State of the Hospital-Danville Regional Medical Center

2009-05-10T07:34:00.000-05:00

Danville Regional CEO gets 18-month check up

Register & Bee Published: May 9, 2009

Jerel Humphrey, CEO of Danville Regional Medical Center, took time last week to reflect on what has been accomplished at the hospital during the almost 18 months he has been at the helm.
Humphrey, most often seen without a tie and wearing a sweater vest, laughs and jokes easily, but quickly turns serious when talking about what has transpired for the good and what still needs to be done at the hospital since its purchase by LifePoint Hospitals Inc. four years ago.
In a January 2008 interview with the Danville Register & Bee three months into his tenure, Humphrey said the hospital was still putting its executive team together. He said Tuesday that had been accomplished.
“We’ve now had a year-plus of an administration team working together,” he said. “We have rounded out our team and have Becky Logan as our chief nursing officer and Mark Anderson as our chief financial officer. Eric Barber has been added as a chief operating officer, and our chief medical officer is Tim Starling, a past president of the medical staff, as well as having served 32 years as a nephrologist with the Danville Urology Clinic. Frank Campbell has become the chairman of the board.”
Another area that has become more focused in the past year has been community outreach. Although the hospital has “sporadically” helped with community organizations in the past, Humphrey said this past year the hospital has tried to be more consistent with it.
“(Recently) we’ve done fundraising with the Free Clinic of Danville, signed a contract with PATHS and worked with Salvation Army,” he said.
Other community organizations that have been supported by Danville Regional through sponsorships and donations include Habitat for Humanity, the Free Clinic of Danville, the Boy Scouts, Special Olympics, the Langhorne House, the Danville Life Saving Crew and the YMCA, among many others.
The hospital’s 2008 Community Benefit Report reveals it has spent $21 million on charity care and bad debt; $172.1 million on government-sponsored health care (Medicare and Medicaid); $705,104 in community benefit programs ($35,820 in financial contributions, $94,585 in health professionals education and $574,699 in physician recruitment); and $896,000 in state taxes, $224,000 in local sales tax and $832,000 in property taxes.
Recalling the initial theme for his leadership as building trust with the community, Humphrey said he has made himself available and given talks to several community groups.
“The feedback has been that people appreciate open communication, our recommitment to the community and our recruitment efforts to bring in new physicians,” he said.
In the past year, 12 new physicians have been recruited, a process that can be lengthy.
“We identify people who want to come and then we have to get them properly credentialed to be on our medical staff and then sign any agreements involved,” Humphrey said, adding with a laugh, “And then they have to come.”
The number of physicians leaving the area has “trickled,” he said.
The hospital has received nothing but good comments about the re-affiliation of the Duke Heart Center with the hospital’s Heart Center of the Piedmont at Danville Regional Medical Center for the hospital’s cardiovascular services, according to Humphrey.
“The agreements with Duke are fully signed, and Dr. Richard Embrey, the cardiothoracic surgeon, has seen a doubling of his cases already,” Humphrey said. “The (open-heart surgery) volumes are very much coming back.”
In another partnership, Danville Regional is working with the LifePoint-owned Martinsville Memorial Hospital to provide cardiology care for their patients.
“The need for cardiology coverage in Martinsville is greater than the cardiologists in the area can currently provide, so we met with and requested that the Danville cardiologists assist with the coverage issue,” Humphrey said. “To their credit, they became credentialed and privileged to practice in Martinsville. Duke Heart Services is also lending its support with one of their cardiologists covering two days a week and the Danville cardiologists covering three days a week, which includes some Saturdays.”
He said that was an intermediate measure, since the Martinsville hospital is currently recruiting cardiologists.
Danville Regional has also partnered with the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine to bring in a residency program, which Humphrey said has brought positive comments from the community.
“The hospitalist program has also been getting a lot of positive comments from physicians and the patients being taken care of,” Humphrey said.
Hospitalists care for the patients in the hospital once they are admitted by their own physician.
Four hospitalists out of the current 15 on staff are scheduled to leave, one to pursue a fellowship and others for family reasons; however, the hospital is actively recruiting for replacements.

Millions in investments
Since LifePoint purchased Danville Regional Medical Center, the corporation has invested about $45 million in the hospital for facility improvements and equipment.
“We really do hear a lot of positive comments about the continued investment into the infrastructure of the hospital,” Humphrey said.
He cited the nursing staff as another big plus for the hospital and said that the usage of contract nursing staff has been eliminated, which he calls a “major accomplishment.”
“We have about a 5 percent turnover rate now, which is outstanding, and we are very proud of that,” he said. “The majority of the class (graduating from the hospital’s School of Nursing) this year will be hired. That’s always our game plan with the nursing school program.”
The nursing staff is “basically” fully staffed at this time, although Humphrey said that there is always some ebb and flow.
The patient census, or the number of admitted patients in the hospital at any given time, also has peaks and valleys, he said, but remains solid.
“We’ve seen a little softening of the census with the economic downturn and people putting elective procedures off as long as can,” he said. “Some of the physicians also say their patient loads are up and down. It’s really uneven right now.”
In other initiatives in the past year, the hospital has just opened a wound treatment center and an inpatient rehabilitation center and purchased another bloodmobile.

Revisiting impressions
New to the area 18 months ago, Humphrey said that his initial impressions of the Danville community were that “the people in Danville are open and friendly, there is a great future with all the economic developments and nobody knows how to merge.”
On Tuesday, Humphrey revisited those observations and said that the Danville community is still open and friendly and that, although economic development has been “stymied,” he remains “cautiously optimistic.”
On that last count, however, he holds to his original opinion, as many others do, that Danvillians are still merging-impaired.

But, wait....I thought the Healthcare Leadership Council said that everything was hunky-dory at DRMC?

2008-12-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

From the Nov 6 City Council minutes:

"COMMUNICATIONS FROM VISITORS
Former Mayor Sam Kushner appeared to ask City Council to get involved as a Committee of the Whole in order to find answers to concerns circulating about Danville Regional Medical Center (DRMC). Mr. Kushner said residents felt a great deal of insecurity due to the lack of transparency about the hospital’s business and it was felt the hospital had lost its heart and soul. He said citizens wanted to know wait times in the emergency room, how many doctors had relocated to other hospitals, and the nurse-to-patient ratio, among other concerns. He said these and other statistics were not available from LifePoint and said businesses seeking to relocate in our area would want to know about the hospital. He asked Council to communicate with the hospital administration and participate in conversation about what the facility is now doing and what it plans to do in the future.
DRMC Board Member Frank Campbell said he wished Mr. Kushner had come to him with his concerns. He said the board cared about DRMC and that it was unfair for Mr. Kushner to say the hospital had lost its heart and soul. Mr. Campbell advised the hospital was operating in the black, wait times in the Emergency Room had improved, and doctors had been hired to replace those that were lost. He invited Council Members to meet with the board and ask any questions it wished.
Dr. Miller said building up the public’s trust was important for the entire community and if the attitude of mistrust in the community was not changed, it would not matter how good the hospital was.
Mayor Saunders advised he and Interim City Manager Lacy had scheduled a meeting for Monday, November 10. He asked Council Members to submit questions for LifePoint to him or the City Clerk. He said would report to Council about the meeting. "

And from the Nov 18 City Council meeting minutes:
"Mayor Saunders advised that he and Mr. Lacy had a fruitful meeting with LifePoint on Monday and stated there would be another meeting with LifePoint officials. He encouraged Council Members who had not done so to provide questions for the hospital officials. "

A couple of recent headlines

2008-10-06T14:03:00.000-05:00

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/doctor_says_revenue_woes_led_to_firing/6605/

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/paths_feels_impact_after_danville_regional_cuts_ties/6603/

"Joint venture","shared governance", "transparent process". What novel concepts.

2008-09-10T10:02:00.001-05:00

It will be interesting to see how this plays out...

Bannock County Commissioners Select Legacy Hospital Partners
Pocatello, Idaho--(Business Wire)--The Bannock County Commission has announced the selection of Legacy Hospital Partners, Inc. (LHP) of Plano, Texas as the proposed capital partner in a joint venture for the construction and operation of a new regional medical center to be located on Portneuf Medical Center’s east campus. The proposed joint venture will be on the November ballot for approval by Bannock County’s voters.
On Thursday, in an open meeting at the Bannock County courthouse, the commissioners voted unanimously to proceed with LHP, citing several factors in their selection, including superior terms in their negotiated relationship, the experience of LHP’s key executives in forming Community Benefit Organization joint ventures of the type proposed for the medical center, and a clear preference for LHP expressed by the various stakeholder groups, including the community’s physicians, the hospital’s Board of Governors, its administration, and members of a citizens panel, all of whom reviewed the proposals from both Legacy Hospital Partners, Inc. and LifePoint, Inc., the other finalist that was not selected.
“LHP’s executive team pioneered the joint venture, shared-governance model that we were looking for in moving ahead with the new medical center,” stated Larry Ghan, Chair of the Bannock County Commission. “We weren’t going to give up significant local control, and we wanted the community’s physicians to be confident they could continue to deliver good medical care to their patients. Under the proposal from LHP, both of those things are guaranteed. I think the residents of Bannock County are going to be very happy with the proposed relationship and the safeguards of local control built into it.”
Ghan went on to state that the negotiated Letter of Intent – a document that lays out the contract the county and LHP will enter into if voters approve in November – will be made public at a Friday news conference scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on Portneuf Medical Center’s west campus. “We want this to be a completely transparent process,” said Ghan. “If we’re going to ask the voters in Bannock County to approve this measure in November, then they deserve to know what’s in that document.”
The commissioners notified Legacy Hospital Partners immediately after the vote, to enable LHP’s executive team to travel to Pocatello for the Friday press conference.
Upon hearing the news, Dan Moen, Legacy Hospital Partners, Inc. CEO, said, “Legacy Hospital Partners, Inc.’s strategy is to partner with not-for-profit hospitals such as Portneuf Medical Center in the operation and ownership of community hospitals. We are very honored to have been selected as the capital partner for Portneuf. Our team has been impressed by the community and its commitment of time and energy to find the right partner for the hospital’s future. I want to thank the community leaders, elected officials, physicians, hospital employees, educators and others who have invested so much in this process. We look forward to working with you in developing a regional medical center that is second to none.”
In the proposed relationship, the new medical center will be operated as a joint venture between Legacy Hospital Partners and Portneuf Health Care Foundation, which will hold the community’s interest in the medical center. The joint venture’s board of directors will be appointed on a 50-50 basis by the directors of the Portneuf Health Care Foundation and LHP. Under a voting arrangement called “block voting,” the board will be unable to approve any measures unless a majority of each side’s board members approve. In addition, the Foundation’s local board representatives must approve any proposed CEO for the hospital and may terminate the CEO without the approval of LHP’s board representatives. Finally, a completely local board of trustees comprised of at least 50 percent physicians will oversee clinical care issues.
“This governance model absolutely guarantees that local influence over our hospital will continue,” stated Commissioner Lin Whitworth. “I’ve had people ask me why a capital partner that owns the majority of a new medical center would give us 50 percent control. If you think about it, it’s very smart on their part. Who’s going to know better what services our local hospital should deliver than our local residents and our physicians? If we’re meeting the needs of the region, the hospital will grow and thrive. And that makes LHP’s investment worth more.”
The commissioners acknowledged that while they are confident the proposed joint venture represents the best solution to the area’s need for a new state-of-the-art medical center, there is a lot of work to do in educating the county’s voters between now and November. “What the voters decide in November will shape health care in our region for decades to come,” said Commissioner Steve Hadley. “We can go forward, or we can fall backward. It’s our job between now and November to answer every question and satisfy the residents of Bannock County that this represents a tremendous opportunity for all of us.”

"It’s on the Web"

2008-08-27T08:58:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee editorial - August 24, 2008

Danville Regional Medical Center received some bad publicity this week in a USA Today story about the federal government’s Hospital Compare Web site (hospitalcompare.hhs.gov).

The story reported on hospital death rates for adults suffering from heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia. Danville Regional’s death rate for heart attacks was 19.6 percent; for heart failure, the death rate was 15.5 percent. By contrast, Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania had a heart attack death rate of just 11.6 percent.

The Hospital Compare Web site gives people the ability to easily make apples-to-apples comparisons of their health care options.

The availability of this kind of free, readily accessible information offers our hospital the opportunity to publicly demonstrate that the changes it has made have changed care there for the better. When the hospital was locally owned, the community had no way of knowing that kind of information. Now, it’s on the Internet for the world to see — and for local people to study.

That 19.6 percent death rate for heart attack patients in 2007 was the worst in the nation. But the statistics for 2006 were actually much worse: 24 percent.

“We continue to improve our care,” said Dr. Michael A. Moore, director of medical education at the hospital. “This just makes us want to improve further.”

Between 2006 and 2007, the heart failure death rate at Danville Regional actually jumped from 14.6 percent to 15.5 percent.

Those two years, 2006 and 2007, were tumultuous ones at Danville Regional Medical Center; they were the first two full years Danville Regional was owned by LifePoint Hospitals Inc.

During that time, there were staff layoffs, revolving door management, a preliminary denial of the hospital’s accreditation and two separate attempts by Danville City Council to publicly study the problems at Danville Regional. During the same time, we saw increased marketing efforts by other regional hospitals to attract local people to their facilities.

What the numbers don’t show is the work that has been done this year by CEO Jerel Humphrey, the hiring of cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Richard Embry and the agreement that will keep the Heart Center of the Piedmont affiliated with Duke Heart Center through 2010.

Clearly, the death rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia at Danville Regional during 2006 and 2007 are not acceptable.

We applaud the federal government for lifting the veil of secrecy from these kinds of statistics.

As for Danville Regional, its challenge remains: To continue to improve so that next year at this time, we’ll have some good news to report.

"Danville Regional claims patient count stable"

2008-08-14T09:36:00.000-05:00

Register Bee - August 7, 2008

The head of Danville Regional Medical Center said Thursday that, despite rumors, there has not been a significant decline in daily patient counts at the hospital and no job losses related to patient counts.
“That’s not true at all,” Jerel Humphrey, Danville Regional’s chief executive officer, said. “But we can’t control what people say.”
Daily patient counts remain stable for this time of year, he said, noting there has been a slight decrease in 2006-08.
Humphrey said patient numbers are well above 100 a day. While the summer season may bring smaller patient counts, it’s the opposite during the winter when more people are sick.
“We’re more than busy,” he said.
Humphrey added that at no time are hospital layoffs tied to patient count number. He said 13 non-clinical jobs were eliminated in July and that these employees were offered other jobs at the hospital, which employs about 1,400 people.
“We move people around and give them new opportunities,” he said.
The hospital has recruited more than seven new physicians and 60 new nurses. Danville Regional did that by eliminating agency nurses, which are health care providers known as traveling nurses who can help fill understaffed shifts.
“What we’re seeing is nothing out of the ordinary,” Humphrey said.

Hello again.

2008-08-14T09:16:00.000-05:00

Just call me Mark Martin or Brett Favre....just can't stay retired from the blog. There is still some stuff that I'd like to post related to DRMC, so you may see me here from time to time. To those of you that are still inside at DRMC, I'll count on you for the most up-to-date info about how things are inside the four walls.

Anyway...back to the reason of my post...the Danville Regional Foundation just released its regional healthcare assessment (this is the first of three major assessments the DRF is undertaking. The others are economic revitalization and educational attainment). Here is a link to the full report:
http://www.danvilleregionalfoundation.org/region/documents/2008-HealthAssessment.pdf

One question that comes to mind...it was the mission of DRMC back 'in the day' to provide community outreach to address some of the issues identified in this study. Where does any of that fit into the mission of a for-profit?

Here is the Register & Bee article:
"Health assessment study shows region’s needs"
Danville Register & Bee - August 12, 2008

The numbers are in and indicate that health care across the Dan River Region needs to be improved.
The Danville Regional Foundation ordered a health assessment study done so it could determine what health issues in the region needed its attention the most. The foundation also will be studying the education and economic development needs of Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C.
The health assessment was developed by MDC Inc., of Chapel Hill, N.C., and implemented by researchers from East Tennessee State University, who interviewed hundreds of residents, community leaders and heath providers to make the assessment.
Some of the more alarming statistics show that parts of the region have much higher percentages of certain medical conditions and diseases than the national average.
From 1999-2003, Danville had 154.4 incidences of breast cancer per 100,000 people, compared to Virginia’s overall average of 122.6 and the national average of 125.3. Pittsylvania County, however, came in much lower than state and national averages, at 100.7, and while North Carolina came in above the national average at 147.3, Caswell County came in at 106.5.
Deaths from heart disease in 2004 were higher in all three areas compared to state and national averages. The rate per 100,000 nationally was 163.4. Though Virginia came in at 124.9 overall; in Pittsylvania County, the rate was 186.1 and in Danville, the number jumped to 281.9. North Carolina also was below the national average at 146.1, but Caswell County came in at 199.
Diabetes and strokes had similar results. Lung cancer numbers, however, showed Danville at well above the national and state averages, while Pittsylvania and Caswell counties came in well below.
Birth rates also were studied and showed the region had more births to unwed mothers than state and local averages, and that low birth weights were higher than the state and national averages. The study also showed that Danville mothers were almost 10 times as likely to have late or no prenatal care — the national rate was 3.6 in 2004, while in Danville the rate was 33. Virginia overall came in at 15 percent, while Pittsylvania County’s rate was 16, and in North Carolina, the rate in 2005 was 15.9, with Caswell County coming in at 17.
Infant mortality rates were similar.
The national average was 6.9 per 1,000 births. In 2005, Virginia’s rate was 7.4, Danville’s 15.4 and Pittsylvania County’s 10.5. In North Carolina, the 2003 rate was 8.2 and Caswell County’s was 8.1.
“There are other parts of the world we don’t want to compare ourselves to with similar (infant mortality rate) numbers,” Karl Stauber, director of the foundation, said Monday.
Stauber said the foundation is studying the report to determine which areas it can “take a leadership role” in improving.
The report listed areas it considers most important to improve, including the area’s increased drug use, as well as the perception that health care is inaccessible and the need for everyone to make healthy lifestyle changes.
Stauber said the foundation will know in a month or two which areas it will be able to tackle directly, in partnership with local health organizations.
“We want to see more conversation in the community (about health issues),” he said. “We will also remain open to grant requests that cut across all concerns.”

Insult to injury...(or, "You can't make this stuff up")

2008-04-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to post to the blog anymore...now that I don't work there, I'd like to close that chapter and move on. But my good friends at DRMC just did something that I have to share with you.

I came home today from working on getting a new job. I go to the mailbox and there is my final paycheck. But it wasn't the check that made me laugh at the sick irony...

It was the other envelope from DRMC...the one from Human Resources...

The one that started "Dear Valued Associate"...the one that was dated 10 days after they told me they didn't need me anymore.

Yes, they were asking this "Valued Associate" if I would take a few minutes to complete the employee satisfaction survey.

They assured me that they would be able to use the results to measure my "views of the work place, supervision, morale and other key quality and satisfaction indicators."

Well, I guess I should say thanks for caring enough to ask me for my opinion. I sure hope the survey has comment boxes.

But...I wonder if I have to be present to win the drawing for the big screen TV.

Breathe in, breathe out, move on...

2008-04-03T19:24:00.000-05:00

Well, after more years than I care to count, LPNT informed me on Monday that my services are no longer needed.

It's been a good ride....I've worked with some great people who really care about their job, their community, and the patients they serve. To those who have moved on, I wish you the best. To those that are still at DRMC, I wish you the strength to keep working for the patients and their families (you know, neighbor to neighbor).

