Thursday, August 23, 2007

"Danville Regional Medical Center retains its accreditation"

Danville Register and Bee
Thursday, August 23, 2007
DANVILLE – The Joint Commission has notified Danville Regional Medical Center that it remains an accredited organization and that the Joint Commission has removed a preliminary denial of accreditation. Read the full story in Friday’s Register & Bee.

Read the report here:
http://media.gatewayva.com/registerbee/specials/Report.pdf

66 comments:

Anonymous said...

Money talks!
The fact that the hospital care is as pitiful as it is and any organization would accredit it is a real benchmark of that organization,so much for Joint Com. ethics.
Will no one save us?

Anonymous said...

Let's see now. DRMC has been surveyed and approved by CMS, which is responsible for Medicare and Medicaid programs nationwide. And the Joint Commission--which covers 15,000 healthcare facilities nationwide--has lifted its previous preliminary denial. At some point perhaps a little credence should be given to the people whose job it is to do the rankings and the accreditation.

Anonymous said...

Is this all you guys have? I mean Joint Commission came in and sited us for trivial problems and now that the denial has been reversed and you're still complaining?

Anonymous said...

This is good, but it also means that we need to watch LifePoint more closely than ever. They will be hoping this will take some of the bright lights off of them so they can make the cuts they need, etc.

So greater vigilance! This is our way of helping LifePoint.

Anonymous said...

It is truly amazing that with morale at rock bottom and doctors fleeing that LifePoint would be bragging about anything.

Anonymous said...

You better start really watching that gang. This is all they need to swing into big-time slashing and burning of staff.

concerned said...

To the writer who states that "Lifepoint" is bragging about this...DRMC is celebrating this because the staff there is giving above 100% every day and we would really like to see some support from the community. It is a real knock down every time we read or hear these comments!

Anonymous said...

Just the usual "pot stirrers" who cant stand it when something positive occurs at the hospital; especially when we will continue to be paid the gov. bucks.

Anonymous said...

Joint Commission says nothing about how good a hospital is. It only means that they have meet basic gidelines and that the hospital is doing what it says it is doing in it's own rules. I said some time back that the hospital would pass. does this mean it is now a good place to go NO! I have seen first hand it is not. they have good people there. But most are new nurses or temps, what is lacking is experience most are gone now. Some areas have people with less than two years experience in charge. If they had people well experienced, trained in charge and on the floor the understaffing would not be so much of a problem.
As for others saying we need to support our hospital. I say to them it's not our hospital anymore.I will go where I think it will get the best care for my needs.

Anonymous said...

From the inside the patients are at GREAT risk and some have died from lack of staffing and lifepoints corporate disdain for the source of it's life.This is a horrid corporation and lifepoint does not care but for one thing , the same as the 5 ,money and only money.

Anonymous said...

To Concerned I'm glad the hospital passed. But there is still a lot that needs to be done before the Community will jump for joy. Two weeks ago a friend of mine almost over dosed on moraphine. How, The PCA pump was programed by a new nurse and she set the total limit wrong. When my friend was more or less out of his head we began asking questions about the pca pump. Shift change came and went another nurse came on duty she knew more about the pump looked and the programing " I could see the surprize on her face" after a lot of questions we learned the limit was wrong and the paitent had gotten to much. She reprogramed it a few hours later my friend was back to his old self. The next day I questioned the first nurse that did the programing she stated she did not work with that pump very much. I know just a few years ago the pharmacy would setup and program the PCA pumps but now the nurse does it. I do not know if it was reported but I can say I will think twice before I will go to DRMC for my care. With stories going around and I saw this first hand you want me to support the hospital I think not. When the hospital gets into the top 500 list I will give it another look until then I will go else where.
Passing the Joint Commission does not mean the hospital is fixed but it is a step in the right direction. Maybe in 5 to 10 years it might be a worth another look.

Anonymous said...

Also from the inside: It is a terribly dangerous place because even the things that are "right" exist at such a thin level. Please, please PLEASE continue to sit all night with your loved ones and NEVER leave a seriously ill patient on his/her own. This place is deadly, and you will NEVER know the truth about what happened when something goes wrong.

Morphine OD? That's the least of it. These sweet kids need at least two years experience before doing what they are doing.

The irony is that it is as unfair to them as it is to the patients.

Anonymous said...

So where's the new CEO?

Will it be Ruth?

Anonymous said...

