it for so long? I assure you if they were politicians someone would have then in front of a camera and microphone by now.
If you have statistical information to support your case for workloads, then you should post for the community to view.
This information could possibly be used by the community to support you.
Here's a start
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/513708_3
www.massnurses.org/safe_care/toolkit/story/.htm
A general search produces 100's of thousands of articles from: Teaching Colleges(like the one DRMC lost) JCAHO originated (who deemed us unfit after LPNT. and JAMA, NEJM, etc......More patients+fewer nurses=more deaths.
Happy reading.
From the Citizens Commission website:
"**** The next meeting of the Citizens Commission will take place on Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 5:15 P.M. in the Fourth Floor Conference Room, City Hall, 427 Patton Street. *****"
This is one of those things that Art could easily clear up, be honest, and gain some trust. But NO! Leave us all to the rumour mill yet again!
Notice: no stats posted from the ? over-burdoned heart nurses. You complain about Mr. Doloresco not givnig information. Well, where is yours????
Agree...disappointing.
Ok the heart stats are easy now
3 hearts in a month No more burden, goodbye program.
If you want to quote research the more educated the nurse the better outcomes...yet we continue to concentrate recruitment efforts on our home grown diploma program...
I agree, we had DUKE we could have affiliated the program and made it a BSN - that's gone.
Averett at one time until the 90's offered a BSN - lost that.
VCU and ODU have satellite programs try to affiliate either one or both. Gonna be hard to do since the nursing school went from hiring about 99% of the graduates to about 40% with lifepoint.
Oh well.
Genial fill someone in on and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you on your information.
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