It's really hard not to write cynical thoughts here about LPNT. But I know that my manager and my co-workers will continue to strive to do their best. I hope that the community stays tuned to what is going on at the hospital and continues to ask the hard questions. Even though someone else owns it, it is still "our" hospital. Those who call the shots in Brentwood will never seek care here so, in my opinion, their vested interest in the place are purely financial (yes, I know that is obvious...so those who are going to type comments just to say "duh", please save the trouble). My hope is that the outlook of the place will eventually change. Keep your fingers crossed on that one.

Thanks to everyone who has posted on this board, and thanks to those who just stopped by to read what's happening. Some posts have been a waste of pixels, but I believe that dialogue took place here that would not have happened otherwise.

I want to go on record again and commend Delegate Danny Marshall for sponsoring the bill about non-profit sales that became law. That effort proves to me that this whole debacle was not just in the imagination of a few. It was a serious event that other communities can learn from.

So, I bid you farewell, adieu, auf wiedersehen, and adios. I'll leave you with some words from that great prophet, Jackson Browne:

"I want to know what became of the changes we waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams of some greater awakening
I've been aware of the time going by, they say in the end it's the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
You'll get up and do it again.
Amen."

Peace,
Sentinel Event

HB1037 passes the Senate

2008-03-04T21:46:00.000-05:00

HB1037 passes the Senate on a vote of 40-0.

Good job, Danny.

http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb1037

"Hospital not skipping a beat"

2008-03-02T20:33:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Five years ago this month, Danville Regional Medical Center was proud to announce the first open-heart surgery at the recently completed Heart Center of the Piedmont - a $9 million surgical facility operated jointly with the Duke Private Diagnostic Clinic.About 600 procedures have been completed since then. But last summer, it was clear that patient load was dropping and quality of care was being questioned, and it seemed that Duke wasn’t so sure it wanted its name on the door anymore.Upon the recent completion of a comprehensive assessment, Duke Heart Center faculty and staff and LifePoint Hospitals Inc., Danville Regional’s parent company, agreed that the collaboration was successful and beneficial to both entities and will continue through 2010.“Duke Heart Center faculty will continue to provide uninterrupted, on-site cardiovascular surgical services and on-call coverage for the residents of Danville and the Dan River Region,” said Dr. Peter Smith, chief of cardiac thoracic surgery at Duke University Medical Center.Jerel Humphrey, the new president and chief executive officer of Danville Regional, seems pleased with the decision.“It’s a win-win-win,” he said, “for the hospital, for Duke and the community.”
Uncertainty about the futureA number of factors over the past few years called continuation of the program into question, including administrative changes and community perceptions of the hospital.In 2005, LifePoint Hospitals Inc. bought Danville Regional, bringing a series of operational shifts.“The hospital historically (had) been run as a nonprofit organization,” Dr. Syed Ahmed, a cardiologist who has been with the hospital for 25 years, said. “Suddenly, it became for-profit and changes were brought into the system.“Some of the changes were shocking, but inevitable, (and) some of the problems we saw were inherent to changes taking place on a larger scale - ownership, a different corporate structure, different psychology.”Issues with the cardiovascular surgical program were “something between the administration of Danville Regional and the (administration at Duke)…and the contractual agreement they had,” Ahmed said, noting the issues had nothing to do with the physicians.“…Problems with the sale of the hospital and administrative changes” also may have contributed to community attitudes about Danville Regional, Ahmed said, which in turn partially contributed to lower patient volumes in the cardiovascular surgery program, as well as in the hospital overall.Another possible cause of lower numbers of cardiovascular surgical patients was a study published in June by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the Health Human Services, that ranked Danville as one of the seven worst hospitals for heart attack mortality rates. Although that study did not concern the cardiovascular surgery program, cardiologist Dr. Bosh Zakhary said in August that it influenced the community.That same month, Dr. Lee McCann, Duke’s cardiothoracic surgeon responsible for all surgical procedures at the Heart Center, announced his resignation citing low patient volume and financial troubles.The “service line assessment” of the program was announced at the same time.
All clear“The good news is that they were very positive with what they found and wanted to continue,” Humphrey said. “Their assessment to me is an independent seal of approval of where the hospital is … they don’t associate with programs that aren’t high quality.”Humphrey acknowledged that canceling the program was an option as Duke was “evaluating the status of the relationship.”Duke wants to “restore the hospital to its position as a trusted provider,” Smith said.“It’s been a problem,” he said. “The community deserves first class hospital-based care and that’s our objective. … Duke and Duke physicians have taken care of citizens in (the) county forever. We have a vested interest in the health of your community members.“We are very interested in maintaining that and improving it.”Last week, officials were still putting finishing touches on the agreement between Duke and LifePoint.“We’re still negotiating and working with LifePoint to establish a relationship that is going to enhance the hospital’s reputation and ability to deliver health care,” Smith said. “…This is a joint venture. Duke can’t do it alone; LifePoint has to show they’re committing.”Smith, however, is confident that the relationship will last.“Each step we take, and this is the first one, is an indication that Duke believes we can establish the conditions for success,” he said.
The staffDr. Richard Embry, a “very experienced cardiothoracic surgeon,” currently in Springfield, Ill., is expected to be the permanent cardiothoracic surgeon with the program, Smith said.Embry will operate full time in Danville, though technically will be an employee of Duke.“I think he’s going to be a very good addition to the community,” Ahmed said. “He should be able to carry the cardiovascular surgical program forward.”In addition to Embry, Duke and LifePoint are actively recruiting a permanent cardiovascular surgeon to add to the team.After McCann’s departure at the end of this month, Humphrey said Duke will be rotating and sending surgeons on an “as needed basis” for interim support, which he expects to last about two months.“Continuation of the program is key,” Humphrey said. “No interruptions.”Smith said 13 Duke faculty members also will be present to help with surgeries, evaluate and perform physician activities.Danville Regional has six full-time cardiologists on its staff as well. Optimism abounds“Stay tuned,” Humphrey said about advances in the program.“Duke is going to continue to be the provider of cardiac surgery service and we’ve established conditions to provide the same level of care (that one gets) at Duke,” Smith said. “LifePoint has made a commitment to enhance cardiovascular services in general … a critical fist step to overall improvement to the community’s hospitals.”Ahmed sees hope in improving the image of the hospital with the community. “Mr. Humphrey is taking a proactive role in terms of restoring the confidence of the general public,” Ahmed said. “And certainly the re-establishment of the relationship with Duke is going to have a positive impact in terms of cardiovascular programs in particular and the hospital in general.”

Lab update?

2008-02-21T10:17:00.000-05:00

It's been a month since I posted the information from "danvillenewsandviews" regarding the status of the lab.
http://danvillenewsandviews.com/index.php/site/ask_drmc/is_drmc_closing_its_laboratory/

So, what is the latest word on the lab? How is the review process going and what impact will it have on lab staff, hospital services and patients/customers?

LPNT trading at lowest stock price since Oct 2003

2008-02-21T10:10:00.001-05:00

From answers.com. Note that this article was written on Feb 9. Today, LPNT is trading at $24.69.

The full article is at:
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?dsid=2541&dekey=1&company_name=Lifepoint+Hospitals+Inc&id={CD5A6322-2A28-4D6A-A312-5EFD544AC446}

Sector Snap: Hospital operators

NEW YORK, Feb 09, 2008 (AP via COMTEX) -- Shares of health care facility operators fell Friday, with LifePoint Hospitals Inc. nearing a four-year low after the company reported a 20 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit, missing Wall Street expectations.
LifePoint said higher operating costs and bad debt reserves pushed its fourth-quarter profit down, while its quarterly sales rose 5 percent but missed analysts' estimates. Admissions fell 4.2 percent in the quarter to 47,990 from 50,119, while bad debt reserves grew to $81.1 million from $66.9 million a year ago.
...
Lifepoint's stock fell $2.17, or 8 percent, to $24.87, having dropped to a low of $24.77 earlier in the day, its cheapest price since October 2003.

"Heart doctor to join council "

2008-02-20T17:33:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

A local cardiologist beat out a former Danville City Council member and five others to fill the seat vacated by Dr. Wayne Williams.

Dr. Gary Miller, a cardiologist with Cardiology Consultants of Danville Inc., was appointed to council during Tuesday’s regular meeting. Williams, an ear, nose and throat doctor, resigned at the end of last year after accepting a job in Georgia.

Miller, who regularly attends the council meetings, expressed his surprise at the announcement and said he was already beginning to collect signatures on petitions so he could run in the May election.

“I didn’t run for the position because I was opposed to what council has been doing,” he said. “I think the direction of this council, especially in the last couple of years, has been magnificent.”

Miller pointed particularly to the number of new jobs that have come to Danville recently, and said he hoped to be able to help council with its goals.

Miller beat out former councilmember Albert “Buddy” Rawley Jr., as well as candidates David Robertson, Fred Shanks III, George Supensky, Martha Lopez Coleman and Frank Kyles. They all have until March 4 to file to run in the May election.

Councilman Adam Tomer made the resolution to appoint Miller, and it was seconded by Councilwoman Ruby Archie.

“Though I disagreed with the process at first - I thought we should have a special election - I just want to say this was handled professionally and we had a good open dialogue,” Tomer said. “Everyone should be proud of the resolution put forth here.”

Councilman E. Stokes Daniels Jr. said he supported Miller’s appointment “100 percent.”

“I thought this (appointment) would be very good for this council,” Daniels said. “All who participated did a very good job and all of them were well-qualified.”

Miller will be sworn in at the March 4 council meeting.

...

The next Danville City Council meeting is scheduled for March 4, but there will be a joint Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors/Danville City Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

"Taking shape"

2008-02-16T11:14:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee - editorial
Sunday, February 17, 2008

Karl Stauber called this week’s $2 million grant to help bring Com.40 Ltd. to the city “pretty unusual” for the Danville Regional Foundation.
Stauber, the president and CEO of the foundation started with the $200 million profit from the sale of Danville Regional Medical Center, recently concluded his first six months in Danville.
Com.40 Ltd., a Polish maker of mattresses and upholstered furniture, will hire 813 people over seven years, making it the largest single manufacturing job announcement in the Dan River Region in the past four years.
“The Danville region needs success stories,” Stauber said this week. “We’re looking for opportunities that build legitimate hope.”
Stauber believes Com.40 offers laid off tobacco and textile workers a chance to move into living wage jobs that will help “stabilize the employment base in the community.”
But the core mission of the Danville Regional Foundation is advancing the health, welfare and education of local residents, not being a source of money to close economic development deals.
“I don’t imagine that we’re going to do too many Com.40s,” Stauber said.
But two other projects recently supported by the Regional Foundation better define the types of projects it will support in the future.
The first is two grants totaling $1.5 million over five years to the Free Clinic of Danville. The money will help the clinic treat more patients and put it in a better financial position.
Helping the Free Clinic is not only directly tied to the Regional Foundation’s core function of advancing health care, but it made sense because of the tobacco and textile company layoffs that led thousands of people here to lose their health care coverage.
The Free Clinic grants seem obvious, but people would say the same thing about the BEST Coalition if they knew how much money the working poor were walking away from.
Low-income workers are eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, but because so many of them don’t take the credit, the United Way of Danville-Pittsylvania County, Pittsylvania County Community Action, the Virginia Legal Aid Society and the Caswell County, N.C., Senior Center formed the “Building Economic Success Together” Coalition to get more local people to take this credit.
“A lot of these folks don’t even file taxes,” Stauber said, adding that 80 percent of the money people receive from the EITC flows through the local economy.
Stauber believes getting people to take a federal tax credit they’re already entitled to is tied to the larger issue of financial literacy - teaching the working poor how to get the best deals on everything from mortgages and car loans to insurance.
Those kinds of things can lead to real changes in the lives of a great many people - and long-term change is the Danville Regional Foundation’s business.
The Danville Regional Foundation’s recent grants have started to define this critical local organization. The news so far is good.

HB 1037 passes the House....headed to the Senate.

2008-02-13T11:26:00.000-05:00

http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb1037
The bill passed the House, 97-1.

"Too late, on time"

2008-02-06T10:56:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee - Editorial
Wednesday, February 6, 2008

How many local people are still angry that Danville Regional Medical Center was sold in 2005?
Both the hospital’s buyer, LifePoint Hospitals Inc., and the Danville Regional Foundation, the group formed to distribute the profits from the sale, want to move on. But moving on doesn’t make much sense unless some lessons can be learned and some changes made.
This year, Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, is trying to do just that with a bill that would force the process of selling a nonprofit hospital into the light of day.
Marshall’s bill would mandate a public process, unlike the behind-closed-doors sale of Danville Regional that created so much ill will.
“It lets the people know there will be a public hearing,” Marshall said of his bill. That public hearing would take place at least six months before a hospital sale, and the public would have to be told about proposed staffing changes and be presented with “a business plan explaining how the sale or conversion will affect the community.”
A separate provision that would prevent a nonprofit hospital’s directors from serving “on a newly established private foundation’s board of directors” was taken out of the bill and will have to be introduced next year.
Marshall’s bill can’t change what happened to Danville Regional, and it doesn’t put the brakes on future sales of nonprofit hospitals. But it does drag the process into the light of day, and it could help in a lot of future situations. Virginia is home to approximately 100 acute care hospitals, and 75 to 80 percent of them are nonprofit, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, which supports Marshall’s bill.
“We worked with Delegate Marshall to come up with this language,” Katharine M. Webb, senior vice president of the association, said of the bill. It passed the House of Delegates 97-1 and has already been referred to the Senate Courts of Justice committee.
If Marshall is a couple of years late with the hospital sale bill, he’s a couple of months ahead with a bill that could make it easier for Danville City Council to eventually eliminate the treasurer’s office.
This has become an important issue locally because the last elected treasurer, Lynda McDowell, was indicted on criminal charges. She resigned her office and pleaded guilty. Today, Danville has an interim treasurer and City Council is considering eliminating the treasurer’s office entirely.
A quirk in state law could drag the process out so long that a new treasurer could be elected in 2009 - before Danville’s voters get a chance to answer the larger, more important question. But Marshall’s bill could put the fate of the treasurer’s office on the November ballot if City Council decides to move in that direction.
These two bills remind us experience is a tough teacher, leaving us to try to speed up some things while slowing others down.

"Danville delegate looks to restrict hospital sales"

2008-02-01T10:56:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Friday, February 1, 2008

RICHMOND - When Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, crafted his legislation setting up some rules for sales of non-profit hospitals, he was hoping to save other communities from the upheaval Danville faced when its only hospital changed hands in 2005.
“This will not help Danville one bit - the horse is out of the barn, so to speak,” Marshall said Wednesday, adding that everything the hospital foundation board did was legal when Lifepoint Hospitals Inc. purchased Danville Regional Medical Center in July 2005.
Marshall said his main question then, and now, is, “Who owns a not-for-profit hospital? My mother-in-law worked at Dan River Mills for the majority of her life, along with thousands of other people. She told me that they did a payroll deduction there (that was) given to the hospital to start (it) and also to expand the hospital.
“The hospital, in my opinion, was owned by the public. The public should at least have notice the hospital’s going to be sold.”
The delegate’s original bill called for a public hearing at least six months prior to such a sale or before the conversion from non-profit to profit in order to let the public know if there would be any changes in staffing at the hospital and present a business plan to explain how the change would affect the community.
The bill also states that if a private foundation is set up in connection with the new for-profit hospital, that no previous member of the non-profit’s hospital board of directors could serve on the foundation’s board.
But when the bill went before the Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee this week, changes were made that reduced the amount of notice the public should get - now the bill states the public hearing should be held only 40 days before the sale - and the rule about who sits on the board was completely deleted.
The bill passed unanimously in committee is now on the House floor.
Marshall said the changes were necessary to ensure the bill passed, and that preventing members of a hospital’s board from sitting on any future foundation formed from the proceeds is “another bill for another day.”
He said it is crucial, especially in a one-hospital city like Danville, that the public be aware of such deals before they are finalized.
“It’s a lot different than if you have a not-for-profit hospital in a city like Richmond,” Marshall said. “If you don’t like the hospital down the street, you’ve got three more to go to. You don’t have that situation in a one-hospital town.”
Marshall acknowledged that there are still several people in Danville that are angry about the hospital’s sale and have expressed displeasure about the level of care at Danville Regional, preferring instead to go out of town whenever possible for hospital care.
“I hope they get the hospital fixed,” Marshall said. “If you go to those (out-of-town) hospitals and you are out-of-network, it costs a lot of money.”

Bravo!

2008-02-01T10:55:00.000-05:00

Danville Free Clinic awarded $1.4 mil.
Danville Register and Bee
Friday, February 1, 2008
The Danville Regional Foundation has announced this morning it will award a grant of $1.4 million to the Free Clinic of Danville.
The money will allow the clinic to hire a full-time nurse practitioner, a full-time executive director and a full-time clinical director, as well as get the resources they need to develop a long-range strategic and business plan.

The Danville Regional Foundation holds the money made from the sale of Danville Regional Medical Center in 2005.

"Trust but verify"

2008-01-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

Earning our trust
Danville Register and Bee editorial
January 25, 2008

Ronald Reagan liked to repeat the Russian proverb, “Trust but verify,” to describe his position on relations with the Soviet Union. Reagan could even say it in Russian.
That old proverb certainly applies to Jerel Humphrey, the latest CEO of Danville Regional Medical Center. We want to trust that Humphrey will work to make the hospital better, but we need to keep a careful watch on what happens, not what’s said.
“In the past, we haven’t done things (openly), and there is a healthy amount of skepticism, so (it) will take time to build trust,” Humphrey said recently. “That is my overall theme, and that takes time.”
After 90 days on the job, Humphrey has taken one step his immediate predecessor never did: He moved to Danville and bought a house.
The fact that such a minor matter like the hospital’s CEO moving to Danville is one indication of how strained relations are between the community and Danville Regional Medical Center and its corporate parent, LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
While LifePoint had no role in the controversial sale of Danville Regional in July 2005, the Tennessee-based company bears responsibility for what has happened since then.
To win back community support, Humphrey will have to continue to work with the Healthcare Leadership Council, the group set up to provide communication between the hospital and the community. Its members have been appointed by the local governments in Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C. - Danville Regional’s core market.
The hospital will have to avoid embarrassments like the preliminary denial of accreditation that dogged the last CEO. Danville Regional will have to win the hearts, minds and support of doctors, nurses and patients.
In his first 90 days, Humphrey has overseen a transition in the hospital’s food service and selected a local firm for the hospital’s copier contract. Humphrey said Danville Regional may offer all private rooms, the Heart Center of the Piedmont will continue to be affiliated with Duke University Medical Center and Danville Regional has hired a nurse recruiter.
“I challenge people to not say ‘LifePoint’ but to say ‘Danville Regional Medical Center,’” Humphrey said. “Think of this as the community’s hospital and not LifePoint. The issue I’m trying to put in front is that we are making decisions locally.”
It’s all right to trust Danville Regional’s new CEO, but the community has to closely watch what happens there. A strong local hospital is too important to leave to chance.

"Is DRMC closing its laboratory?"