Wake up Idiots. This means we are back on our feet. Seeze the moment! Let's get behind our hospital and return her to her Greatness. Its up to the Comunity!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

A few comments:

Yes, the pharmacy used to set the PCA pumps; however, other facilities at the 500 list have had their nurses programming pumps for a very long time.

Additionally, we will never when over the city of Danville even if it was a 500 listed hospital because Im sure you'll think that the hospital paid them off too!!!

How can it regain credibility if no one gives it a chance?

Anonymous said...

Just how many chances do you think the hospital should get. If I take my car to have it worked on and I get poor service I go some where else. I don't return to the same place the gave me bad service the last time. In this day a company must do the right thing for the customer or it will not last long. A hospital or town for that matter is no different. It's up to lifepoint to make a differece not the community. We will go where we want DCMC must do something to draw us to them. Do you go to walmart for your community or do you go there because they gived you the impression they have what you need at the best price with the best service.

Anonymous said...

The hospital has owned up to their mistakes, they have proven that they are capable to actually meet the rigorous standards of practice for JCAHO and Medicaid/Medicare. There are very capable nurses working and take excellent care of their patients. You have to be willing to give a second chance when it is due even though you may be apprehensive.

Anonymous said...

Come on folks. Give kudo's where they are due. We passed, thats a good thing, and if you are going to be critical you owe it to be complimentary when its due. Lord knows if history repeats itself (as it so often does) they will screw the pooch soon enough and you can get back on them.
Experienced nurses are still leaving, docs are leaving, the pain clinic is about done for, and as far as the paper goes, except for the police news what is do they have (that's legitimate)?

Anonymous said...

Sorry should be what "else" do they have. Not stupid just a typo.

Anonymous said...

Accreditation has nothing to do with the lack of doctors and/or nursing staff needed to care for hospitalized patients. The patients are there because they are ill. "Paperwork" does not treat the ill patients; clinical staff does, and DRMC is very much lacking. It is true that there should be positive feelings that Joint Commission lifted their preliminary denial, but that does not change the lack of experienced staff. The skilled, well-trained nursing staff should still be at DRMC helping to guide the new nurses, but most of them are gone. Therefore, new staff are on their own. We all know we cannot perform our work duties without error or misjudgment until we are trained. I just hope that while new staff is getting their training and experience, it will not offer improper treatment for those patients hospitalized at DRMC. How scary!!

Anonymous said...

Proof that in spite of LifePoint we still have a few skilled folks who get the job done even with one hand handcuffed to the gate to the Ivory tower! Its still a shame we have gone from where we were to where we are, but good to see people performing well under adverse conditions.


Quick emergency work helped save our son’s life

To the editor:
On Aug. 9, our son was rushed to the Emergency Department in severe chest pain. Within probably five minutes, a doctor had diagnosed him as having a heart attack. The doctor and his staff went into the fastest mode anyone could possibly move to help him. The doctor was in and out of the room every two or three minutes giving orders about what medication to give him.
A nurse took the orders and moved with extreme speed. There were others involved, too. After our son’s blood pressure was lowered to where the doctor wanted it, he was given a shot to dissolve the clot.
It worked very quickly to relieve his pain.
Another hero doctor came in, checked him and sent him to the ICU, where he was watched closely by some more of our wonderful nurses.
Two days later, the second doctor and his skillful hands and his wonderful staff did a catherization and inserted two stents to open an artery that was almost blocked.
By Monday he was moved to a floor to receive more care from a loving and caring staff.
We only have good things to say about his entire stay at Danville Regional Medical Center. We know that with the help from God and the wonderful people at Danville Regional, our son is doing well and has been given a second chance at life. We will forever be grateful for all that everyone did to make this happen.

SAM WOOD
JOYCE WOOD
Danville

Anonymous said...

We need to celebrate this. Many committed staff members have worked tirelessly over the last months to correct many issues some created by LifePoint and some pre-existing issues. when nay-sayers undervalue this good news it is a slap in the face to very good, hard working valuable people. Why are staff running from the hospital? One very big reason is the continuous negativity in the community.

Anonymous said...

Celebrate what? That we are back where we started when these goofballs took over 30 motnhs ago?

Terrifying, if that is seen as a plus.

Anonymous said...