2008-01-21T11:41:00.000-05:00

(from danvillenewsandviews.com)

"DRMC is not closing its lab. It is a requisite for Joint Commission accreditation and state licensure that all hospitals maintain a laboratory for its patients.
To clarify, there are several separate components to the hospital’s laboratory program. DRMC currently operates a main laboratory that services in-patients, out-patients and reference testing for physician office collected specimens and employment related testing for businesses. The reference lab portion of the lab is the most competitive and has experienced declining volumes in recent years.
The ultimate goal is to maintain the in-house DRMC laboratory that is providing all of the needed services for the hospital’s in-patients, as well as out-patients. At the same time we want to assure the continued provision of reference laboratory services for physician offices in the most cost effective and efficient manner possible.
DRMC is currently going through a review process involving physicians and administrators. The hospital is constantly looking at all aspects of services it provides and will continue to do so. We are a quality health care provider first and foremost; however, we also have a fiscal responsibility to provide quality health care in the most cost effective manner for the patients who expect that. "

"Board chairman says it's time to move past '05 sale"

2008-01-20T18:39:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Sunday, January 20, 2008

Good days are ahead for Danville Regional Medical Center, especially with the hiring of CEO Jerel Humphrey, according to the new chairman of the hospital’s Board of Trustees.
“I feel very satisfied that Jerel Humphrey is the right person to be CEO at this point,” said Dr. Frank Campbell, who presided as chairman for the first time Monday. “He has already brought his family here and bought a house.”
Campbell, who replaces chairwoman Betty Jo Foster, is ready to put the problems surrounding the sale of Danville Regional to LifePoint Hospitals Inc. in 2005 behind the board and hopes the community will do the same.
“An important point is that LifePoint realizes they made numerous mistakes in the early months, and they are working hard to correct them,” Campbell said. “The local people should not see any difference in the hospital, regardless of who owns it. That is the goal of the board.
“If we can ever get to the point where people’s memories forget 2005, we’ll be the same as before the sale.”
Campbell said that every member of the board right now believes in the hospital and knows Danville needs it.
The function of the board members has not changed since the hospital was sold, he said.
“We deal with the same issues,” Campbell said. “Although the financial decisions are made by the CEO, we have access to all the numbers. Nothing has changed but the ownership.”
He said that the problems the Emergency Department faces in lengthy wait times isn’t a situation unique to the Danville hospital.
“The emergency room waiting times are bad all over,” Campbell said. “The truth is that our emergency room is not as good as some, but it is better than most.
“We are near the top in Virginia to get them in, get them processed and get them where they want to be.”
For the future, Campbell said the board seeks to restore confidence in the hospital.
“What we need to do is restore the pride and confidence of the people in this community in the hospital - it’s their hospital,” he said. “We also have to restore the confidence the medical community has in the hospital, especially the doctors.
“The board will continue to respect the doctors, and we want them to feel good about the hospital where they practice.
“But we’ve got to be consistent,” Campbell said. “The LifePoint executives and executives in the hospital can’t promise something and (not do it.)”
He has a personal stake in the success of the hospital.
Campbell and his wife, Janet, have chosen to retire in Danville, so he said he is committed to making the hospital the best it is.

Campbell explained what the Board of Trustees does:
• Hospital has to have one to be approved by the Joint Commission.
• Board hears reports about doctors; since the trustees
are the only people who can credential physicians to work
in the hospital. It deals with discipline problems.
• Sees the financial documents the same way as before.
• Every function the board had in 2005 before the sale, it still has today.

Members of the Board of Trustees:
• Dr. Frank R. Campbell, Chair
• Rev. Charles Breindel
• Timothy W. Brotherton, Ph.D., M.D.
• Michael A. Caplan, M.D.
• George B. Daniel
• Jerel T. Humphrey
• Janet Laughlin, Ph.D.
• Thomas M. Oates, Jr., M.D.
• Mukesh B. Patel, M.D.
• Larry S. Patterson
• Richard A. Smith, M.D.

"Hospital CEO: 'Trust me'"

2008-01-20T18:38:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Sitting in his office with almost 90 days under his belt as CEO of the hospital, Jerel Humphrey said the theme for his leadership is building trust, even though he knows it will take time for the community to trust Danville Regional Medical Center again.
Humphrey said he hopes he has taken that first step by buying a home in Danville.
“Wherever I go to speak to any group, I tell them that I’ve bought a house, and they all clap,” Humphrey said with a laugh.
Former hospital CEO Art Doloresco never moved to Danville, which became a source of irritation to the community.
Humphrey cited the recent changes in the dietary contract as the perfect example of how he wants to build trust by the way he does business.
“We have had a contract with Aramark for 30 years for our dietary department, but we recently moved them to a contract with Danville Regional,” he said. “We offered a job to any employee who wanted and qualified for one. We made them ‘whole’ from Aramark to Danville Regional as far as tenure and salary.
“We went to the employees and explained to them that they would be fairly dealt with, and then that’s what we did. We kept them informed.
“It is a concrete example of how we will do business in the future.”
Humphrey cited another example of “walking the walk” and not just “talking the talk.”
“We signed a $600,000 copier contract with a local company rather than going national,” he said. “We can’t always go local, but we will try.
“I don’t know how to do it any other way but to be up front.”
Humphrey said what has gone on at Danville Regional has been “unprecedented” and cited a void of leadership, but said that the feedback he has gotten shows the hospital is making progress.
“Becky Logan has been hired as the new chief nursing officer, but she has only been here a little longer than I have,” Humphrey said. “Mark Anderson has just started as the chief financial officer, and we are close to bringing on a chief operating officer.
“So we are still putting our team together and putting the pieces together.”
He is optimistic about the condition of the hospital, however.
“There are good things going on,” Humphrey said. “With more than 1,000 employees, we are the third largest employer in the (area) behind Goodyear and Pittsylvania County Schools.
“Our salary and wages in 2006 were more than $60 million.”
Plus, he said, the family is enjoying Danville.
Humphrey and his wife have bought a home in Pinetag, and the couple’s youngest daughter Rachel is a junior in high school and will be attending Tunstall High School.
“We clearly understood that the administration needed to live here,” Humphrey said. “Rachel’s been a real pro about moving when she’s a junior in high school. She’s a very independent girl.”
The CEO said he has made three overall observations since he has been in Danville.
“The people in Danville are open and friendly,” Humphrey said, “there is a great future with all the economic development initiatives, and nobody knows how to merge.”
But, joking aside, Humphrey said changes are being made at the hospital that he hopes will change the community’s perception, although he readily admits that those changes will take time.
He challenged the community to change their communication a little also.
“I challenge people to not say ‘Lifepoint’ but to say ‘Danville Regional Medical Center,’” he said. “Think of this as the community’s hospital and not Lifepoint (the hospital’s owner). The issue I’m trying to put in front is that we are making decisions locally.”
He likened the hospital to a Charlie Brown metaphor in which Lucy promises to hold the football for Charlie to kick and then always pulls it out at the last minute.
“In the past, we haven’t done things (openly), and there is a healthy amount of skepticism, so (it) will take time to build trust,” Humphrey said. “That is my overall theme, and that takes time.”

"Emergency Department undergoes many changes"

2008-01-20T18:37:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Sunday, January 20, 2008

Danville Regional Medical Center is making changes to reduce the wait times at the Emergency Department with the arrival of the hospital’s new CEO.
Jerel Humphrey pointed to the Direct Admit program that Becky Logan, the new chief nursing officer, has put into place.
“For example, if a patient in a nursing home has a broken hip, that patient can bypass the ED and be admitted,” Humphrey explained.
“If there is a physician already in the loop who knows the patient needs hospitalization, then we can get the medical crisis in without going through the ED.
“It’s in place now, but it’s too early to tell the impact. It’s just been within the last two weeks.”
Humphrey said the hospital also is improving the organizational structure of the Emergency Department, such as revamping the charge nurse responsibilities, to making sure there is more leadership on each shift.
The administration had hoped that opening up a primary care facility, Urgent Care, across from the hospital would divert a good deal of the non-emergency patients from the Emergency Department, but that hasn’t happened yet, Humphrey said.
“Patients are (still) using the emergency room for primary care,” he said. “Urgent Care has helped a little, but not to the extent we had wanted, and we don’t know why. We are looking into
why people aren’t taking advantage of it.”
Humphrey admits that one problem in the Emergency Department is communicating with the patients about wait times, but said the hospital hasn’t yet figured out how to do that.
“Sometimes we fall short of a patient expectation,” he said, “however, each patient and/or family member concern is reviewed when brought to our attention.”
If a person has been sitting in the Emergency Department waiting for a while and becomes sicker, the change in symptoms should be reported to the triage nurse to be reassessed, Humphrey said.
The size of the Emergency Department also is being evaluated.
“We saw more than 46,000 patients in the ED last year,” Humphrey said. “We may be undersized, and as we move forward with strategic planning, we will have to take the ED into account.”
Contact Susan Elzey at selzey@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7991.
Emergency Department statistics:
• Number of patients seen in the emergency room in 2006 is 40,227 with an average length of stay at five hours and 12 minutes.
• In 2007, the emergency room saw 40,601 patients with the average length of stay four hours and 37 minutes.
(Length of stay is the average of all visits for the acute Emergency Department and Fast Track.)
• Urgent Care is open 40 hours per week. Currently, 80 patients per week are seen there.
Other changes throughout the hospital are in the works:
• “We are looking at making the hospital all private rooms,” Humphrey said. “We are opening up floors that have been vacated because of the new facilities. We are going to go to a more private room concept.”
He said the two new floors that have recently been opened up in the Landon Wyatt Tower are remaining busy.
• “We also have not shut down the open-heart program, and we haven’t closed the loop completely on how we are going to continue with Dr. Lee McCann leaving and with Duke,” he said. “The key thing is that our open-heart program continues with no disruption of clinical care.”
McCann, the medical director of the hospital’s Heart Center of the Piedmont, announced in August that he was leaving to accept a position in Utah.
“The key thing is that we are going to continue, and we will have details on how we will continue, and it will be with Duke,” he said.
• “We’ve also done a lot better job in recruiting nurses in the past three months than the 18 months before,” he said. “We have brought on a nurse recruiter from Moses-Cone in Greensboro, N.C., who graduated from our nursing program.
“She will start in a week or so. She will just focus on and tell nurses in other communities about us.”
• Although the hospital is not fully staffed, he said no hospital is ever fully staffed but constantly has an ebb and flow.

"Panel: Hospital wait times still lag"

2008-01-15T09:03:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Monday, January 14, 2008

With a statement of its vision in place, the Healthcare Leadership Council met last week and began to tackle the thorny hospital issue of emergency room wait times at Danville Regional Medical Center.
“While statistics show there recently has been more than a 30 (percent) reduction in wait times, the council challenged the hospital that the wait time from the time a patient reaches the ED until he or she is in a bed still needs improvement,” Council Chairman Don Nodtvedt stated in a news release issued Friday. “The hospital agreed they will continue to address the process changes necessary to reduce the wait time. Additionally, there was agreement that communication with the emergency waiting room patients should be improved.”
The council, formed as part of an effort to improve communication between Danville Regional and the community, also viewed a presentation that reported satisfaction survey results in pools of patients, doctors and associates.
“The hospital is currently sharing these results within its organization, recognizing that while for the most part, they have been improving, there is more work to be done in all three survey pools,” Nodtvedt said.
He explained that three areas have been surveyed either in six- or 12-month intervals by an independent research group, allowing the council to see the trends and results.
The council divides each meeting into at least four topic areas, Nodtvedt said.
“We are developing the council’s vision, mission, and goals,” he said. “We have completed the vision and are working on the mission and goals. We must know what the future should look like, where we are going and how we know when we get there.”
Other topics include issues that have surfaced to council members in the past month that develop a pattern of concern.
“This month it was the emergency department,” he said. “We follow on the progress each subsequent month to ensure closure. Then each month the hospital reports to us on their progress - or lack thereof - in areas of our choice. This month it was satisfaction results of patients, doctors and associates, and the previous month it was the intensive care unit.”
Finally, he said, each council member may submit requests for agenda items.
Jess Judy, a division president for LifePoint Hospitals Inc., is a council member and hospital CEO Jerel Humphrey attends every council meeting, Nodtvedt said, noting that other members of the hospital attend the meetings depending on the agenda.
Nodtvedt said it is still too early to evaluate the progress of the council, but said he is pleased with Humphrey’s commitment.
“At the same time, recognizing that the council has no authority other than political influence, I would like to see faster progress,” Nodtvedt said. “This is the consensus of the council as well. We still need to finish our mission and specifically our goals to see if, in fact, we are making a difference.
“The issues are complex and large, so I do not expect this to be resolved quickly either. I do believe the hospital wants to make changes for the better; they just have to do it.
“Most are process changes, which do take time. Many issues started well before the sale, got worse, and now must be fixed - a tough nut - but I do believe Jerel is up to it.”
Nodtvedt said the changes must not be simply lip service, noting that the council is working hard to ensure that through such means as requesting independent survey results, which he said the hospital had initiated before the request.
The council is the successor to the Citizens Commission, a seven-member body that was appointed last year by Wayne Williams, then a doctor and the mayor of Danville, to address complaints about Danville Regional.
The next meeting of the council is scheduled for mid-February.

Fast facts
Number of patients seen in the Emergency Department for 2007: 40,600
Current wait time in Emergency Department : 4.25 hours
National Emergency Department wait time: 3.12 hours (according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
Source: Danville Regional Medical Center

"Healthcare Leadership Council tackles emergency room"

2008-01-14T09:31:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Monday, January 14, 2008

The Healthcare Leadership Council met last week to discuss issues concerning the emergency room at Danville Regional Medical Center, according to a release by council chairman Don Nodtvedt.
The mission of the council is to provide communication between Danville Regional Medical Center and the community.
Nodtvedt reported that although statistics show a recent reduction of 30 percent in wait times at the emergency room, the council challenged the hospital that improvement is still needed.
The hospital agreed to address the changes necessary to reduce the wait time and that communication with emergency waiting room patients needs improvement.
Hospital representatives shared a presentation on the satisfaction survey results of patients, doctors and associates. Although the results have shown improvement, the hospital agreed there is more work to be done in all three survey pools.
The council commended the hospital on its honesty.
The next meeting is scheduled for mid-February.

HB1037

2008-01-09T13:07:00.000-05:00

This one should be of particular interest to readers of this blog. Contact your legislators and give them your feedback on Danny Marshall's bill.

HB1037: Sale or conversion of nonprofit hospitals; public hearing.
§ 32.1-127.4. Certain hospital conversions.
A. The administrator or owner of any nonprofit hospital that is entering into a contract for sale of the hospital to a for-profit entity or planning to restructure to convert such nonprofit hospital to a for-profit hospital, at least six months prior to the execution of a contract for sale or the filing of the articles of incorporation as a for-profit corporation, shall hold a public hearing in the locality where the hospital is located and present the following: (i) any changes to be made in the staffing of the hospital and (ii) a business plan explaining how the sale or conversion will affect the community.
B. If, following the conversion of such nonprofit hospital, a private foundation is established in connection with the for-profit hospital, no previous member of the nonprofit hospital board of directors shall serve on such foundation's board of directors.

http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb1037/fulltext/

2008

2008-01-08T16:29:00.000-05:00

Sorry that postings have been down over the past month or so...I've been looking for pertinent news to report and there's been a bit of a drought. Not much coming from the R&B, not much from the Healthcare Leadership Council, and only an ad campaign from DRMC that doesn't really address what the real community issues with LPNT are all about...

But, anyway...it's a new year and hopefully there will be some things to talk about. One interesting news item was this from WAKG:

"Danville delegate Danny Marshall doesn't want any more surprises when non-profit hospitals are sold. He's introducing a bill that would require public hearings before not-for-profit hospitals are sold to for-profit companies. That was not the case in 2005 when Lifepoint purchased Danville Regional Medical Center. Marshall says the public was not aware of the deal until Danville Regional had been sold. He says many people, like his mother-in-law, had a vested interest in the local facility. She worked at Dan River Mills for years and gave part of her payroll to support DRMC. Marshall says any public hearing on the sale of a hospital would have to be held before the local governing body. Another bill from Marshall would prevent members of a hospital's board of directors from serving on any subsequent foundation formed through proceeds realized through the sale of that hospital." (WAKG - Jan 8, 2008)

Hmmm....call me crazy, but it appears that many of us who have been posting on this board that this whole deal went down inappropriately might be on to something.

Anyway, the legislation is three years too late to help Danville, but hopefully Marshall's bill will draw attention to the issues and prevent them from happening again.

You can track Danny's legislation at http://www.richmondsunlight.com/legislator/dwmarshall/

Just as an aside...at one time it seemed as though the state attorney general had taken an interest in what was happening with the DRMC deal. Whatever happened with that?

Healthcare Leadership Council meets

2007-12-13T18:29:00.000-05:00

Healthcare Leadership Council met last night...issued the following press release. Seen any thought-provoking coverage in the local media?

>>>>>
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Healthcare Leadership Council meets, establishes its Vision and receives report on ICU Staffing from DRMC

Danville, VA, December 12, 2007 -- Chairman Don Nodtvedt stated: “The primary objective of the meeting was accomplished as we established the council’s simple yet critical vision:

It is the vision of the Healthcare Leadership Council to strengthen the trust and restore the confidence of the community in DRMC.

Subsequent Mission and Objective setting are planned for the January meeting.

The council also received a presentation from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of DRMC. Among other relevant points, the council was apprised of the active recruiting of 6 open positions, currently being covered by 4 agency nurses. This ICU nursing coverage is planned at an hourly contact staffing level which exceeds both the national and regional averages.

The next meeting is scheduled for mid January

"Saving $4"

2007-12-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, December 9, 2007

It’s hard to be mad at Danville Regional Medical Center for trying to buy the cheapest products it can find. Most people do that every time they shop. The trend to buy the cheapest forces all kinds of businesses to work hard to keep their prices low.
The long-term, obvious cost of that low-prices-at-any-cost trend can be seen all over Danville as former Dan River Inc. mill buildings are slowly deconstructed for their bricks and beams. The manufacturing jobs that used to fill those now-empty buildings were shipped overseas. It’s a trend that has affected American workers in all kinds of industries for decades.
The Americans who work at the Hatcher Center, a local sheltered workshop for adults with mental and physical disabilities, are no different.
For the past 15 years, Hatcher Center employees have made hospital gowns for Danville Regional Medical Center. But the hospital is now buying more of its gowns overseas, saving $4 per gown. Orders from the hospital have dropped from 349 per month to 180.
“Representatives of the purchasing department of the hospital came out in September when we increased the price of the gowns and said they couldn’t afford them anymore,” said Chris Wright, executive director of the Hatcher Center. “… They said they would continue to buy them, but not as many.”
In addition to price, the hospital cited a number of new features it wanted for its hospital gowns. In fairness to the hospital, it should be able to buy any kind of gown it wants. In fairness to the Hatcher Center, it could have made the gowns the way the hospital wanted them made - just not at the same price as the overseas suppliers.
“Our wages in the workshop are based on area prevailing wage rates, and we needed to raise the cost just to cover expenses,” Wright said.
It’s been a tough year for Danville Regional Medical Center, and the hospital’s leadership no doubt hates being portrayed as Ebenezer Scrooge on this issue. Danville Regional struggled - but eventually maintained - full accreditation from the Joint Commission, but the time it spent under the cloud of a “preliminary denial of accreditation” hurt its reputation in the community.
The hospital has worked to change its image with its “Healthcare Neighbor to Neighbor” public relations campaign. But the hospital’s owners should know they serve a community that has been devastated by corporate outsourcing and downsizing.
Danville Regional Medical Center could boost its image here by getting the Hatcher Center to continue to make all of its gowns. Danvillians would appreciate that kind of effort, especially in the name of helping out such a good cause.

Q&A - Hospitalists at DRMC

2007-11-11T21:19:00.000-05:00

"Q&A: Doctors talk about Danville Regional's hospitalist program"
Danville Register & Bee Saturday, November 10, 2007

A national trend in hospital care is being expanded at Danville Regional Medical Center. Dr. Fran DeChurch was hired last week to start working at the hospital as the director of the hospitalist program.
Hospitalists are hospital-based doctors who care for patients while they are at the hospital, instead of a patient’s regular doctor. When the patient is released from the hospital, he or she returns to the care of the pre-admission doctor. DeChurch and Dr. Michael Caplan, a local physician who helped develop Danville Regional’shospitalist program, recently shed some light on the role of hospitalists in Danville and throughout the nation.

What is a hospitalist?
Caplan: Hospitalists are fully trained doctors who have completed medical school and residency training and graduated with degrees in internal medicine or family practice. Most, but not all, are young university-trained doctors who have recently completed and are very familiar with hospital-based care. Others are doctors who have been in traditional-based medical practices who decide to change to hospital-based care exclusively. They undergo additional training as hospitalistsoften in coordination with the companies that contract their services to hospitals around the nation.
DeChurch: Hospital medicine has become its own specialty. Programs are developing specifically for hospital medicine, much like geriatric medicine evolved as a specialty.
How many hospitalists does Danville Regional have?
DeChurch: With me, there will be four full-time hospitalists and eight to 10 part-time. We will be recruiting four more full-timehospitalists.
How did hospitalist programs begin? (DeChurch was actually in on the ground floor of hospitalist programs beginning in the U.S.)
DeChurch: When I finished my residency in 1990-91, the government was looking at how many hours interns could work. They saw there were going to be limits on the patient loads and hours on interns coming down the road, and wondered how they were going to handle all those patients.We developed a ‘chief service’ to take care of the unassigned patients. Lo and behold, that was the beginning of the hospitalists, although the term was not coined until the mid-1990s. It’s kind of neat to know I was in on the ground floor.
How did the hospitalist program begin at Danville Regional?
Caplan: The impetus for developing a hospitalist program started in early 2004 when a request was made from the medical staff to the administration of Danville Regional. A special committee was formed to research national hospitalist organizations and recommend companies through which these contract services could be provided. The conversion to a hospitalist-based care plan at the hospital was driven by a national trend that has existed for many years in other hospitals across the country as well as neighboring cities in the region. The hospital implemented its hospitalist program contracted through Em-Care in April of 2006 and has now changed services providers to Cogent. Both of these companies were highly recommended by the initial search committee and medical staff advisors.
What are the benefits of having hospitalists?
Caplan: The Emergency Department likes hospitalists because there is a doctor available in the hospital to see ED patients throughout the day and night. The alternative is to call a doctor out of his home or office practice, which can result in a delay in patient care, longer ER wait times and reduced patient satisfaction. The benefits of a well-run and staffed hospital service is having full-time inpatient care services, less variability in patient care, more timely discharges, improved documentation and more prompt inpatient consultation services. The traditional practice of medicine in this community without a hospitalist service results in some doctors working in excess of 110 hours a week.
Why do doctors become hospitalists?
DeChurch: I enjoy it; it’s a different type of medicine. It is more intense. To be in the hospital anymore, you have to be pretty sick. (A hospitalist) can truly help people.
Caplan: Doctors become hospitalists because they enjoy the challenges and intensity of hospitalized patients. They are highly trained and familiar with this patient type. Becoming a hospitalist removes a doctor from the obligation of running a private practice outside a hospital setting and provides good work hours and an improved lifestyle. The salary is also competitive compared to the traditional medical-based practice. Hospitalists generally work four 12-hour shifts a week or 16 total shifts a month.
How has the hospitalist program been accepted by the staff and patients at Danville Regional?
Caplan: The program has been accepted by most, but not all of the medical staff. (But) this is the trend throughout the country and not unique to Danville Regional. There are many doctors who use or want to use the hospital service as it grows to accommodate their hospitalized patients. These physicians are under personal, lifestyle, financial and practice pressure to focus their time to either hospital inpatient or clinical outpatient care but not both. (Caplan said patients initially had a reluctance to see a hospitalist, which he does not think is unusual because they have grown accustomed to the traditional care of seeing the same doctor inside and outside the hospital setting.) Sometimes the reluctance has come from a lack of understanding of what a hospitalist is or what role a hospitalist plays in the delivery of health care in coordination with their private doctor. Patients, however, come to realize that they still get good care, have access to specialists and stay only three to four days in the hospital with an average admission before being discharged. They also come to realize that they have much greater access to their private doctors outside the hospital due to the time that is freed up by the hospitalist.
Who are the patients the hospitalists see?
DeChurch: We admit all unassigned patients through the emergency room and those are without community physicians. From the time it is determined that the patient will be hospitalized, that patient becomes our responsibility as attending physicians. (Recently, the physicians with Internal Medicine Associates and Piedmont Internal Medicine decided to turn their inpatient care over to the hospitalists.)
What if a patient needs a specialist?
DeChurch: There will always be specialists available, such as surgeons, orthopedists and cardiology. A hospitalist is like a cruise director, making sure everything and everyone is where they need to be. We use consultants if a patient needs one.
How widespread is the use of hospitalists?
DeChurch: Hospitalists are found everywhere now. We interviewed someone (Monday) who is a hospitalist in a 25-bed hospital.
Caplan: The needs for hospitalists are greatly exceeded by the supply. Current statistics put the need for new hospitalists to serve the current national demand at 15,000 more doctors than are now available (with) need growing each year.
Who is DeChurch, and what hospitalist experience does she have?
Caplan: She is a nationally known and respected hospitalist leader with more than 15 years of hospitalist experience and eight years of experience as a hospitalist program director. Her leadership will add a great deal of quality and depth to the overall program. Her husband is Dr. Hugh Fraser, the medical director of the hospital’s blood donor center. She said she accepted the job at Danville Regional because “there is a certain atmosphere other hospitals don’t have, and the physicians were happy.” Dr. Frances DeChurch, was the Hospitalist Service Director at Annie Penn Hospital before coming to Danville.
What will she do first?
DeChurch: My main focus will be recruiting. Then come back in six months and see what I will fix. My job will be making sure we have a cohesive team and interfacing with the community, physicians and departments so people won’t think their doctors have abandoned them.

Healthcare Leadership Council....how do we get updates?

2007-11-10T19:34:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know....is the Healthcare Leadership Council going to offer a public record of its meetings and a method by which the members of the council can be contacted by the public?

From WAKG's website:
(DANVILLE) -- The Healthcare Leadership Council held its second meeting this week. That's the group appointed to work with LifePoint to identify and address any health care issues that arise at Danville Regional Medical Center. Chairman Don Nodtvedt says the council was especially pleased to receive the report from the Joint Commission, accrediting the hospital facility as well as its home health care program. He says they see it as "tangible and independent validation" from an outside source of the worth of DRMC in the community. Nodtvedt says the primary goal of the council is to work with the hospital to regain the community's trust in the facility."

Happy birthday!

2007-11-07T09:50:00.001-05:00

One year later…

Interesting that DRMC made this blog off-limits to employees. Perhaps I should take some pleasure that this effort is viewed as a threat by corporate...but then again, one reality of the situation is that so many posters here keep saying that we are short-staffed, yet there is obviously a lot of time spent here on "company time". That doesn't compute.

Regardless, things are happening at DRMC that have the potential to change things for the better. The biggest opportunity that we have is the new CEO, Mr. Humphrey. It’s been my experience that he is starting out by showing an interest in the departments and the individual employees that we haven’t seen in some time. I stand by my thought that, regardless of what our past experience has been, we need to give this guy a chance to start fresh and make a difference. Other changes in leadership at a couple of levels will have an impact on the way we do things internally.

There has been a lack of public news about DRMC in recent weeks…perhaps due to the election, as some posters have suggested. Whatever the case, I’ve slowed down on news postings simply because there haven’t been real substantive things to talk about. The downside of that is that it leaves room for unbridled gossip and supposition, but we’re never going to change those that will visit here for that purpose only.

So….as the blog reaches its first anniversary (who woulda thunk) with 44,000 visits and 140,000 page views, I have started to take a hard look at the purpose that it has served over the past month and what its role should be in the future. The idea presented itself, briefly, that we had gotten mired in the mud and it should be put out of its misery. Not sure if that’s totally the case…there is still value here.

So stay tuned, and we’ll see where we go from here.

"It's official: Danville Regional is accredited"

2007-10-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Friday, October 19, 2007

Danville Regional Medical Center announced Thursday that the Joint Commission has notified the hospital that it is in full compliance with all applicable standards.
The notice means that Danville Regional is now fully accredited, according to Leslie Smith, director of community relations and marketing at the hospital.
“On Aug. 23, the Joint Commission announced that the preliminary denial of accreditation had been removed and the hospital remained an accredited organization with requirements for improvement,” Smith said Thursday. “The hospital was required to submit an action plan to the accreditation committee this month, to address any remaining deficiencies. The committee met earlier this week and announced that the action plan had been accepted and all standards were in compliance.
“The acceptance of the action plan by the Joint Commission means that DRMC is now fully accredited.”
This accreditation is based on the 2007 survey and will extend through at least the beginning of 2010.
Smith said that the difference between the August accreditation and Thursday’s announcement is an important one.
“In the past, we’ve said DRMC ‘remains’ accredited,” she said. “Technically, the decision was still pending for this extended accreditation until the accreditation committee met this week. The previous accreditation noted on the Web site was a result of the 2004 survey with this now changed to the February 2007 survey.”
Smith said that, although it seems like a small change, it really is quite significant to have the accreditation finalized and official.
“This is great news for the community, and for the associates and physicians who provide care in our hospital,” Betty Jo Foster, chairman of the Danville Regional Board of Trustees, said in a news release. “This action clearly demonstrates that Danville Regional is providing great patient care and is a compliment to hospital administration and all our clinicians and care-giving staff. Danville Regional is a vital community asset, and we look forward to remaining so for a long time to come.”
Ruth McDaniel, interim chief executive officer, added, “The associates and physician staff have worked diligently for this recognition from the Joint Commission.”
The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.

Just think how far a really tiny slice of $200+ million would go...

2007-10-17T08:54:00.000-05:00

The high cost
Danville Register and Bee
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Free Clinic of Danville has always relied on caring volunteers from the medical community to help people who can’t afford health care. Washington politicians may debate the health care issue, but at the corner of Ridge and Patton streets, good people work to help those who need medical treatment they can’t afford.
Recently, though, the Free Clinic struggled to decide what to do with a grant that in the recent past had allowed it to treat more people.
The Virginia Health Care Foundation awarded a $39,375 grant to the clinic to pay one-third of the cost of a nurse practitioner.
“The grant allowed us to significantly increase the services provided to the community and increased the number of patients we saw by approximately three times,” Brent Saunders, president of the Free Clinic’s board, said late last month. “However, the prescription costs rose significantly and with the increasing salary we were responsible for, it was a perfect storm brewing.”
That “perfect storm” was the clinic’s costs, which were rising beyond what it could afford on its budget. When the last nurse practitioner left in August, the position was left vacant. It will likely stay that way, and for good reason.
“The board feels that sustained funding for the full-time nurse practitioner position is needed in order to assure the long-term financial viability of the clinic,” Saunders said.
That’s the only way to survive in today’s health care economy, even if it means not hiring someone who could help treat more sick people in this community.
In the short term, many of those people are being hurt or, at the very least, inconvenienced. But if the Free Clinic can’t survive financially, more of them will be hurt.
One possible solution would be to seek a steady source of money from the Danville Regional Foundation, the group formed with the proceeds from the sale of Danville Regional Medical Center. With enough money from the foundation, the Free Clinic could afford to not only pay the nurse practitioner’s salary, but cover the rising costs of medical supplies and prescription drugs.
This community’s most vulnerable residents need this problem solved. Anything that can help the Free Clinic of Danville treat more patients is going to be a good thing.

Q&A with the new DRMC CEO

2007-10-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

From the DRMC "News & Views" website:

New CEO Jerel Humphrey Answers Questions

How did DRMC find you?
I had been working with an executive search firm, and several years ago, my oldest son was looking at colleges. He’s studying to be an engineer and we toured Virginia Tech and my wife and I fell in love with that part of the country. We said that if the right opportunity came about, and it took several years for that right opportunity as my son is a junior at Texas Tech, we would love to locate to this part of the country. We love Virginia.

What made you want to leave where you are and take on this role?
I have been in a big city for a long time. I am looking forward to living in a city like Danville, where I can be a part of the community; where I don’t have to spend so much time on the road commuting and where the hospital plays a central role in the community.

What is the first issue you will be dealing with?
I plan to do a lot of listening to all I come in contact with - the physicians, associates, volunteers, chaplains, board members and the community. I want to hear what they have to say about their roles, their interests and how they view the hospital.

What appeals to you about this job?
The thing that most appeals to me about this job is the fact that I will be able to help the loyal and committed team members at DRMC continue to build on their strengths and the strengths of this hospital and to provide greater services to the community.

What are the responsibilitites of your job?
I view my primary responsibility as providing strong communications to all of the critical audiences at DRMC - communicating with physicians, associates, volunteers and chaplains the plans and priorities for the hospital. It also requires providing leadership within the community and with the board of trustees. You can’t over communicate with either the internal or external audiences. Another responsibility will be to uphold standards, policies and procedures within the hospital.

What is the nursing staff situation at the hospital?
I am looking forward to workng with new CNO Becky Logan and all of the nursing staff at DRMC. We will work together to continue delivering high quality patient care. Additionally, I am very impressed with DRMC’s School of Nursing. That is a great assett that very few hospitals in the country have.

How did you get into health care administration?
I actually got involved as a junior in college by working in a local hospital as an orderly. I would assist nurses in various funtions throughout the hospital. I had actual bedside experience with patients. My appreciation and interest in hospitals evolved from there.

What do you think about all of the problems of the past CEOs at DRMC?
I can’t speak to the past, since I wasn’t here and wasn’t a part of that. However, what I can tell you is that I am committed to communicating and being available to all of the key constituencies at DRMC, the associates, physicians, volunteers and chaplains as well as the community leaders in the Dan River region. I’m planning on doing a lot of listening to learn more about DRMC and how we can continue to provide great services and continue to improve our service to our communities.

What from your past experiences will help you at DRMC?
I’ve worked at a variety of sizes of hospitals from a 600-bed facility to a 72-bed facility. I’ve been in the healthcare field for 28 years, and I think all of my experiences have helped me grow and provide the leadership qualities I believe I possess.

The previous CEO said he was bringing his family and decided not to. What if your family doesn’t want to relocate?
I am starting at DRMC on October 29 and looking forward to beginning my job. My family plans to join me during the Christmas holidays. I have a daughter who is a junior in high school. It will be easier for her to leave at that point in the semester.

What do you think are your biggest strengths?
I believe in the concept of building strong teams. I will provide leadership, the ability to listen and help solve problems, but at the end of the day, it’s teamwork that is needed at a hospital and any organization to be successful. My mission is to help our associates, physicians, volunteers and chaplains feel good about what they do on a daily basis and help empower them to be the best ambassadors for the hospital.

Healthcare Leadership Council, wherefore art thou?

2007-10-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

It's been one month since the article announcing the Healthcare Leadership Council appeared in the Register & Bee.
http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB%2FMGArticle%2FDRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352658665&path=!news!opinion

So...where do we stand?
They've met, we know that much. No coverage in the local media and, unlike the Citizens Commission, there is no central location to obtain minutes or information about their activities, their findings or their results. With the pivotal figure behind the Leadership Council, Mayor Williams, leaving town, where does that leave this effort?

Does anyone know who's on first?

Mayor/Doctor Williams leaving town

2007-10-03T09:51:00.001-05:00

Danville Mayor Wayne Williams said he will step down

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Danville Mayor Wayne Williams said he will step down from City Council to take a job in Georgia.
Williams has accepted a position with Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, Ga.
"It is an exceptional opportunity at an expanding hospital that includes administrative responsibilities as well as a surgical practice. I was not looking for the change, but was honored, and surprised, when approached for the position. I will miss my family, friends and especially the people of Danville that make this such a great city," Williams said in a press release.
Williams was elected to Danville City Conncil in 1998. He was named vice mayor in 2000 and was elected mayor in 2006.

"Hospital names new CEO"

2007-10-02T20:06:00.001-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Tuesday, October 2, 2007

DANVILLE – Danville Regional Medical Center has just announced that Jerel Humphrey has been named chief executive officer of the hospital effective October 29.
Humphrey, 52, has most recently headed a 72-bed, physician-owned, acute care hospital in Houston from its initial development to construction and through the accreditation process by the Joint Commission and the Texas health department, according to a hospital press release.
He has served in a variety of executive roles within the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, Texas, during the last 20 years, including as CEO of 600-bed Memorial Hermann Southwest and 520-bed Memorial Hermann City Hospital.
In the press release, Humphrey states that his wife, Linda, and daughter, Rachel, will move to Danville during Christmas break.

"Head of nursing drawn to city"

2007-10-01T11:18:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, September 29, 2007

DANVILLE - A new chief nursing officer is now in place at Danville Regional Medical Center.
Rebekah “Becky” Logan has been at work for about a week and is adjusting to a new community and her responsibilities of being in charge of more than 600 nurses at the hospital. She brings 12 years of health care leadership experience to her new position, including chief operating officer and chief nurse executive roles in Georgia and South Carolina hospitals. Logan is the mother of two grown sons, an 18-year-old who is in culinary school in Atlanta and a 23-year-old who is a professional photographer in Dallas. After only a few days at her job, Logan sat down and answered a few questions so that the community might get to know her better.

Question: Had you ever heard of Danville?
Answer: Yes, I had. I have an uncle who lives in North Carolina, and I remember him talking about Danville and what a pretty area it is.
Q: How did Danville Regional Medical Center find you?
A: A recruiter came to me. I wasn’t looking for a job, but I got a phone call out of the blue. Then, the more I learned about Danville, the more I liked it.
Q: What appealed to you about this job?
A: The location. I was born and raised in Alabama and had lived in Georgia for 18 years. Danville and the community here seemed like a place I would fit in. When I talked to the people at the hospital, the jobbecame more attractive because they care about the patient care and the employees.
Q: What are the responsibilities of your job?
A: I have oversight of all the nursing care delivered within the organization. I make sure the care is delivered by competent and proficient nurses.
Q: What is the nursing staff situation at Danville Regional?
A: I have only been here a week, so I am in the process of assessing the staffing needs. If it is like any hospital in the nation, we need nurses, and (the shortage) is expecting to get worse nationwide.
Q: What’s the first issue you will be dealing with?
A: What I want to do now is to get to know the nursing and medical staff, and have them tell me what the issues are. I am attending staff meetings - I have already been to 50 percent of them. And I am trying to make appointments with the physicians and talk to them about what’s going well with them and what they would like to see changed.
Q: Since all of the nurses who graduated from the hospital’s nursing school last year are now working there, what are the challenges of working with inexperienced nurses?
A: The transition from academia to real practice at the bedside is scary. I remember those days. You need to partner with them until you can release them. My philosophy is to pay a lot of attention to the new graduates because the time you invest will be paid back in commitment and retention.
Q: How did you get into health care administration?
A: I found I had a talent with a team of people. It is very rewarding to have a group of people who come together and accomplish together.
Q: Why did you choose to get into nursing again?
A: Because that’s where my heart is and where we make the difference.

Foundation set to make allocations

2007-10-01T11:17:00.001-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, September 29, 2007

DANVILLE - Decisions on disbursement of a portion of the $200 million in assets held by the Danville Regional Foundation will be reached by the end of this year, according to the group’s new leader.
After the Danville Regional Foundation’s assessments of the area’s health, education and economic prosperity are completed in the next few months, it will make a decision on how best to invest in the long-term well-being of the community, the foundation’s president and CEO Karl N. Stauber said on Wednesday.
The $200 million endowment is earmarked for distribution at a rate of 5 percent per year - $10 million annually - and must be used to make a positive change in the lives of the residents of Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C. The bulk of the money remains invested so the fund becomes self-sustaining, and can earn back at least $10 million each year.
“The biggest part of my job is to focus on how to take $10 million and make the biggest impact on the revitalization of the region,” Stauber said. “What we’re looking for is where the greatest opportunities to make a difference are in this one-city and two-county region.”
He stressed that it is very important to the foundation to make a long-term impact in the region, and plans to have very strict guidelines for those who wish to apply for a grant in place by the first of the year.
Essentially, the foundation is looking for area-wide, large-scale problems it can solve, rather than funding a series of small projects that will not impact everyone in the target area.
The first assessment the foundation completed was on the general health of the region and was conducted by a team from East Tennessee State University, which looked at the data on the health of the region, did one-on-one interviews with area health care workers and met about 300 people in small groups to determine what some of the biggest problems are.
Stauber said he was surprised at one statistic the team discovered during the course of this study.
“This area has three times the national rate of deaths due to heart attack,” he said. Exploring the reason for that and finding a solution may be a project on the foundation’s plate in the future.
The current assessment, which is taking a look at the economic prosperity of the region, should be completed in approximately a month, Stauber said, and then the foundation will begin its assessment of the area’s education and work force development issues.
Since its inception in May 2006, the foundation has announced grants totaling approximately $17.5 million to five agencies and organizations in the region, which leaves approximately $2.5 million that can still be disbursed in 2007 - but doesn’t have to be.
Stauber said an important thing to note is that the foundation actually has two calendar years to disburse each year’s allotment - any funds left at the end of a year can be added to the following year’s payout.