First, good job to my fellow employees for passing Joint Commission. A poster wrote that JHACO is all about paperwork. You are right. Staff have been quizzed to death on what to say to joint commission to the point we feel threatened by our managers if we get a question wrong. Sadly, Joint Commission only looks at the processess in place. They do not care about nurse-patient ratios (which are still poor).
Secondly, in regards to the letter that another poster put onto the blog. Who are these people? "The doctor and his staff went into the fastest mode anyone could possibly move to help him. A nurse took the orders and moved with extreme speed. Another hero doctor came in, checked him and sent him to the ICU, where he was watched closely by some more of our wonderful nurses.
Two days later, the second doctor and his skillful hands and his wonderful staff did a catherization and inserted two stents to open an artery that was almost blocked." No one in this area talks or writes like this. Another PR letter. And speaking of PR who is John Van Mol? Yet, another person brought in by Lifepoint to fill a position that was never advertised locally or within the hospital. Thats a big problem with Lifepoint, rarely promoting from within. If you argue that their is no one qualified from within to move up into these positions, then that is poor management. Because, one of the main functions of a good manager is to develop his/her employees to take over and advance within a company.
Lastly, to the poster who asked why are people still quitting, that's easy, they are quitting to take jobs at other facilities that offer better pay, better benefits, a feeling of being wanted, and don't put profits before patient care.

Anonymous said...

WOW... I could not have said it better myself. Very accurate assessment!

Anonymous said...

What a terrific analysis.

All that you say is true.

The latest pr letter almost made me vomit. They have a real dullard turning out that stuff. Again and again, they show their contempt for our community.

Anonymous said...

I quit reading that dumb newspaper. I wrote a letter about what happened to my mother before we rescued her from the hospital, and they refused to print it.

Someone wrote in this websight that Lifepoint bought off the paper, and i believe it.

Anonymous said...

Thank the Lord for this blog. It is the only hope we have for truth.

Anonymous said...

I heard they fired the whiz-kid running that Institute, which no doubt is a step in the right direction. I hope they don't try to put him in charge of the hospital as ceo.

Anonymous said...

Another physician is leaving?!?

Ask the mayor!

Anonymous said...

I agree well put to the point. DRMC has a long way to go and under lifepoint I don't think it can get there. I'm sure many have worked hard to pass joint commission. But this tells people a lot was let go for a long time to get that bad. This is a company that should know by now how to come in and take over a hospital properly. Joint commission should not have been a problem. They should have looked at the people and seen what they could learn instead of running them off. Also knowing the sale was done behind closed doors they should have figured the community would not be happy. Come on this is what lifepoint does and some say they made a few mistakes. I would have thought they would have it down pat by now.
This company can't do it's job. from what I have seen it can't manage hospital's any beter than it can take them over. People here say give them another chance.The hospital has owned up to their mistakes, they have proven that they are capable to actually meet the rigorous standards of practice for JCAHO. These are mistakes that should have never happened. JCAHO is only basic guide lines not rigorous standards I know I have prepaired for them many times my self. Now all is well Sorry I don't think so my family health is on the line. I have heard some doctors are telling patients to make sure they have someome with them at all times. It seems some doctors don't have anymore faith in the hospital then the community.

Anonymous said...

The worst thing about LifePoint/DRMC being pulled back from the brink of absolute disgrace is this:

The worst that can happen is for patients and famlies to feel any sense of confidence in Danville Regional. That can be very dangerous.

No matter what, do NOT allow a patient to be in this hospital without a loved one standing near to monitor and question everything from the taking of blood to the administration of medication. These are not bad or evil people who are caring for your loved ones, but their experience is lacking and they are terrible over-worked.

Yes, the community looks better with accreditation restored in terms of economic development, etc., but it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the quality of medical care.

Anonymous said...

Yes, you had better be more careful than ever. Remember, Joint Commission has nothing to do with staffing ratios and things of that sort which are critical to what happens to you.

Anonymous said...

On Dr/Mayor Wayne Williams, he's not pulling out, is he? Yes, he is smart and caring enough to see his patients in some of the good hospitals away from Danville, but is he really pulling out of LifePoint? You couldn't blame him, but is it true? What does he say?

Anonymous said...

Didn't mean to be so mysterious! What we heard was that his partner has her house on the market and is leaving.

Anonymous said...

RegisterBee Editorial:

Danville Regional Medical Center remains a fully accredited hospital. After a bruising several months that seemed to validate critics of the hospital and its corporate parent, LifePoint Hospitals Inc., the hospital has emerged from the Joint Commission’s “preliminary denial of accreditation.”