Did you know...

2007-09-14T08:16:00.000-05:00

...that the Healthcare Leadership Council met last night?

I now bring you all of the media coverage of that meeting that I have been able to find this morning:

Hmmm...something seems to be missing here.

Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

2007-09-13T18:55:00.000-05:00

The newly formed patient safety committee at DRMC has issued a survey for all associates to fill out related to patient safety issues in the hospital.

It is IMPERATIVE that every associate complete one of these surveys. This is an opportunity to anonymously indicate your exact working conditions.

Several questions that I feel are important:

"We have enough staff to handle the workload"
"Staff in this unit work longer hours than is best for patient care"
"We work in 'crisis mode' trying to do too much, too quickly"
"Hospital administration provides a work climate that promotes patient safety"
" The actions of hospital administration show that patient safety is a top priority"

There is a stack of surveys located on the table outside the cafeteria along with a box to place the completed survey. The committee is accepting these thru Sept. 17th.

Let your concerns be heard!

Why ‘skeleton crews?’

2007-09-12T19:10:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
September 12, 2007

I have heard and read so much about how the public’s opinion of Danville Regional Medical Center is in jeopardy and how it is working so hard to repair the damage that has been done in the past. Here are my recent experiences.
My 85-year-old grandfather fell and broke his hip - a serious injury. EMS transported him to the hospital, where he was cared for very quickly and with great care. Surgery was done immediately to repair the break. It went great and he was well on his way.
As expected, he had an undetermined amount of time to spend in the hospital for recovery. Unfortunately, he is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient and pneumonia is always a concern. As his time in the hospital lengthened, the danger of pneumonia or other lung-related illnesses became more imminent.
The weekend rolled around and talk of “skeleton crews” started. Over the weekend, a chest X-ray was taken due to the respiratory problems that he was having. That comforted the family. Then the report that the X-ray may not be read for a couple of days due to the Labor Day weekend became a great burden. See, they were operating on “skeleton crews.” Yes, he is an 85-year-old man with a history of COPD (he was hospitalized for it for five days last month) that just had emergency surgery and was currently facing the fear of pneumonia, but he will just have to wait for his X-ray results. But that’s OK, because they only had “skeleton crews.”
I must say that my grandfather - as well as his children - seemed to be happy with the caregivers that were attending to him. In no way am I trying to take away from those people that gave him aid when needed.
My 75-year-old grandmother is as stubborn as a mule. It’s hard to make her sit down and take care of herself sometimes. She lives alone, cleans several homes, mows her own grass, sits with her 94-year-old mother … get the picture? She also has had a horrible time with her knees.
After years of trying to convince her to have them replaced, she has finally given in. Her appointment was set. She had her consultation at the doctor’s office and do you want to guess what they told her to expect? “Skeleton crews.” They actually told her to try to provide someone to sit with her around the clock while she was in the hospital because of the nursing shortage.
Now she has even more to worry about than the original issue with her knees. She has to worry about inadequate care, not because of an angry person’s rumor, but because her care provider has actually showed a concern about the ability of the hospital to provide care for her. How’s that for patient confidence?
Recently my father, also a COPD patient, was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Department for difficulty breathing. When I got there, I was concerned because of the condition that I found him in - in a room by himself, coughing to the point of gasping for air and definitely unable to tell me what he needed. Two nurses came in and showed genuine concern. His cough subsided and he caught his breath and was able to speak clearly. The nurses assured him they would get him another breathing treatment and we felt a little relief.
His condition seemed important at the time. So after about 20 minutes and several more coughing episodes, I began to wonder what had happened to the staff. I walked into the hallway and thought to myself, this must be what they mean by “skeleton crews.” It was like ghost town - no nurses, no doctors, not even a custodian. I had to go looking for someone to ask help from. I eventually found our two nurses hugged up to a security guard, laughing and joking. Evidently, they didn’t want to share the subject of humor with me because they quickly gained their distance and the smiles and laughter went away. They assured me help was on the way. Another 20 minutes passed and he got his treatment.
I know I’ve said a lot and maybe some things that should not have been said. I can only imagine other stories that are being told. The sad thing is that Danville and Pittsylvania County residents just don’t have a great deal of choices. They have to rely on the only hospital that we have. So, they take it. That’s all they can do.
The statements I just made do not reflect the feelings of the patients I mentioned, or my family. Just me. My insurance requires that I go to Centra-Health in Lynchburg for treatment. I used to think that was an inconvenience, but now I think it’s a blessing.
I know there are a lot of hard workers at Danville Regional - people who really care about others and do their best to help people heal. My hat is off to them. Don’t take it personally; we know it’s not your fault. For those of you who would rather goof off and play games while others lie in pain or suffering, get another job.
In closing, for those of you who are responsible for putting our loves ones in the hands of “skeleton crews,” shame on you - you are in the wrong business. Oh, one more thing. Since patients are getting skeleton crew-care, are they being charged skeleton-crew bills?

CHRIS ANDERSON
Chatham

"The next step"

2007-09-07T07:40:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Friday, September 7, 2007

The Healthcare Leadership Council is a newly appointed local group designed to track the progress - or lack thereof - at Danville Regional Medical Center.
The Council is the successor to the Citizens Commission, a seven-member body that was appointed earlier this year by local doctor and Danville Mayor Wayne Williams to hear complaints about Danville Regional. Just one Citizens Commission member - Arlene Creasy of Pittsylvania County - is on the new group.
“I know, I see, and I hear from a lot of the people in the city and the county,” she said. “I can be a voice for the people and I am accessible for them. I bring the voice from the northern end of the county. We have medical options (Danville or Lynchburg) and we need to be sure this voice is heard.”
Creasy and other Citizens Commission members heard plenty of complaints about the quality of care at Danville Regional after it was purchased by LifePoint Hospitals Inc. in July 2005. The expectation is the new group will keep the lines of communication open with the hospital’s management.
“It is a group of trusted citizens separate from groups related to the hospital; therefore, they can offer an unbiased evaluation of what is happening at the hospital both good and bad,” Williams said.
Unlike the Citizens Commission, the Healthcare Leadership Council includes residents of Caswell County, N.C., and its members have been appointed by the local governments in Danville, Pittsylvania and Caswell.
While the hospital sale and LifePoint’s management since it bought Danville Regional is still a controversial topic, the hospital has maintained full accreditation from the Joint Commission this year after several months of operating under a “preliminary denial of accreditation.”
The Healthcare Leadership Council will give local people another way to express concerns about and problems with the hospital. Local residents should use the new Healthcare Leadership Council to keep Danville Regional honest - and improving.
The real test of hospital-community relations won’t be the number of complaints the new Healthcare Leadership Council receives, but the number of local people and physicians that put their trust in Danville Regional. If the worst for the hospital is really over, word will get out to the people who have had their confidence in Danville Regional shaken by the events of the past two years.

"Danville Regional Launches New Advertising: Associates Featured in Campaign "

2007-09-04T18:17:00.000-05:00

View the news release.

And take a look around the site, Healthcare Neighbor to Neighbor.

"Lifepoint revamps leadership roles to boost performance"

2007-09-04T12:22:00.000-05:00

[This article was posted last month in the Nashville Biz Journal, but just recently became available to non-print subscribers. Thought you might find it interesting reading...]

Nashville Business Journal - August 3, 2007

Following a poor second quarter showing that stunned Wall Street, LifePoint Hospitals Inc. is planning a handful of corporate changes to whip its performance back into shape.
Brentwood-based LifePoint (NASDAQ: LPNT) reported earnings 38 cents per share below analyst expectations on July 23, bringing in net income of $13.4 million, or 23 cents per diluted share - down 62 percent from the second quarter of 2006. An average of analysts' estimates projected the company would earn 61 cents per share.
"This caught everyone by surprise," says Robert Hawkins, analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. "It just made people kind-of shake their heads in disbelief and make them wonder can these guys operate these hospitals."
William Carpenter, LifePoint president and CEO, says the company isn't satisfied with its second quarter results, either - which were hurt by bad debt, higher medical malpractice insurance expenses and contract labor costs and professional fees - and it is "executing strategies that we know will improve our performance."
The company has given three of its most senior executives - Joné Koford, Scott Raplee and Mike Weichart - the responsibilities of heading up initiatives to focus on growth, improving operational performance and levering up a value-added corporate center, Carpenter says.
"These are things we've always been focused on, but they're things we recognize needed additional attention in order to be very successful over the long term," Carpenter says. "So we are devoting additional resources to those areas in order to deal with the industry trends we've been seeing."
Koford is president of LifePoint's American division, Raplee is senior vice president, operations CFO and Weichart is president, national division.
Each of the three executives will get a chief operating officer to assist his efforts, and LifePoint will add a chief medical officer to focus on clinical quality.
The company will continue to work on other initiatives to improve results - including comprehensive risk management assessments at hospitals with the highest frequency and severity claims, a premium credit risk reduction program for all hospitals, and targeted programs to minimize incidents and claims in the most frequent risk areas, the company said on the earnings call.
Whit Mayo, analyst with Stephens Inc., says he expects these changes to take longer than a quarter to have an impact.
LifePoint lowered its earnings guidance following the announcement. It expects to report $21.5 to $2.25 per share for the year on revenue of $2.63 billion to $2.65 billion. The company previously predicted earnings of $2.42 to $2.52 per share on revenue of $2.68 billion to $2.69 billion.

"Health care panel ready for the job"

2007-08-30T12:53:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

DANVILLE - The new Healthcare Leadership Council is now fully manned and ready to tackle its mission to provide communication between Danville Regional Medical Center and the community.
Two members each from Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C., were appointed, as well as two Danville physicians and a representative from LifePoint Hospitals Inc., which owns the hospital.
Don Nodtvedt and Arlene Creasy will serve from Pittsylvania County, while Al Newman and Harold Williams will serve from Danville. Caswell County representatives are Shirley Deal and Mel Battle. Physician representatives are Drs. Bushan Pandya and Samuel Meadama. Jess Judy will represent LifePoint.
The panel was a recommendation of the Citizens Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center, which gave its final report to City Council on July 3. Danville Mayor Wayne Williams appointed the original panel to look into issues relating to the hospital after LifePoint purchased it two years ago.
“The panel will act as an advisory group,” Mayor Wayne Williams said Monday. “It is a way for citizens to express their concerns and have those expressed to LifePoint.
“It is a group of trusted citizens separate from groups related to the hospital; therefore, they can offer an unbiased evaluation of what is happening at the hospital both good and bad.”
He said the group would serve for an extended duration, perhaps as long as a few years.
Williams selected the physicians who will serve on the board, while the heads of the governing groups of the city and two counties selected their representatives in consultation with the governing boards. Judy volunteered to represent LifePoint.
Creasy retired from the Social Security Administration. She said the panel will open communications between LifePoint management, physicians, staff and the community.
“The perception that is presently being communicated about the hospital … is not always facts - now we should be able to get the facts at the table,” she said.
Creasy said her community involvement will be a key benefit for the panel.
“I know, I see, and I hear from a lot of the people in the city and the county,” she said. “I can be a voice for the people and I am accessible for them. I bring the voice from the northern end of the county. We have medical options (Danville or Lynchburg) and we need to be sure this voice is heard.”
Nodtvedt, who retired last year as plant manager of Nestle, said he was excited to be on the panel.
“I want to make a difference, and if I can in any way be a bridge between the community, the doctors, the staff and the administration of the hospital, count me in,” Nodtvedt said.
“For whatever reason, LifePoint has not been able to have the right kind of relationship with the community. This panel can help establish that relationship such that there is a renewed confidence in the hospital by the community and the hospital can deliver to the needs of the community.”
Newman, a retired businessman with experience working in a medical clinic, said he has never had a bad experience as a patient at Danville Regional.
“I believe LifePoint is trying to get back to a care level that existed before the purchase,” Newman said Monday. “My desire is to help them in any way I can. I go on the board very optimistic. I hope the end will be that the community will once again have confidence in our medical community.”
Battle, a retired educator and former chairman of the Caswell County Board of Commissioners, said he has mixed emotions about care at the hospital.
“I received excellent treatment (at Danville Regional) when I had my heart attack,” Battle said Monday, “but some of my ER visits were not so good.”
Battle said the task force’s mission should be to advise and assist the hospital.
Judy, Gateway Division president for LifePoint, said, “My sense is that this panel will provide an objective group of people who have a goal of ensuring the quality and scope of health care for Danville that is appropriate for the community. It will also bring a sense of reason to the current state of the hospital and be able to clarify the perceptions that exist.
“It is clear the people who evaluate hospitals nationwide are finding the hospital compliant with health care standards, and this panel will serve an objective party to validate that for the citizens of the Dan River Region.”

"Regional foundation begins health assessment"

2007-08-27T15:30:00.000-05:00

Star Tribune
Friday, August 24, 2007 8:10 AM EDT

DANVILLE - Danville Regional Foundation is conducting a formal assessment of the health of Danville, Pittsylvania and Caswell counties to use as a guide in developing strategies to improve the overall health of the community."One of our four areas of focus is health and wellness," said Karl Stauber, chief executive officer of the foundation. "We want to contribute to producing healthy people in healthy communities.
"To accomplish that goal, we begin by identifying the key health issues and learn where we stand as a community," said Stauber. "When we have collected the data and when we have the benefit of the opinions of the community, then the Foundation can consider long-term strategic action to address health issues."The foundation needs "to have an accurate and comprehensive picture of the community's health status, as well as ideas on how we can best utilize our resources," said Stauber."We take the snapshot by reaching out to the community to collect and analyze information, and that is what we expect to have from this assessment," he continued.The assessment is also intended to identify individuals and organizations interested in addressing health issues and trends.
A team from the Office of Rural and Community Health of East Tennessee State University will conduct the assessment, which will include interviews with individuals, discussions with health-related organizations and meetings with groups that represent a cross-section of the community.The health assessment will be completed in approximately 90 days.The foundation also will be conducting two additional assessments, one on education and workforce development capacity and the second on economic and community development.Danville Regional Foundation was established following the sale of Danville Regional Medical Center to LifePoint Hospitals Inc. for $210 million in 2005.In its two years, the foundation has announced grants of approximately $17.5 million to five not-for-profit organizations and governing agencies in Danville, Pittsylvania and Caswell counties.The new community center under construction on Main Street in Chatham was funded with a $3 million grant from the foundation.

"Moving on"

2007-08-25T16:20:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
August 26, 2007

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.

"Danville Regional Medical Center retains its accreditation"

2007-08-23T16:23:00.000-05:00

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

"Surgeon cites finances in departure"

2007-08-18T20:07:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Friday, August 17, 2007

DANVILLE - When Dr. Lee McCann moved to Danville two years ago, he thought his family would stay here until his children graduated from high school. His youngest of five children is 2.
Offers from other hospitals have come and gone throughout the two years McCann has been the medical director of cardiovascular surgery at Danville Regional Medical Center and on the staff at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
The doctor didn’t consider any of the offers, however, until about six months ago when his patient load decreased because, he believes, patients no longer wanted to be treated at DanvilleRegional.
“Things have gotten so bad at Danville Regional that when we got another offer, we had to look at it,” McCann said Monday. “You get offers all the time. We have gotten multiple offers over the last two years, and we haven’t even looked at them because we love it here and wanted to stay.”
His situation, however, has changed considerably since he came to Danville, accepting his first full-time job after 17 years of medicaleducation.“My office is now in the red, and I can’t keep losing money,” McCann said. “Duke has probably lost money as well, and they are getting scared.”When he got the offer from Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, McCann told Dr. Peter Smith, chief of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Duke, he would have to consider it.
The hospital responds
Danville Regional spokesman John Van Mol said the hospital or its parent company, LifePoint Hospitals Inc., shouldn’t shoulder the blame for McCann’s departure.
“When there is an insufficient number of patients in a particular service line, there are almost always a variety of factors that cause it. A variety of reasons, too, no doubt caused the previous open heart surgeon at the hospital to make a decision to leave, well in advance of LifePoint’s purchase of the hospital,” Van Mol said Friday in a written statement. “Therefore, it is inaccurate to say low patient volume is ‘LifePoint’s fault,’ just as it is inaccurate to say it is ‘the surgeon’s fault’ or ‘Danville Regional’s fault,’ or ‘referring physicians’ fault.’”
A news release from the hospital issued Monday announced not only the departure of McCann, but also that Duke would work together with Danville Regional to conduct a “service line assessment” to “determine how (Danville Regional) and Duke will work together to improve cardiovascular care” at the hospital.
“(Duke) can’t keep pouring resources into the hospital,” McCann said. “Duke is afraid, and anything they put their name on has to succeed. Duke agreed to look at it, but by no means agreed to anything.
“They agreed to look at this mess and see if they can help fix it,” he added. “They might agree that it’s too bad, and they won’t go down in flames with the hospital. Or they could fix it, and it would cost Danville Regional a boatload of money.
“There are no guarantees from Duke. But, for all I know, they could turn around in a year and say they could do it. They’re not ruling any possibilities out.”
McCann said he and his wife have agonized over this for six months and have done everything they could to avoid it, but in the end he left because “I couldn’t pay my practice’s bills.”
Van Mol said, “It is true that the revenue from the practice has failed to cover its costs, but all the costs including full pay and benefits for Dr. McCann have been covered by Danville Regional and LifePoint.”
In his own announcement sent to his physician colleagues, McCann wrote, “The situation here has deteriorated to the point that the future of my fairly young career and that of my family are very insecure. Changes in the hospital ownership and administration, and, importantly, public perception of these changes have significantly altered our practice, both in terms of quality and volume.
“Frankly, patients no longer want to come to this hospital for cardiac surgical care despite my best efforts to establish a good program and a respectable reputation ... It will take time for the hospital to gain enough trust back so that patients will return.”During Monday’s interview, he said, “I would like to see the hospital survive and succeed, but in order to do that, there has to be open, honest dialogue. LifePoint needs to do that.”

‘a battle’
“What Dr. McCann says is true,” Dr. Gary Miller, a cardiologist and the hospital’s former chief of staff, said Tuesday. “He did like the community.”Miller called the heart program at Danville Regional a “best-kept secret.”“It was working,” he said. “The infection and mortality rates were extremely low, but people probably didn’t know that.“ But we do catheterizations and recommend surgery, but people say they have heard about the hospital and assume the heart program is not doing well, which it was. One section of the hospital is rubbing off on the other.”
Miller said the heart doctors have been seeing people with a relatively low risk for heart surgery, but the patients are refusing to have it done at Danville Regional and doctors have to send them elsewhere.“
It’s been a battle,” he said. “We’ve always had an agreement with Duke that we would send them the high-risk patients - those that have a 10 to 15 percent chance of dying - but when we have to give up people that will do well, that’s hard.”Miller said that the patient census has been very heavy the last few days, and he did seven angioplasties in seven days because of the effect the hot weather has had on people. “But I have known the surgery numbers have been down for some time because people are opting to go elsewhere because of the things that have gone on in the hospital,” Miller said. “There is always a small minority who have gone out of town (for care), but what has really hurt is that now the average Joe citizen who could stay here is leaving.”
Miller is hopeful, however, that the situation at the hospital will improve soon.“We’ve been working with LifePoint, and I think the interim people here are now much more responsive to the physicians and patients,” he said. “We are being listened to.”Miller said he is confident the hospital will retain its Joint Commission accreditation, but called the effect of McCann’s leaving “demoralizing.”
“The people who work there are proud of the heart program,” he said. “The whole team knew they were doing a good job, and it is very demoralizing to those who worked hard to bring the program here.
“If a program fails because they’re not doing a good job, that’s one thing, but it was not failing. It failed for other reasons.
“It’s a downward spiral, and it feeds on itself.”Miller said he thinks the doctors and nurses are gradually regaining the confidence of the patients.
“We’ve hired enough nurses,” he said. “Even though they are young nurses, we have enough. We have episodic shortages, but it’s not every day.
“But LifePoint has to continue to do what they said they would do. They have to provide enough staff and not worry about the bottom line. If we give good service and people are happy, then business will be good.“We still have a long way to go. We haven’t given up on the heart center. We are going to look at it.”

‘support the hospital’
Cardiologist Dr. Bosh Zakhary said the community deserves part of the blame for the low-patient census at the hospital. “I think the whole community is blaming the hospital, but part of the responsibility lies with the community,” he said Thursday. “The physicians haven’t changed, the programs haven’t changed and LifePoint has realized they have made mistakes and they are rectifying those.”
He took issue with a study that came out recently that reported higher mortality rates among heart patients at Danville Regional. In the study published in June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the Health and Human Services, ranked Danville as one of the seven worst hospitals nationwide for heart attack mortality rates.
Although that study did not concern the cardiovascular surgery program McCann headed, Zakhary said the community was influenced by it. “The outcomes published recently on heart care were erroneous, and we are looking at this,” he said. “Other studies show better outcomes.”
Zakhary said people in the community were not happy with the sale of the hospital, so any time a problem is reported with the hospital, the community’s perception is blown out of proportion. “When people see the problems, they do not come to the hospital,” he said, “and that led to Dr. McCann leaving.”
Changes in the hospital, such as the flow in the emergency department and how heart patients are handled, are occurring, which will result in equal or better care than before the sale, Zakhary said.
“The rest will be up to the community,” he said. “They need to stay in town and support the hospital. We can only do what we can do.”

Draw your own conclusions...

2007-08-16T21:38:00.000-05:00

Thanks to one of our regular contributors, I received a copy of the email letter from Jess to members of the medical staff. Here you go...from mid-July...

"Dear All,
Sorry I cannot be with you tonight. I would appreciate you all discussing how to deal with members of the Medical Staff who continue to misrepresent issues about the hospital and its future. For example, there are continued statements about the hospital being sold and even who is buying it. This is only serving to create more uncertainty among the staff and community causing much more damage locally than it is Lifepoint. It might be a good reminder for folks that we are a $2.4B company that can survive and actually do quite well even if a few of our hospitals do not. Lifepoint has no plans to sell DRMC.
Establishing competing businesses such as an ambulatory surgery center would be a lengthy COPN process and even if successful would further erode the economics of the hospital leading any owner with little choice but to reduce services. This might benefit the owners of the competing business while those who depend on the hospital for their practices would lose out.
While some might want something different the choices we have are to work together and collectively move DRMC in a positive direction or allow divisiveness and untruths to create a no win situation for us all. I trust you will take the cooperative approach and try to convince your colleagues to do the same.
We are committed to working with you and the Medical Staff and expect the DRMC executive team to fulfill that commitment. Thanks for taking time to serve on Medical Staff Action Committee. I know we can accomplish much with a shared vision of making DRMC the hospital of choice for the citizens of the Dan River Region. Take care and please let me know how I can help.

Jess"

"Medical director of Heart Center to leave for Utah position"

2007-08-14T09:32:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

DANVILLE - Danville Regional Medical Center announced Monday that Dr. Lee McCann, medical director of the hospital’s Heart Center of the Piedmont, will be leaving to take a position at Utah Valley Regional Hospital in Provo, Utah.
With that announcement, the hospital also announced that it will be doing a “service line assessment” in collaboration with the clinical staff of the Duke Heart Center and local cardiologists to improve the cardiovascular care at Danville Regional.
The assessment will take approximately five months.
A hospital spokesman said he did not know if Danville Regional would be actively seeking a replacement for McCann while the assessment is being conducted.
McCann has been with Danville Regional for two years.
The Heart Center of the Piedmont was opened in 2003 and was affiliated with Duke Medical Center until December 2005 when Duke withdrew its affiliation. However, McCann continued to be part of the Duke staff and worked principally at Danville Regional.
McCann will leave for Utah in approximately six months.

Responses on DRMC's "News & Views" website

2007-08-10T08:24:00.000-05:00

DRMC is responding to questions from visitors to their "News & Views" site, so I thought I'd post them here for your reference. Regardless of your opinion about the answers given, kudos to DRMC for starting the site and answering questions in a very timely manner.

What “expansion” plans were actually planned by DRMC prior to LifePoint’s purchase? Was LifePoint following through on previously initiated projects? Is LifePoint taking credit for these projects?
Obviously, there is a big difference financially in planning an expansion and actually paying for it after the planning is completed. LifePoint is following through, as you put it, on certain projects that had been in the planning stages before the acquisition, thus far to the tune of approximately $29 million by the end of 2007. And yes, funding certain projects was part of the asset purchase agreement under which the hospital was acquired. “Taking credit” is probably in the eyes of the beholder. It seems likely those previously responsible for DRMC should “take credit” for planning the expansions and getting them put into the asset purchase agreement, and it’s equally logical that LifePoint should “take credit” for spending corporate funds to complete the work. No matter who gets or takes the credit, by the end of the year, the community is scheduled to have $29 million more in needed health care assets than it did before the acquisition took place.

Does LifePoint have a seat at the leadership council table and what will it do with the findings?
We will have a seat at the table with Mr. Jess Judy’s involvement on the leadership council as well as our new CEO when he or she is hired. Danville Regional Medical Center is committed to being a high-quality medical center that meets this community’s health care needs. We welcome the suggestions of the leadership council toward meeting that goal.

http://danvillenewsandviews.com/index.php/site/homepage/

"Leaders discuss hospital panel"

2007-08-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Thursday, August 9, 2007

DANVILLE - A new Health Leadership Council will be formed to communicate concerns between the public and Danville Regional Medical Center, which is owned by LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
The Citizens’ Commission, which explored what is good and bad about services at the hospital through public forums, recommended the formation of a permanent council.
Mayor Wayne Williams; George Ward, chairman of the Caswell County (N.C.) Board of Commissioners; Caswell County Manager Kevin B. Howard; and Coy Harville, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, met with representatives from Danville Regional and concerned citizens Wednesday to discuss the new council.
No decisions were made on who would sit on the council, but nine people - two each from Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, as well as two physicians and one LifePoint executive - will be appointed to two-year terms.
The purpose of the council will be communicating the public’s concerns to the hospital and making sure the public is kept informed of what Danville Regional is doing in response to their concerns.
Williams said he hoped the council could operate autonomously, create their own bylaws and work at regaining trust in the hospital.
The panel will meet again in about two weeks to discuss their candidates for the Health Leadership Council.

"County names representatives"

2007-08-08T08:37:00.000-05:00

Star Tribune -- August 7, 2007

Westover District Supervisor Coy Harville said Monday night he would appoint Don Nodtvedt and Arlene Creasy to represent the county on a leadership group to work with Danville Regional Medical Center and its parent company, Tennessee-based LifePoint Hospitals.A citizens commission that spent four months hearing concerns about the hospital had recommended the panel. Making its report to Danville City Council last month, the commission said the new panel should have members from the region, including physicians and community leaders.
Harville, who chairs the Board of Supervisors, said Danville and Caswell County, N.C., would also have two members. He said officials would meet Wednesday about the panel.Harville said he wants the group to gather community input about the hospital and provide it to LifePoint.

Something to ponder...

2007-08-06T14:12:00.000-05:00

Today's editorial got me to thinking....from a PR perspective, at what point can an organization's reputation in its community (either neutral or negative) impact the idea of charity or community service in the public's mind?

http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB%2FMGArticle%2FDRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352276754&path=%21news%21opinion

Your thoughts?

DRMC open line...part deux

2007-08-06T10:35:00.000-05:00

This post was in a couple of threads, so I thought I'd bring it to the front page...it's a question posted on the "News & Views" website. (http://danvillenewsandviews.com/)

"Why was the Danville Regional executive team in Nashville last week? To discuss downsizing at DRMC?
The Danville Regional Medical Center leadership team was in Tennessee, along with their counterparts from all of the company’s hospitals, to attend the annual operations meeting. There are no plans to downsize DRMC. Rather, there are plans to continue to increase services at DRMC with the expansion on the sixth floor, the purchase of a linear accelerator and additional diagnostic equipment."

"What can money do?"

2007-08-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee editorial
Sunday, August 5, 2007

One of Danville’s newest residents, Karl Stauber, started his new job as president and CEO of the Danville Regional Foundation this week wondering how the catastrophic collapse of an Interstate highway bridge in his old hometown is affecting life there.
Stauber is in the process of moving from Minneapolis, where a mammoth bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed during rush hour this week. Stauber’s wife is still living in the Twin Cities, but she wasn’t harmed in the incident.
Unexpected catastrophic events challenge communities. Some of them are able to shake off tragedy and loss, while others have a tougher time coming to grips with what has happened to them.
In many ways, that describes Danville today. The city has a lot of assets, but it has also lost a lot of its former identity. Complicating matters for Stauber is the controversial founding of the Danville Regional Foundation.
The foundation was formed with $200 million LifePoint Hospitals Inc. paid for Danville Regional Medical Center two years ago. The board of directors that sold the hospital became the founding board members of the foundation. That ignited a controversy that continues to this day.
To his advantage, Stauber is aware of the situation he has come into. To his credit, he appears willing to work hard to help the foundation use its assets - estimated to be approximately $10 million per year - to advance the health, education and welfare of the people of Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C.
In all likelihood, the way the Danville Regional Foundation started - and the problems experienced at Danville Regional Medical Center over the past two years - will continue to follow Dr. Bob Ashby, James A. Motley, Richard Barkhouser, Ben Davenport and Charles Majors. It’s a problem between those five men and what is, in all likelihood, a fairly large segment of the community.
But the Danville Regional Foundation has the kind of community-changing resources that can easily outlive the controversy over the foundation’s birth. A year ago, the foundation gave $2 million to build a senior community center in Yanceyville, N.C.; $3 million to Chatham Cares Inc. to build a community center in Chatham; $9.7 million to Danville Community College to build a health sciences center; and $1.7 million to the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority for a research building in the Cyber Park.
Those grants, totaling $16.4 million, were made to settle a dispute with the IRS. Once the Danville Regional Foundation starts making annual grants, it’s expected to spend $10 million per year - a staggering $100 million over the course of a decade.
How will the projects funded with that money - over time - change this community? Many local people have longed for positive change. The Danville Regional Foundation is one way to bring about those positive changes.
“I’m excited about the opportunities here,” Stauber said this week. “I think right now Danville is an undiscovered secret.”
Stauber’s extensive background should help the Danville Regional Foundation find and support vital community-changing projects.

"Leaders to form hospital panel"

2007-07-31T07:52:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Monday, July 30, 2007

DANVILLE - City leaders are moving forward with plans to establish a hospital panel devoted to improving care at Danville Regional Medical Center.
A meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 8 in the city manager’s conference room beside City Council chambers to discuss the formation of a Hospital Healthcare Panel, according to Danville Mayor Wayne Williams.
The meeting is open to the public.
The panel was a recommendation of the Citizens Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center, which gave its final report to City Council on July 3.
“The commission recommended the formation of a panel to continue the dialogue with the hospital and to serve as a route for people to express their concerns,” Williams said, “as well as help guide LifePoint and assure the continuation of quality improvement.
“It will also help ensure that LifePoint will follow through on the commission’s recommendations.”
The mayor said he plans on the panel consisting of a citizen from Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C., and two doctors, as well as a representative from LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
Williams also has invited Coy Harville, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, and George Ward, chairman of the Caswell County Board of Commissioners, who will recommend a citizen from their area.
Williams, who is a doctor, said he is taking recommendations on the doctor slots from other medical professionals.
He also invited Delegates Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, and Danny Marshall, R-Danville, to the meeting and told Ward to invite the appropriate Caswell County delegates.
Williams said, however, that he believed Marshall would be out of town next week and that the North Carolina delegates are is session and would be unable to attend.
Jess Judy, LifePoint’s Gateway Division president, volunteered at the July 3 meeting to be the hospital representative, Williams said.
“I feel that it is a positive sign that such a high-level person with LifePoint would be appointed,” he said.
Williams said the panel will be long-standing and ongoing as long as it is necessary.
“We will be looking at term limits and how to structure the panel,” he said. “We want it to be two way. When the hospital does something good, the panel will help disseminate that information, but it will also take problems to LifePoint that are based on public concern.”

Hospital Healthcare Panel to be formed

2007-07-30T09:03:00.001-05:00

From WAKG's website:

"The top recommendation of the Citizen's Commission that examined Lifepoint’s operation at the local hospital is about to become a reality. City leaders have announced a meeting next week to organize what will be called the Hospital Healthcare Panel. Danville mayor Wayne Williams promised earlier this month to meet with leaders from Pittsylvania and Caswell Counties to begin forming the new leadership commission. Their goal is to start and maintain a dialogue with Lifepoint over issues at Danville Regional Medical Center. No word yet on the exact composition of the new panel. "

DRMC opens line of communication

2007-07-26T12:12:00.000-05:00

Check it out...give them a chance.

http://www.danvillenewsandviews.com/

True, some are going to say it's all PR spin. Maybe, maybe not. But you'll have to admit that one of our concerns about DRMC over the past couple of years is a lack of accessibility. Is this a step to answer that criticism? I hope so.
I figure if everyone who visits and uses the "Ask DRMC" button to ask rational, educated and mature questions, we will soon find out how serious they are. If DRMC will use this site to answer some of the hard questions, then this could present a helpful forum.

UPDATE: Technical problems are now fixed...their site should be receiving questions.

Dead End?

2007-07-25T15:53:00.000-05:00

Went to read through the Citizens Commission report...when you click the link on the Commission website, you get a "page not found" error message.

Anybody have any idea why this is no longer available? Can you still get a hard copy from the clerk's office?

http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Citizens%20Commission%20Report.pdf

"LifePoint misses in Q2"

2007-07-24T20:03:00.000-05:00

Nashville Business Journal - 11:16 AM CDT Monday, July 23, 2007

Earnings for LifePoint Hospitals Inc. fell 62 percent in the second quarter compared to the same time last year, missing analysts' estimates by about 38 cents per share.
The Brentwood-based hospital operator had net income of $13.4 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, in the quarter ended June 30. In the prior year's quarter, LifePoint earned $34.8 million, or 62 cents per diluted share.
The company attributed the drop to bad debt, contract labor costs and professional fees and medical malpractice insurance expense.

Also injuring earnings were impairment charges for discontinued operations - $8.5 million and $16.4 million - related to the disposal plans of Coastal Carolina Medical Center in South Carolina and Colorado River Medical Center in California, respectively.
An average of analysts' estimates predicted the company would earn 61 cents per share in the quarter on $656 million in revenue.
Revenue for the quarter was up 16.8 percent to $654.3 million.
LifePoint (NASDAQ: LPNT) lowered its earnings guidance along with its second quarter results. It now expects to earn between $2.15 and $2.25 per share for the 2007 year on revenues of $2.63 billion to $2.65 billion. It previously predicted earnings of $2.42 to $2.52 per share on revenue of $2.68 billion to $2.69 billion.
LifePoint Hospitals provides health care services in non-urban communities in 18 states. It has 49 hospitals.
The company's stock price fell about 13 percent to $34.01 per share at 10 a.m. The stock's 52-week range is $30.89 per share to $40.80 per share.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2007/07/23/daily4.html?from_rss=1

Updates on the McKenna sale (not to LPNT)

2007-07-23T08:42:00.000-05:00

A few articles out of the New Braunfels newspaper that you might find interesting about the sale of McKenna Memorial Hospital....many of the same issues and debates, so it will be interesting to read how this plays out...

"McKenna Sells to Christus"
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=c7ae9e3c5dfc593c

"McKenna Won't Subsidize Hospitals"
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=a5d99630550f5937

"Hospital CEO Says Board 'Not Deceitful'"
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=04262a05039d628e

"McKenna sale is good for community" (opinion)
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=5b727921e0e709c7

One quote that stood out..."the group’s questions for McKenna’s leadership seek “transparency in an organization that was developed with public dollars.”"

"County may get critical care center"

2007-07-22T11:02:00.001-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

CHATHAM - A new trauma center may be coming to northern Pittsylvania County.
The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday night to approve a resolution approving the placement of a “critical care center” north of Chatham.
Staunton River Supervisor Michael Irby stipulated that the center be north of Chatham so it would serve the northern part of the county.
“Anything south of Chatham is typically served by Danville Regional,” he said.
Coy Harville, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said he believed the board would easily pass the resolution, but asked how the board could get the word out.
“How can we make this thing fruitful?” Harville asked.
County Administrator Dan Sleeper told Harville that Irby was making a recommendation he had suggested.
“If you’ll pass the resolution, I believe we’ll get some information fairly quickly - by the next meeting,” Sleeper told Harville.
Neither Sleeper nor the board offered much more information about the center, including its cost or size.

"Hospital names new CFO"

2007-07-22T10:57:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Friday, July 20, 2007

DANVILLE - Danville Regional Medical Center has a new chief financial officer.
Mark T. Anderson has been CFO of the hospital since July 2. For the past five years, he has held that same office at the LifePoint Hospitals Inc.-owned Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County.
Anderson is a Martinsville city councilman and will resign from that post to relocate to Danville.
He said in a news release that he and his family - wife Lisa and children Jordan, Brian and Melissa - are looking forward to moving to Danville.
“We have a contract on a house here, and we are putting our house on the market in Martinsville,” Anderson said Thursday. “We are planning on having our children attend Danville schools in the fall.”
Anderson said he does not know yet if he will seek political office in Danville.
“I enjoy politics, but my focus will be to work with the physicians, my administrative peers and associates to provide quality health care services in Danville,” Anderson said.
“We look forward to the expertise and nearly 20 years of experience that Mark brings to this position,” Ruth McDaniel, interim CEO for the hospital, said in the release. “He has a proven track record and our associates are already benefiting from his leadership.”

"Hospital passes surprise survey"

2007-07-22T10:53:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Friday, July 20, 2007

DANVILLE - Danville Regional Medical Center got word Friday that it is in compliance with Medicare participation.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made the announcement after an unannounced survey conducted for a week during April.
“We’re obviously pleased that in an unannounced survey, every key area of the medical center that was reviewed was demonstrated to be in compliance with Medicare Conditions of Participation,” said Ruth McDaniel, interim CEO of Danville Regional.
A medical facility inspector from the Virginia Department of Health conducted the survey from April 17-25.
The report stated that the hospital “demonstrated compliance” in nursing services, emergency services, physical environment, patient rights, and quality assessment and performance.
“Meeting the high quality standards of the Medicare and Medicaid programs is important to both the community and to Danville Regional,” McDaniel said. “It indicates to participants in those programs that the hospital has met the CMS standards, and it allows the hospital to be reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid for providing those services.”
Nearly two-thirds of the hospital’s patients get health care from Medicare or Medicaid programs, McDaniel said. “So, I am tremendously proud of our associates for the outcome of this survey,” she said.