Thursday’s news followed last month’s announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that Danville Regional “remains in compliance” with Medicare standards.

The two announcements mean Danville Regional has proven itself to outside, independent agencies that look at thousands of health care facilities all over the country. It means that Danville Regional has fixed many, if not most, of its problems. It means the hospital deserves a second chance from its toughest critics.

That’s not a politically correct thing to say in some circles. Some people believe LifePoint is a spoiler of hospitals and that the Tennessee-based company destroyed our local hospital. But we’d like to think that the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services know a thing or two about how a hospital is supposed to be run.

What does the future hold? If local residents don’t now support Danville Regional Medical Center, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the hospital to remain a viable health care facility.

Consider the case of Dr. Lee McCann, who is leaving Danville Regional - where he serves as medical director of cardiovascular surgery - to take a position in Utah.

McCann’s practice has suffered, he claims, because fewer patients want to be treated at Danville Regional. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear a lot of local doctors say the same thing.

“Things have gotten so bad at Danville Regional that when we got another offer, we had to look at it,” McCann said. “… My office is now in the red, and I can’t keep losing money. Duke has probably lost money as well, and they are getting scared.”

Getting a man like Lee McCann educated and ready to practice medicine is a long, expensive process. Doctors need to be able to have financially viable practices. If McCann couldn’t attract enough patients to make enough money because local residents didn’t want to be treated at Danville Regional, what does that mean for the community?

Over time, fewer patients using the hospital would force the hospital to offer fewer services, which would decrease the number of patients, which would lead to future service cuts.

If that cycle continues, eventually everyone would be forced to go out of town for hospital care. That would have a profound, negative effect on everything from the quality of life to economic and community development in the Dan River Region.

It would be wrong to tell people to go to Danville Regional if the hospital wasn’t making real progress. People need more motivation that just a boilerplate call to support a local business.

But with the hospital showing demonstrative, positive and verified progress, shunning Danville Regional becomes an act of community suicide.

Danville needs a good, strong hospital, and this week’s news is a good step on the hospital’s part to rebuild its relationship with the community. It’s time for the community to take the next step - while it still can.

MAybe they missed part of the point:
"JCAHO is only basic guide lines not rigorous standards",

"Joint Commission says nothing about how good a hospital is. It only means that they have meet basic gidelines and that the hospital is doing what it says it is doing in it's own rules."

And, "Accreditation has nothing to do with the lack of doctors and/or nursing staff needed to care for hospitalized patients. The patients are there because they are ill. "Paperwork" does not treat the ill patients; clinical staff does, and DRMC is very much lacking."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Accreditation has nothing to do with top quality medical care. It means that your car has gotten a basic inspection sticker, which says nothing about how well it runs or what it looks like, how uncomfortable it is or whether you should set off on a 500-mile trip.

That silly editorial quoted above refers to any lack of community support as being "suicidal." What can be truly suicidal is to for a family to decide to forego far better medical care elsewhere in order to support LifePoint's local hospital.

That's what can be suicidal.

Anonymous said...

Right on. Terrific analysis. An old car with a fresh inspection sticker can make it across town, but don't do any serious driving in it.

Anonymous said...

Okay, but you better hope that old car can make it to Moses Cone!

Anonymous said...

Life always has risks. It is incumbant upon every one of us in this region to use Danville Regional. You could get killed driving to Moses Cone. That's a risk. Our duty is to expend some risk on using our hospital with the hope it will become the pl;ace it once was.

Anonymous said...

Made national news again,

From the Yahoo news headlines:

"Sometimes, there is no clear explanation for a woman's death.

Valerie Scythes, a 35-year-old elementary schoolteacher, died in March at a hospital in New Jersey — the state with the highest Caesarean section rate. She had had a C-section, as did another teacher at the same school who died after giving birth at the same hospital two weeks later.

However, Scythes died of a blocked blood vessel and the other woman died from bleeding, said John Baldante, a Philadelphia attorney investigating the death for Scythes' family.

"I'm not sure there was any connection between the two deaths," Baldante said.

Also mysterious was the death of Tim Davis' 37-year-old wife, Elizabeth, who died a day after a vaginal delivery at a Danville, Va., hospital in September 2000.

She had a heart attack after a massive blood loss, Davis said. It's not clearly known what caused the heavy bleeding. There was no autopsy, he said, a decision he now regrets.

Two previous births had gone well.

"Nothing led us to believe anything was wrong with this pregnancy. She was like a picture of health," he continued, noting she had been a YMCA fitness instructor.

A lawsuit against the hospital ended in a settlement. Davis also sued the obstetrician, but a jury ruled in the doctor's favor.

The child born that day, Ethan, starts second grade next week. "He's a happy kid," Davis said. "He's just never had a mom."

___
8/25/2007 "U.S. Childbirth deaths on the rise."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070825/ap_on_he_me/dying_from_childbirth_6;_ylt=Ap7zygn29.CbHhXsobxw8MQE1vAI

Anonymous said...

"It is incumbant upon every one of us in this region to use Danville Regional."
That is the most ill informed ridiculous statement I've heard as of late.It is not my responsibility to fund millionaires when they are jeopardizing lives for personal play money .I will go where the quality is and as we all know Joint Comm. has nothing to do with true quality only paperwork and window dressing. The staff is now burdened with patient care and a myriad of new forms that were done by several people until lifepoint fired them, I'll go or transfer elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

I disagree. I don't mind taking a little risk to help my community. If things get bad, you can always transfer. I also agree that every patient MUST have a care-giver present to watch the hospital staff snd question what they are doing.

Anonymous said...

We'll be trading low-wage jobs forever and ever if we don't get some econdev into this place. And we MUST have a good hospital.

Anonymous said...

Study lifepoint/HCA and you will find out they don't own a good hospital.They only own "legal"(barely)hospitals.

Anonymous said...

Also mysterious was the death of Tim Davis' 37-year-old wife, Elizabeth, who died a day after a vaginal delivery at a Danville, Va., hospital in September 2000.

Not sure we can blame this one on the new owners. At some point we must realize we cannot change the past but we can sure can impact the future. When are we going to quit dwelling on the past and start spending our energy to make our accredited hospital even better? I for one am ready for that.

Anonymous said...

For those of you that emphatically state you do not wish to receive your healthcare at DRMC you should forward such a request to the hospital so that in the event you are brought to the ER we can make immediate arrangements to transfer you to another facility. Surely you would not want us to try to save your life!

Anonymous said...

Boy have some of you been hood-winked. LifePoint allows our great hospital to plummet from what we had to what we now have. It runs off the rails. Doctors flee. Nurses are running for other hospitals. Fianlly, an authority (JC) comes forward removes our full accreditation.

Don't you people know how HORRIBLE this is, what a DISGRACE this is?

So now we have patched the flat tire. Good. But you make a very dangerous mistake to put much faith in a car running on a patched flat.

This place is now running on a patched flat tire--which gets you an inspection sticker. But you'd better put your faith elsewhere if you want strong medical care.

Anonymous said...

"Surely you would not want us to try to save your life! "
It's ok Most of the patients that come through the ER don't get treated there anyway,they get dumped on other floors hours later, and then get treated by an overloaded staff.

"When are we going to quit dwelling on the past and start spending our energy to make our accredited hospital even better?"
When will you learn the concept of barely acceptable and anyone can pass if they take the same test enough times.lifepoint wants you to spin your wheels and waste energy in countless meetings and with countless forms that have nothing to do with patient care. Minimal Staff all incentives gone mean bigger bonuses that don't help the local area at all ,unless your local area is Brentwood.
GO TO OTHER, BETTER STAFFED HOSPITALS.

Anonymous said...

Great point. How can people be dumb enough to buy into anything Lifepoint has to say?

Anonymous said...

"Study lifepoint/HCA and you will find out they don't own a good hospital.They only own "legal"(barely)hospitals."
Must not be studying too hard. Guess who has funded the lion's share of research on medication bar-coding to reduce errors? HCA
Guess who saved a little hospital from closing? LifePoint (Call Versailles, Kentucky and see if they think LifePoint's so bad.
I've been doing my homework...you haven't.

Anonymous said...

"Also mysterious was the death of Tim Davis' 37-year-old wife, Elizabeth, who died a day after a vaginal delivery at a Danville, Va., hospital in September 2000.

Not sure we can blame this one on the new owners."
Now I've seen it all...you're "not sure"? Let's see...LifePoint owned DRMC in 2000, right? Ooops...wrong. Now, who we gonna blame?

Anonymous said...