Sitemeter is back --->

2007-07-14T07:21:00.000-05:00

Good news alert

2007-07-12T20:31:00.000-05:00

Danville Regional labs earn full accreditation
Danville Register & Bee
Friday, July 13, 2007

DANVILLE - All four clinical laboratories of Danville Regional Medical Center have earned full accreditation from the College of American Pathologists.
“This means we meet the standards that have been set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid,” Dr. Thomas Hardy, medical director of the labs, said Thursday. “We need to be accredited by an agency that has standards equal to or greater than those.”
The labs are inspected every two years by a team of up to 10 people, Hardy said, noting that the labs have always earned the accreditation.
“They come and look at our procedures, quality control and manuals, as well as the instruments, facilities and employee qualifications,” he said. “They have a checklist of thousands of standards.”
The four clinical labs, including the main laboratory, open heart, respiratory therapy and point-of-care labs, conduct approximately 1 million tests per year, according to a hospital news release.
“The fact that we earn accreditation means that we met or exceeded the standards and patients can be confident that their lab results are accurate and dependable,” Hardy said.
All of the laboratory technicians have a degree in clinical lab science and are certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the news release stated.
“The people we have working in the lab are very dedicated, professional individuals who care deeply about patients and patient care,” Hardy said. “Many of them have been here for a long time and they all take great pride in their work.”
The labs are accredited through peer review by other accredited labs. Technologists from Danville Regional will evaluate other labs to determine their compliance with the College of American Pathologists’ standards.
The College of American Pathologists is a medical society that serves almost 16,000 physician members and laboratories throughout the world.

"Final Report" from Citizens Commission available online

2007-07-12T16:21:00.000-05:00

The Commission's final report is available at the link below:

http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Commission%20Report.pdf

Note that this document does not include the approximately 50-page transcript of comments made at a public hearing. That transcript is available, however, in the printed copy of the final report that can be obtained through the city clerk's office.

Citizens Commission report to City Council - July 3

2007-07-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

From City Council minutes (http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/contents/385/07-03-07.pdf)

Mayor Williams called for a report from the Citizens Commission and introduced Commission Co-chairman Jim Houser. Mr. Houser recognized and acknowledged the presence of Co-chairman Clarissa Knight and Members Arlene Creasy, Dr. David Caldwell, Rev. Samuel Griffith, and Attorney Bob Whitt. Member Linda Green had a prior commitment and was unable to attend.
Mr. Houser reported as follows:
"This is a brief summary of the findings from the three public forums and the survey forms distributed to the citizens of this community. In an attempt to categorize the findings, a simple form of statistical analysis was used. Initially, the findings were placed into three separate categories: staff members, physicians and patients, along with family members. All findings under the hearing of staff included nurses, individual departmental staff and administration. Findings under patients included all other areas, but excluding physicians. These findings are based on my own interpretation as to what was given at the forums as well as what was written in the surveys and what has been said to me personally by others in the community.
The number of responses received was as follows: 27.7% from staff, 25.5% from physicians, and 46.8% from patients/family members/others.

The following is the top five areas of concern for each individual category and final count for all categories collectively.

Staff:
1. Understaffing of experienced nurses on the floors and other departments
2. Low morale among employees
3. Outdated computers and other equipment in bad condition
4. Intimidation from middle and upper management
5. Two areas tied –- poor patient care and poor management.

Physicians:
1. Understaffing of experienced nurses
2. Poor patient care on floors
3. Problems with administration
4. Low morale among employees
5. Two areas tied -- poor management and outdated computers/equipment.

Patients/Family Members/Other:
1. Poor patient care
2. Understaffing of nurses
3. Long waits and poor care in the emergency room
4. Poor housekeeping
5. Bad staff etiquette.

Combined Stats for all Three Categories:
1. Understaffing of nurses and other personnel
2. Poor patient care on floors
3. Issues with the emergency room, i.e., wait times, poor care
4. Poor morale among employees
5. Problems with administration: lack of trust, intimidation, not listening to physician concerns.
Not all responses were negative. Several comments were made by all three categories concerning good patient care and quality of nurses. Areas noted were the cleanliness of the hospital was getting better, good care in the operating room, one-day surgery, outpatient surgery, the open-heart program and the maternity ward.

continued in comments section...

"Get it done"

2007-07-07T13:23:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, July 8, 2007

Jess Judy got it wrong Tuesday night when he told Danville City Council, “We look at tonight as a new beginning.”
Every patient receiving treatment at Danville Regional Medical Center represents a new beginning for LifePoint Hospitals Inc., the Tennessee company that bought the hospital two years ago this month.
Danvillians didn’t want their nonprofit hospital sold, but that wasn’t LifePoint’s fault. However, everything that has happened at the hospital since the July 2005 sale has been LifePoint’s responsibility - including the preliminary denial of accreditation that now hangs over Danville Regional.
Some positive things have happened over the past two years, such as building out the top two floors in the Landon Wyatt tower and buying new diagnostic imaging equipment. But those projects were part of the original sale agreement.
Judy, a Clarksville native and LifePoint’s Gateway Division president, knows the history. He’s heard the complaints and he probably knows what the controversies - there have been more than one - have done to the hospital’s bottom line.
But if he knows all of that, he also has to know that the people of this community have heard promises before. Judy himself was quoted on the pages of this newspaper in March 2006, after LifePoint’s first local CEO left, as saying: “The future of this hospital and our ability to provide quality care kind of rests with our physicians and our associates and us working collectively with them to make sure that they have the resources and the tools and the technology to do that.”
Judy was at the Danville City Council meeting this week to hear the final recommendations of the Citizen’s Commission, the group formed by Danville Mayor Wayne Williams to investigate problems at Danville Regional.
Jim Houser, co-chairman of the Citizen’s Commission, said Danville Regional must earn full accreditation from the Joint Commission, add more people, work with its current employees, enforce its quality service standards and review its current management practices and culture.
“These are the most important problems that need the quickest attention,” Houser said. “If these problems are solved, others will be also.”
Will they?
One of LifePoint’s biggest problems - besides the preliminary denial of accreditation - is that its customers have other choices. It’s not a case of the sharks circling, it’s a case of the free market kicking in and people taking their health care dollars elsewhere.
“Over the last year-plus, Annie Penn and Moses Cone have received increased interest from physicians, patients and employees from the Danville area,” said Susan Fitzgibbons, president of Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville, N.C. “Our goal is not to be predatory, but to increase the awareness in the Danville area that there is an excellent facility 25 minutes down the road.”
That’s what some letter writers have said on these pages - Danvillians have the choice of other hospitals in the region if they’re not happy with Danville Regional.
For the Dan River Region, though, the best outcome would be for Danville Regional to fix its problems and regain the public’s trust and confidence. For a lot of reasons, Danvillians need a high quality local hospital they and their families can rely on.
Keeping the hospital fully accredited - and keeping the promises that have been made over the past two years - represents LifePoint Hospitals’ best and possibly last chance here.

And in a related story...

2007-07-06T10:45:00.000-05:00

McKenna finalist under new scrutiny
The Herald-Zeitung (New Braunfels, Texas)
Published July 6, 2007

At least one of the three finalists in the race to purchase McKenna Memorial Hospital in New Braunfels is having to answer tough questions about how it is running a recently-acquired community hospital in Virginia.
Tennessee-based LifePoint Hospitals bought Danville Regional Medical Center, in Danville, Va., two years ago. However, only last month the chief executive officer running the healthcare facility resigned. Art Doloresco was the third CEO of the LifePoint-run hospital since July 2005.
DRMC is licensed for 350 beds, has a 24-hour emergency department and employs a medical staff of about 140, according to the LifePoint Web site. Danville, in south central Virginia has a population of about 48,000, which is similar to the estimated 50,000 in Comal County.
In February, DRMC also received a preliminary denial of accreditation status from The Joint Commission, which is a nonprofit agency that has accredited hospitals nationwide for more than 50 years.
A preliminary denial of accreditation results when there is justification to deny accreditation to the organization. Usually, this is shown by a count of the number of non-compliant standards at the time of survey, according to Elizabeth Zhani, spokewoman for The Joint Commission.
Danville Regional Medical Center failed three points on its home care section, and 21 points on its hospital accreditation checklist, according to public records.
“The decision is subject to appeal prior to the determination to deny accreditation, and I’m not aware that any appeal has been made,” Zhani said Thursday. “However, I don’t see why they wouldn’t, but the process can take several months before being heard by a special board.”
The level of concern in Danville apparently had grown so much that about four months ago, Mayor Wayne Williams — who also is a practicing surgeon — decided to form a special “Citizens Commission.”
He formed the commission to “seek information from members of the community ... to discuss what is both good and bad about the care and services offered at DRMC,” according to information from the Danville city Web site.
The seven-person commission also was “charged with developing a list of key problems from public input, provide progress reports to Danville City Council and work with LifePoint and an outside expert to determine solutions to these concerns.”
On Tuesday, the commission presented its findings to the city council. Afterward, a LifePoint executive told council members the healthcare corporation was committed to fixing the problem at DRMC, according to information from the Danville Register & Bee, the city’s daily newspaper.
In May, officials at the 132-bed McKenna Memorial Hospital announced that LifePoint Hospitals, Christus Health and The Methodist Health Care System of San Antonio had been selected for “extended due diligence with the purpose of selecting one finalist to enter into a formal letter of intent to purchase McKenna Memorial Hospital.”
When asked about the situation in Danville — and its possible bearing on LifePoint’s bid — McKenna’s chief development officer said she was unaware of the case.
“But part of the due diligence process would include looking into something like this,” Jennifer Malatek said Thursday. “And all aspects of each applicant will be looked at. We want to make sure we have the most correct and accurate information.”
Calls to LifePoint were not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.

http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=0c1f96a4b9f3565d

"LifePoint says it will fix problems"

2007-07-04T05:36:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, July 3, 2007

DANVILLE - LifePoint Hospitals Inc. is committed to fixing the problems at Danville Regional Medical Center, a company executive told Danville City Council on Tuesday.“We look at tonight as a newbeginning,” said LifePoint’s Gateway Division President Jess Judy, who claimed his company and the community had a “mutual objective” in restoring the community’s trust concerning Danville Regional and its quality of care.
Judy’s promise came just minutes after Jim Houser, co-chairman of the Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center, presented council with a report detailing the group’s findings. Houser said the hospital’s most pressing issues are its need to regain full accreditation status from the Joint Commission, improve its staffing levels, enhance its collaboration with staff, enforce its quality service standards, and review its management practices and culture.
“These are the most important problems that need the quickest attention,” Houser said, adding these problems had to be addressed within the next 90 days. “If these problems are solved, others will be also.”
Houser and the commission have spent the past four months gathering feedback concerning Danville Regional’s operations and quality of care by passing out surveys and holding three public hearings.
Houser suggested the city form a full-time hospital panel devoted to fixing problems at Danville Regional that would be comprised of LifePoint executives, civic leaders and other members of the community. Judy said he was willing to work with the panel and offered to represent LifePoint among the group. Judy also said his company was in the process of finding a new CEO for Danville Regional who was committed to working with the community.
Art Doloresco resigned in June as the third chief executive to work at Danville Regional since LifePoint Hospitals purchased the hospital in July 2005.
“Trust is done by delivering on the commitments that we make,” Judy said, adding the new CEO would be required to move his or her family to the area and establish residency as soon as possible.
Mayor Wayne Williams and other members of council thanked the hospital commission for its work identifying the problems at LifePoint and seemed excited about Judy’s willingness to take part in the process.
“We want a better hospital,” Williams said, adding he would start working with elected officials in Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C., to form the panel. “LifePoint wants a better hospital.”

"Citizens group to present recommendations on hospital"

2007-07-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

Chatham Star-Tribune
Tuesday, July 3, 2007 9:52 AM EDT

A citizens commission looking into concerns about Danville Regional Medical Center will issue a handful of recommendations this week, including that the hospital get its accreditation issue worked out as quickly as possible, the group's co-chair said."
Everybody is real concerned we get the accreditation through The Joint Commission," Jim Houser said Friday. "That's a biggie."
Danville Regional, bought by Tennessee-based LifePoint Hospitals Inc. in 2005, has a preliminary denial of accreditation status from The Joint Commission, the largest non-profit health care accrediting group responsible for evaluating the quality of care at hospitals in the United States. That status was first announced in March.
The citizens group, appointed this spring by Danville Mayor Wayne Williams, will make its final report of five or six recommendations to City Council Tuesday night, starting at 7.
Besides the recommendation on accreditation, Houser said another one will call for a panel of people from the region be developed to work with LifePoint. That recommendation seems to follow a suggestion from consultant Keith Pryor, who said leadership involving physicians, the community and LifePoint, was needed.
Pryor wrote in his June report that it was time for leadership in the community and hospital corporation "to move forward. In fact, there is no other way."Williams said he expects council to talk about how to form the regional group.
He said LifePoint representatives are supposed to be at the council meeting. He hopes they will respond about what action the company will take related to the recommendations. Houser said staff needs, better wait times in the emergency room, better care on the floors and staff morale emerged as key areas from community forums and written surveys.
The commission held three forums, including one at Chatham High School. At that meeting, speakers told the commission about a lack of care, slow response, dirty conditions, old equipment and staff shortages.
Pryor, in his report, sounded a positive note. He said it seems the community and LifePoint both want a high-quality, successful hospital. He said trust between the community and hospital needs repairing. He suggested ongoing dialogue and leadership were needed to rebuild the trust.

A little speculation about Doloresco's replacement...

2007-07-02T14:07:00.000-05:00

I've been following the news of LPNT's sale of Coastal Carolina Medical Center to Tenet. The sale closed on Sunday, July 1.
http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/story/6570164p-5848559c.html
The highlights of the sale are that Tenet is CCMC's third owner since 2004 (Province > LPNT > Tenet) and the facility is expecting $7 million in pre-tax losses.

One quote in the article caught my eye....
"Newcomer Teresa Urquhart will serve as interim CEO at Coastal Carolina until a full-time replacement is found. Urquhart is the chief operating officer of a 351-bed Tenet-owned hospital in El Paso, Texas. She will replace Eric Deaton, who will leave to work at another LifePoint medical center in Virginia. It's unclear what his new role will be or the name of the hospital where he'll work."

Think Mr. Deaton is headed to southside Virginia?

"City Council to discuss commission's report"

2007-07-02T13:52:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Monday, July 2, 2007
DANVILLE – Danville City Council will discuss the hospital commission report at its Tuesday night meeting.
The Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center was tasked by Mayor Wayne Williams to look into the issues and complaints about the hospital since its purchase by LifePoint two years ago.
The report Tuesday night will include comments from consultant Keith Pryor, a budget detailing where the commission’s money went and data collected from the commission’s surveys and public hearings.

"Annie Penn looks across state line"

2007-07-02T07:56:00.000-05:00

Reidsville Review
Sunday, July 1, 2007

Local hospitals are increasing their presence in Danville as they compete for new patients across the state line.
Greensboro-based Moses Cone Health System is promoting its Reidsville property, Annie Penn Hospital, to Danville area residents in an effort to lure patients who might normally choose Danville Regional Medical Center.
Moses Cone began an advertising campaign earlier this year promoting Annie Penn's services and the short drive to Reidsville. The campaign has so far consisted of newspaper ads and postcards to 5,000 people.
"At this point our goal is to increase awareness in that area about the services at Annie Penn," Annie Penn President Susan Fitzgibbon said Friday. Doctors reported seeing an increase in patients from the Danville and Pittsylvania County areas, Fitzgibbon said. "Over the last year there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the community about the hospital there."
Danville Regional Medical Center has been in flux over the past three years. The hospital changed from public to private ownership two years ago when it was bought by LifePoint Inc.
Hospital leadership has also had some instability with the loss of the third hospital president in the past two years. The most recent president, Art Doloresco, announced his resignation last week after serving in the job for 11 months.
During his brief tenure, the Danville City Council addressed complaints from the community about emergency-room wait times.
Fitzgibbon said Moses Cone is aware of some of the concerns about the Danville hospital but, she said, Annie Penn is not trying to prey on those.
"We've tried not to be aggressive, but that community needs a hospital," she said.
Eden's Morehead Memorial Hospital is also pursuing patients from the Danville area.
"We have been doing some marketing," Morehead Memorial spokesman Kerry Faunce said. "We've been marketing specific services in that area from time to time."
Morehead Memorial is about 40 minutes south of Danville. Faunce said residents of the rural area between the two towns have long opted for care at Morehead.
"Traditionally, hospitals have marketed to areas, specifically rural areas, where there isn't a large hospital presence," he said. "This is not something that's new, it's something all hospitals do."
Morehead Memorial also targets areas of Stokes, Caswell and Henry counties.
Regardless of marketing, Fitzgibbon said, it's important that people understand they have options regarding their medical needs.
Officials for Danville Regional Medical Center did not return phone calls Friday.

"Reidsville a cure for Danville patients?"

2007-06-30T06:01:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, June 30, 2007

DANVILLE - Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville, N.C., is pulling out all the stops to convince Danville patients to travel down the road “just a few miles” for their health care.
Once an infrequent advertiser with the Danville Register & Bee, the hospital began an advertising campaign near the first of June with the intent to advertise two or three times a month.
Now area residents also are receiving oversized postcards informing people that the hospital is “ready to serve the people of Danville and Caswell County.”
Annie Penn is part of the Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro, N.C., whose marketing department is handling the campaign.
“Over the last year-plus, Annie Penn and Moses Cone have received increased interest from physicians, patients and employees from the Danville area,” Susan Fitzgibbons, president of the hospital, said Friday.
The advertising campaign kicks off amidst community concerns and an ongoing Citizen’s Commission investigation related to the quality of care at Danville Regional Medical Center.
“Our goal is not to be predatory, but to increase the awareness in the Danville area that there is an excellent facility 25 minutes down the road,” Fitzgibbons said.
She said the postcards were sent out to 5,000 people in the area.
“The postcards are the first mailing,” she said, “and ads have started recently.”
Fitzgibbons said Annie Penn has been aware of the changes that Danville Regional has been going through since its purchase by LifePoint Hospitals Inc. two years ago.
Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco resigned last week after less than a year on the job. He was the third chief executive to lead Danville Regional since LifePoint purchased the hospital in July 2005.
There also appears to be several former employees of Danville Regional moving on to other area hospitals.
Fitzgibbons attends the new employee orientations at her hospital every two weeks and said she always asks new employees where they are from. Lately, there have been a lot from Danville.
“We have seen an upward trend in both Greensboro and Reidsville in employees from Danville,” she said. “We have advertised in Danville, but we do advertising everywhere.”
Even though the situation at Danville Regional has helped with what staffing problems Annie Penn had, Fitzgibbons said they were in excellent shape two years ago.
“We have a few vacancies,” she said, “and, of course, every hospital has a turnover.”
Sharon Troxler, director of marketing and volunteer services at Annie Penn, said Thursday that hospital officials “just want folks in Danville to know about our services.”
“We wish Danville Regional the best, and we hope they get back on their feet,” she said. “Every community needs it owns hospital, but we want the citizens of Danville to realize we would welcome them as patients.”

Competition is good

2007-06-29T10:51:00.000-05:00

Stay tuned...

"Annie Penn Who?"
Danville Register and Bee
Friday, June 29, 2007
DANVILLE -- A marketing campaign at Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville is targeting Danville patients dissatisfied with Danville Regional Medical Center.
Read what the president of Annie Penn had to say about it in Saturday's Register & Bee.