"I've been doing my homework...you haven't."
Let's take a look at a hospital in Ennis,Texas. This hospital was on the edge of bankruptcy and employees wondered if their paychecks would cash on Fridays. Lifepoint was a godsend to the employees that are left. How do I know this, my uncle is a cfo of a paper company in Texas and when Lifepoint bought us out I asked him to do a litle fact finding for me. The new Texas hospital was in such bad shape that lifepoint had to build another hospital in order to pass inspection. Unfortunately, they built a smaller bed hospital then was their originally, thus, employees were fired due to not needing them. Computer systems that were brought in and modernized the hospital, but, caused even more people to lose their jobs. So in the end the hospital is a modern hospital with all the bells and whistles, but has about half of the employees they once had. So who benefitted, those that got to stay or those that were let go?
Secondly, you say that you have done your homework: Maybe, maybe not. Let me quote a few hospitals that Lifepoint has done questionable things with.
1) Central Carolina Medical Center in Hardeeville, SC. Lifepoint bought this profitable hospital from Province Healthcare. In one year, since Lifepoint took over, it has lost over $7 million dollars and Lifepoint gave up on it and sold it to Tenet Healthcare (which by the way, has a worse reputation of fraudulant practices than Lifepoint or HCA).
2) Palo Verde Hospital in California. Lifepoint was leasing this hospital from the county. When it was a county ran hospital it was profitable. In the 2 years that Lifepoint managed it lost money and had to take bankruptcy. Lifepoint paid the county $3 million to get out of its lease and left the county scrounging to find the funds to run the hospital. So, as you can see, the great Lifepoint left this county scrambling for funds to restart the hospital.
3)Valley View Medical Center in Arizona was built by Lifepoint in 2005 and was scheduled to open in December of 2005. It did not open unitl Summer of 2006 because it could not pass JCAHO and medicare and medicaid inspections.
4)Colorado River Medical Center in Needles California. Lifepoint was leasing this hospital from the county. In 2006 Lifepoint built a hospital 15 miles down the road in Nevada. It seems that Lifepoint was willing to allow this community be without a hospital because it did not want to deal with California's mandatory nurse-patient ratios. Amazingly, when the county took over the hospital an independent audit showed where lifepoint had stolen equipment and supplies from Colorado River. The courts made them give back the stolen equipment back and pay a small fine for taking the equipment.
Finally, Lifepoint and HCA have been fined millions upon millions of dollars for fraudalant billing practices and has several class action lawsuits pending in federal courts due to low staffing issues. So before you jump on the Lifepoint bandwagon, I suggest you do your homework. Just in case you are wondering, all you have to do is Google these hospitals and their communities and you can read the plight of these hoapitals and many others on their local newspaper's websites.

Anonymous said...

Guess who has funded the lion's share of research on medication bar-coding to reduce errors?
The funding that you refer to was funded in grants by the US government under a bill that was passed to reduce medical errors and these errors by the same study were mostly in FOR profit facilities due to chronic short staffing.

Guess who saved a little hospital from closing?
We are not alittle hospital, well we weren't until lifepoint, or affiliation with one of the most respected hospitals in the US GONE.
Our respectibility in the community after over 100 years gone.
Completed my Homework ,and living through the lifepoint hell.

Anonymous said...

That's it! Again and again, Lifepoint cuts to the bone and doesn't give a damn about patients. It's their business if they don't care about employees. It is OUR business when they don't care about patients.

Anonymous said...

You completed your homework and you say this hospital was a big player and one of the most respected in the U.S. prior to the LifePoint buy? what books were you reading? Yes we had state of the art computer system and were known for that but our outcomes were still poor, we still had many of the quality issues you claim were new with LifePoints arrival. Give me a break! Prior to LifePoint this ED did everything possible to assure I was a widower. When I spoke up many, to include insiders, stated that everyone knows the quality is poor. But somehow we don't remember the issues existed. This hopsital was never one of the most respected in the united states. It is and was a small town hospital just trying to do it's best.

Anonymous said...

Didn't say DRMC was one of the most respected, they said affiliated with one of the most respected.
The ER has always had problems but with the staff cuts and loss of experience due to slash and burn tactics of lifepoint it's even worse.Oh and the FACTS are from the US Government fact sheets and SEC filings and they are the ultimate authoritues on the frauds committed by HCA/Lifepoint oh yes all of the computers systems and other things have HCA on them when you deal with lifepoint you deal with the government proven fraudulent company of HCA.
And the "poor" outcomes phoooey,
DRMC before lifepoint had some of the best heart outcomes of anyone even better post surgical infection rates than the parent Duke.....after lifepoint no heart program at all and yes it is leaving.

Anonymous said...

heart program yes. but what about the rest? we are more than the heart program.

Anonymous said...

Yes, and one of the highest rates of maternity deaths in the state. Terrifying. No wonder the docs' spouses go elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

The US in general has high mortality rates for babies for industrialized countries.
There are very few infections caused by DRMC staff per inside tracers and CDC submissions.Oh and since the Heart program is gone
we have to be more, sad.It was a building block for so much more for the whole hospital and community, gone by lifepoint.

Anonymous said...

I was reading and found this
: Must not be studying too hard. Guess who has funded the lion's share of research on medication bar-coding to reduce errors? HCA. BULL The infusion pump companies paid the way. I know Hospira one of the largest companies has had a bar system in place for sometime. It has safty software and runs on a wireless network. It tracks manual programing and can be set up to program it's self. All the larger hospitals and even some smaller hospitals in this are now useing this to reduce errors to almost zero. If an error does hapen the software tracks all the information so it can be reviewed to stop the next one. Someone wote about a PCA pump over dose. If the hospital had these type of pumps this would have never happened. I'm sure a system like this is not cheap so we will not see them at DRMC for sometime. HCA and/or lifepoint did not oversee or fund this reserch. If anything they they are way it was developed.

Anonymous said...

PCA pump overdose occured because the nurse did not follow policy. Did he have a second nurse verify programming prior to initiating? I bet not. LifePoint is not responsible for nurses who do not follow the policies set out to stop such errors from occurring.

Anonymous said...

Highest rate of maternity deaths in the state is most likely due to to our population. high teen pregnancy, no prenatal care, high obesity, uninsurred etc. So maybe the foundation could assist with this problem. The nurses in our women & childrens department do a great job this statistic is telling the bigger story of huge problems in our community.

Anonymous said...

I think this blog is proof positive there is an abnormally high teen pregnacy rate in the area. Proof's in the pudding.
Oh wait...let's make the excuse that the entire nation has a high maternity mortality...but we can't do that because in another post someone said we can't compare the DRMC locale to the rest of the nation. A little opinionated "cake and eat it too" it seems to me!

Anonymous said...

"I think this blog is proof positive there is an abnormally high teen pregnacy rate in the area. Proof's in the pudding."

LOVE IT! EXCELLENT POINT!

Anonymous said...

I spent 10 days with my 76 year old grandfather recently. He spent 7 of those days in a coma. I complained about his treatment or lack of everyday. He was not bathed after many requests were made for it since he had feses on his hands. On the 4 the day we cleaned him ourselves since we didn't want him embarrassed when he did wake up. We found him laying in his own feses 2 times and had to demand him be cleaned. The staff did not appreciate our out cries for sanitary and compassionate care. The nurses lied to the doctors right in front of us. My grandpa was transfered to a " care floor" the day he woke from a coma and discharged to a rehabilitation center the next day without any care plan. My grandpa did not get the doctor ordered 24 hour oxygen and deep throat suction and died within one hour of being there. I went along on the tranport since I wasn't given time to check the place out. I was horrified to find they had no oxygen, suction, or airbed for the bedsores he received at the hospital. I insisted my grandpa get his oxygen and was told he would get it and everything would be set up. I was pushed out by the staff becausef they needed to get my grandpa set up with everything he needed. I was only gone an hour when I received a call he was dead. I searched nursing care and found all the homes that would take my grandpa have horrible ratings and many many violations. My heart aches for the elderly who literally enter a death trap between the hospitals and the nursing homes they get thrown into. They don't stand a chance if they don't have a very supportive family. That couldn't even save my grandpa. If you have family in a nursing home in the danville area please follow their care because if your not they are most likely suffering. The hospital released my grandpa way to soon he was so weak he couldn't stand or even talk. The nursing home accepted him without critical paperwork that Contained vital information that would have stopped my grandpa from suffering a horrible death with no one to help him but a blind man with no legs..... the hospital should not be the only medical concern for the danville area. The elderly need protection.. one day I hope to do something to help this situation in my grandfathers honor... I am glad I do not live in that area. I wish I would have known then what I know now I could have saved.my grandpa. Janrobinson3@yahoo.com