More LPNT news

2007-06-28T15:02:00.000-05:00

"Coastal Carolina losses could top $7M"
(Note: CCMC is a LPNT facility)
islandpacket.com June 27, 2007
Coastal Carolina Medical Center is projected to lose more than $7 million over the two-year period from the beginning of 2007 to the end of 2008, a far bleaker financial outlook than previously disclosed.
Despite the Hardeeville hospital's financial situation, Tenet Healthcare Corp. moved a step closer Friday to acquiring the 41-bed facility, according to state documents released Tuesday.
The deal would consolidate all major health care facilities in southern Beaufort and Jasper counties.
All that stands in the way of the transaction that would unite the 93-bed Hilton Head Regional Medical Center and Coastal Carolina Medical Center is state approval and other minor conditions, several sources confirmed this week.
"The transaction will close once the parties obtain the necessary regulatory approvals and certain other conditions to closing as set forth in the Purchase Agreement," according the document, which was submitted to the state Bureau of Health Facilities & Service Department on Friday.
The documents, filed with the state by Tenet, showed that Coastal Carolina is projected to lose about $5.2 million pre-tax in 2007. Those numbers are forecast to improve in 2008, but the hospital still is projected to lose $2.4 million before taxes.
Internal documents obtained in March indicated the hospital was profitable last year, with a pre-tax operating surplus of about $2 million, but those documents didn't include depreciation, interest expense and other capital expenses.
If acquired by Tenet, the hospital is projected to have gross revenues in 2007 of $72.5 million and in 2008 of $82.4 million.
Teresa Wolke, a Tenet spokeswoman, declined Tuesday to comment on specifics of the deal.
"We're not going to talk about internal discussions at this point," she said.
Officials from Coastal Carolina and its Brentwood, Tenn.-based parent company Lifepoint Hospitals, declined to comment Monday and Tuesday.
Eric Deaton, Coastal Carolina's CEO, did not return several calls to his office and cell phone this week.
Penny Brake, vice president of finance for Lifepoint, is handling all media inquiries regarding the deal. She did not return several messages left with her office Monday and Tuesday.
For the purchase to move forward, it must receive approval from the state. In its filing Friday, Tenet asked the state to waive traditional certification requirements, a request that if granted would expedite the transaction, said Joel C. Grice, director of the Bureau of Health Facilities. He said last week that approval could come in a matter of weeks.
The terms of the acquisition remain uncertain, but the transaction will be made in a stock purchase agreement.
Much larger hospitals that Dallas-based Tenet has sold in the last two years fetched anywhere from $16.5 million for a 190-bed hospital in Pennsylvania to $90 million for a 303-bed hospital in Florida, according to the company's filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.

So...how many hours are you going to lose?

2007-06-28T10:16:00.000-05:00

Did all of you DRMC employees receive your letter about the change to the PTO policy?
How did it make you feel? How many hours are you going to lose on Sunday?

Reduction in max hours....PTO cash-in at 75 cents on the dollar....

Nice...

Final Citizens Commission report to be delivered July 3

2007-06-27T16:30:00.000-05:00

From City Council minutes (June 19):

"Mayor Williams said the report that had been distributed from the Citizens’ Commission consultant was a work in progress and there would be additional information to follow. He announced there would be a Citizens Commission meeting on Thursday and issues and recommendations would be further addressed at that time.
Dr. Williams advised the final report would be presented to City Council during the July 3 Regular Council Meeting."

(Note that there is no longer a 'comment' feature on the Citizens Commission website. Keep comments flowing to the Commission through the emails on this page:
http://www.danville-va.gov/page.asp?menuid=2816&sub1menuid=2841&sub2menuid=10761)

News from Nashville.....

2007-06-26T20:49:00.000-05:00

Despite profits, Virginia troubles batter LifePoint’s reputation

By Amy Griffith, agriffith@nashvillecitypaper.comJune 26, 2007

Troubles experienced by a Virginia hospital owned by Nashville-based LifePoint Hospitals Inc. have escalated into a public relations nightmare, catching the attention of analysts and raising questions about corporate acquisition of community hospitals.
LifePoint acquired the 350-bed Danville Regional Medical Center in 2005, shortly after LifePoint’s purchase of Providence Healthcare Co. The following two years saw a number of changes at the management level, including last week’s announced departure of the hospital’s fourth CEO since 2005. And in February, DRMC was Virginia’s only hospital to receive a preliminary withdrawal of accreditation status by the Joint Commission.
Though LifePoint’s performance has remained strong, the troubles in Danville have gained the attention of analysts. John Ransom, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates who follows LifePoint, said hospital ownership “could have done better” in terms of handling the hospital’s accreditation, staff turnover and CEO changes. The situation is not, however, a lost cause. Despite relatively high expense levels, especially in terms of man-hours, Ransom said the Danville hospital still has positive EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — and commands more than 90 percent of the area’s market share. “It’s not critical for them to blow the doors out in Danville to meet the expectations Wall Street has set,” Ransom said. He added that LifePoint’s Danville woes are not unusual in the hospital industry.
“There’s nothing structurally wrong with LifePoint as far as they can run a hospital,” Ransom said. “It’s always touchy when you buy a big, local not-for-profit hospital. Almost everybody has had problems somewhere. It’s a hard business.”
Changes at the hospital have been one of Danville’s biggest local issues in the last two years, according to Arnold Hendrix, editor-in-chief of local newspaper The Danville Register & Bee. Danville has a population of 90,000, and the DRMC is one of the city’s top employers.
“Whatever happens to the hospital is going to have a ripple effect throughout the community,” Hendrix said. “I think everyone here recognizes that a hospital is crucial to a community, whether it be in health care or economic development efforts, just like a school system is critical. We all need LifePoint to succeed here.”
The mayor of Danville formed a citizen’s committee to investigate care at the hospital through public hearings, with the help of an outside consultant. The results of the investigation will be announced at a city council meeting next week. In the meantime, Hendrix said, there is a good deal of public pressure on the hospital’s board of directors to find a way to buy back the hospital.
Ransom said he believes LifePoint can move forward by establishing a CEO, then rebuilding local credibility and hospital structure.
LifePoint owns Tennessee hospitals in Athens, Lawrenceburg, Livingston, Pulaski and Winchester. LifePoint officials did not return repeated calls from The City Paper, and a spokesperson for the DRMC was unavailable for comment.

Another great day at DRMC...

2007-06-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

"Police investigating object found at hospital"
Danville Register and Bee
Monday, June 25, 2007
DANVILLE -- The Danville Police are investigating the report of a suspicious metal object at Danville Regional Medical Center. A hospital worker found the object in the basement area...this morning at approximately 10:23 a.m.
Danville Regional Medical Center is making accommodations for seriously ill patients, however they should not say what that is. Danville Police did not get a report of a bomb threat, however
South Main St. is blocked off. ATF and State Police have arrived.
Certain areas of the hospital have been evacuated as a precautionary measure. The Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Virginia State Police are assisting with the investigation of the object.

From WAKG:
DANVILLE POLICE SAY A "SUSPICIOUS METAL OBJECT" HAS BEEN FOUND AT DANVILLE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER. LT-MIKE MONDUL SAYS A HOSPITAL WORKER MADE THE DISCOVERY AT AROUND 10-23 THIS MORNING. THE ITEM WAS FOUND IN THE HOSPITAL'S BASEMENT AREA, IN THE WYATT TOWER. PEOPLE IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE HOSPITAL WERE EVACUATED, AND NO ONE IS BEING ALLOWED INSIDE. A CROWD OF MORE THAN FIFTY PEOPLE HAD GATHERED OUTSIDE OF THE HOSPITAL'S MAIN ENTRANCE AT LAST CHECK. A-T-F AGENTS AND EXPLOSIVES EXPERTS WITH VIRGINIA STATE POLICE ARE BEING CALLED IN. NO ONE HAS BEEN HURT.
MONDUL SAYS THEY'RE LEAVING IT UP TO THE HOSPITAL TO INFORM PATIENTS FAMILIES OF THE LATEST INFORMATION. ONE SOURCE TELLS THE NEWSROOM THAT SURGERIES NOT ALREADY UNDERWAY HAVE BEEN POSTPONED---EXCEPT IN LIFE-THREATENING CASES. SO FAR, NO CONFIRMATION FROM DANVILLE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER.

Joint Commission: Requirements for Improvement

2007-06-23T09:34:00.000-05:00

Accreditation Decision: Preliminary Denial of Accreditation
Decision Effective Date: February 17, 2007
This organization is not in full compliance with all applicable standards.

Requirements for Improvement:

Home Care
-An ongoing, proactive program for identifying and reducing unanticipated adverse events and safety risks to patients is defined and implemented.
-The director named on the CLIA certificate establishes policies and procedures that define the context in which waived test results are used in patient care, treatment, and services.
-Measure, assess, and if appropriate, take action to improve the timeliness of reporting, and the timeliness of receipt by the responsible licensed caregiver, of critical test results and values.

Hospital
-The leaders measure and assess the effectiveness of the performance improvement and safety improvement activities.
-Undesirable patterns or trends in performance are analyzed.
-An ongoing, proactive program for identifying and reducing unanticipated adverse events and safety risks to patients is defined and implemented.
-Newly constructed and existing environments are designed and maintained to comply with the Life Safety Code®.
-The hospital maintains fire-safety equipment and building features.
-The hospital develops and implements activities to protect occupants during periods when a building does not meet the applicable provisions of the Life Safety Code®.
-Medical equipment is maintained, tested, and inspected.
-The hospital maintains, tests, and inspects its medical gas and vacuum systems.
-Medications are properly and safely stored.
-Medication orders are written clearly and transcribed accurately.
-The hospital evaluates its medication management system.
-Initial assessments are performed as defined by the hospital.
-The hospital has a complete and accurate medical record for patients assessed, cared for, treated, or served.
-The hospital collects data to monitor its performance.
-Designated qualified staff accept and transcribe verbal or telephone orders from authorized individuals.
-The leaders develop and implement plans to identify and mitigate impediments to efficient patient flow throughout the hospital.
-Standardize a list of abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and dose designations that are not to be used throughout the organization.
-Measure, assess, and if appropriate, take action to improve the timeliness of reporting, and the timeliness of receipt by the responsible licensed caregiver, of critical test results and values.
-Label all medications, medication containers (for example, syringes, medicine cups, basins), or other solutions on and off the sterile field.
-Mark the operative site as described in the Universal Protocol
-The organized medical staff reviews and analyzes all relevant information regarding each requesting practitioner’s current licensure status, training, experience, current competence, and ability to perform the requested privilege

http://www.qualitycheck.org/qualityreport.aspx?hcoid=4718

"Hospital Ranks Low in Study"

2007-06-23T07:27:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, June 23, 2007

DANVILLE - The beleaguered Danville Regional Medical Center received yet another blow to its reputation on Friday when it landed on a list of seven hospitals ranked below the nationwide mortality rates for heart attacks. For the first time ever, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the Health and Human Services posted its rankings online of more than 4,800 hospitals nationwide.
Danville was one of seven hospitals that ranked worse than the national rate. It was the only one out of 80 hospitals in Virginia that ranked below the national average.
Seventeen hospitals nationwide ranked above the national rate. However, Dr. Michael Moore, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said that several factors must be taken into account when considering the report. “We take these reports extremely seriously,” he said. “The first thing that is important to note, though, is that the report looks at a period from July 2005 to July 2006, and even before the report came out, we have been fully engaged in a process of improvements for all cardio-vascular care … and have implemented new methods to monitor cardio-vascular care.”
Moore said improvements include conducting educational activities for the hospital and medical staff and a continuous quality improvement program. He said another point is that the study is a 30-day mortality study, so even if a patient had good care and died within 30 days after leaving the hospital from other causes, that counts as a mortality in the study.
“Of course,” he said, “you assume each hospital has the same risk.”
Other issues that figure into Danville’s higher mortality rate, according to Moore, is that the area is high in other co-morbidity conditions like malnourishment and liver problems that affect heart attack and failure survival rates. “We also live in economically challenging times, and patients come in sicker and don’t have the resources at home for follow-up care,” he said.
He also noted that in November of 2006, the American Heart Association recognized the hospital for its heart failure care in its “Getting with the Guidelines” program. “That to me was a wonderful marker, and we will continue to do that,” Moore said.
“The major message is that the data is a year old and the hospital has been engaged every day in improving these things.”

BELOW AVERAGE
NEW STUDY: The following seven hospitals, listed alphabetically, ranked below the national rate for death from heart attack:
Sparks Regional Medical Center, Arkansas
Yuma Regional Medical Center, Arizona
Kingman Regional Medical Center, Arizona
Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn, Queens, New York
Southern Ohio Medical Center, Ohio
Christus St. Michael Health System, Texas
Danville Regional Medical Center, Virginia

Q&A:
Q: Who did the data include?
: Patients who are on original Medicare.
Q: How was the data produced?
A: Through a complex mathematical model that relied on Medicare claims and enrollment information. The model predicts patient deaths for any cause within 30 days of hospital admission for heart attack or heart failure, whether death occurs inside or outside of hospital.
Q: Why is 30 days used?
A: Thirty days is the time period when deaths are most likely to be related to the care patients received in the hospital.

For more information, go to http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/, source of this information.

"Commission readies hospital report"

2007-06-22T00:32:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Thursday, June 21, 2007

DANVILLE - Members of the Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center said their goodbyes Thursday afternoon as they brought an end to the last four months the group has spent analyzing the problems that plagued the hospital.“I had heard the rumors,” Commission Co-Chair Clarissa Knight said, adding that she, like other commission members, was surprised to learn how complex and far-reaching some of those problems were. “But I had no idea the shape that (the hospital was) in.”Commission members then shared their thoughts on some of the topics their final report to the Danville City Council should contain. Here is an overview of some of those ideas:
Accreditation: Knight said the biggest problem facing Danville Regional was the “preliminary denial of accreditation” status the hospital received from the Joint Commission last week.“I think it’s important that we hammer down the problem of accreditation,” she said, echoing a sentiment all other commission members shared with her.Commission member David Caldwell agreed, saying that being the only Virginia hospital that is not fully accredited may keep Danville Regional from attracting the staff he felt it so sorely needed.
Staffing Levels: Caldwell felt the hospital needed to address its staffing levels, particularly when it came to nurses and support staff. He compared the hospital’s nurse-to-patient ratios - which codifies how many nurses need to be on a hospital floor at any time - with those from California and said some ratios at the hospital were twice, if not three times, what he felt they should be.“One of the big problems they have with the staffing here is that there’s no pool to draw from, so if they’re short, they’re short,” Caldwell said, adding that updating its software systems was another way Danville Regional could become more efficient.
Communication and Trust: Arlene Creasy repeated verbatim some of the ideas the commission’s consultant, Keith Pryor, included in the report he presented to the group last week.“We must have leadership from (the community and LifePoint Hospitals, Inc.) sitting at the same table and having the same dialogue,” Creasy said, adding that this was the only way to address the lack of trust between the two parties.Houser furthered this idea by suggesting the city should form a panel to hold this dialogue, consisting of local officials, normal citizens, hospital doctors and hospital staff members. He hoped LifePoint would be willing to work with this group and felt that they would.

What’s Next: Houser said he would spend the next week compiling the commission members’ thoughts into a final report he will present to council on July 3. That report will also include Pryor’s full comments, a budget detailing where the commission’s money went, and data collected from the commission’s surveys and public hearings.He will e-mail this final report to the commission members next week to get their final comments and approval. But as far as Houser is concerned, the commission’s job is over. “We’ve pretty much done what we were told to do,” he said. “This is just a recommendation. City Council’s going to do what they are going to do.”

And the good news just keeps rolling in...

2007-06-21T18:33:00.000-05:00

"Government Ranks Hospital Heart Care Online
First-Of-Its-Kind Site Ranks Hospitals According to Care; Most Score Average"
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CardiacHealth/story?id=3302737&page=1

"Check Hospitals in Your State
List Ranks Hospital Mortality Rates for Heart Attack Patients"
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Health/story?id=3304019

"Citizens Commission working on final report"

2007-06-21T13:05:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Thursday, June 21, 2007
DANVILLE -- The group tasked with analyzing what the problems surrounding the Danville Regional Medical Center and figuring out ways to address them is set to start work on its final report this afternoon.
The Citizens Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center will meet Thursday at 5:15 p.m. to start working on a report it will present to the Danville City Council in July.
The commission has already presented council with a report detailing the thoughts of its hospital consultant Keith Pryor. Click here to see a copy of that report.

"Another changing of the guard"

2007-06-21T09:35:00.000-05:00

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Art Doloresco said he wanted to lead the Danville Regional Medical Center into the future on his first day as the hospital’s CEO. That future lasted less than a year.
On Wednesday, he announced his resignation, saying that he will rejoin his family in Arizona in the next few weeks.
“When I came to Danville almost a year ago, I intended to relocate my family,” Doloresco said in a written statement issued late Wednesday afternoon. “Since then, I have changed my mind and decided not to move to Danville.
“The CEO of the medical center should live with his family in the area, so it is appropriate that I leave.”
Doloresco arrived in Danville on July 20, 2006, from Arizona to begin work as the third chief executive to work at Danville Regional since LifePoint Hospitals purchased the hospital in July 2005.
Now, LifePoint will
begin the process to hire a successor to Doloresco.
“We will work closely with the board of trustees and leadership of the medical staff in the selection of the new CEO,” said Jess Judy, president of the Gateway Division of LifePoint, in a written statement.
Doloresco will remain in charge while here for a few more weeks. When he leaves, Ruth McDaniel, the hospital’s interim chief nursing officer, will assume Doloresco’s responsibilities, until the position is filled.
Doloresco will leave, having spent considerable time in recent months dealing with city government. He was called before council on Feb. 6 to answer questions about a number of issues including emergency room wait times. His answers left some city council members unsatisfied.
One week later, Mayor Wayne Williams began setting up a citizen’s commission to study the hospital. The commission was tasked with examining exactly what lay behind people’s complaints surrounding the hospital.
The commission’s health care consultant said on June 12 that he felt the hospital’s biggest problem was a lack of trust between the community and hospital management.
The news came the same week as when the Joint Commission confirmed that it had given Danville Regional a “preliminary denial of accreditation.” The hospital is currently the only Virginia hospital not to be fully accredited by the commission.
Doloresco replaced Michael Boggs, who served in an interim capacity as the hospital’s CEO from March 2006 to July 20, 2006.
The first CEO under LifePoint was Tod Lambert, who headed the hospital’s operations from August 2005 to March 2006.
Lambert is best known for creating a reassignment pool where 100 hospital employees were given the chance to take a new job at Danville Regional or leave the hospital all together. This policy and other leadership concerns drew criticism from the Danville City Council.
“There has never been a hospital sold that was not an earthquake, a seismic event,” Lambert said when he responded to those concerns in December 2005. “It will pass.”
Lambert appeared before council in February 2006 and admitted that some mistakes had been made regarding the reassignment pool and LifePoint’s purchase of the hospital. He left the CEO’s office one month later, citing a desire to move back to Tennessee so that he could spend more time with his wife and newly adopted daughter.

"Hospital CEO Resigns"

2007-06-20T18:35:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

DANVILLE -- Art Doloresco resigned his position as the CEO of Danville Regional Medical Center this afternoon citing a desire to rejoin his family in Arizona. The decision was announced in a Wednesday afternoon press release issued by LifePoint Hospitals, Inc.

Doloresco is the third CEO to work at Danville Regional since LifePoint purchased the hospital in July 2005. Ruth McDaniel, the hospital’s interim chief nursing officer, will take over Doloresco’s duties until LifePoint can find a new CEO.

Consultant's Report to Commission available online

2007-06-20T09:14:00.001-05:00

http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Report%20to%20Commission.pdf

Cliffs Notes version...just in case you don't have time to read all 6 pages...
We need:

trust
dialogue
leadership

Uh....thanks Mr. Pryor.

'High level of discord'

2007-06-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Danville Register and Bee
Monday, June 18, 2007

Here’s a nomination for quotation of the year: “Your situation bothers me. What shocks me is the extremely high level of discord that you are having here.”

Those are the words of health care consultant Keith Pryor, who was in Danville last week. Pryor is working with the Citizen’s Commission appointed by Mayor Wayne Williams to investigate complaints about Danville Regional Medical Center.
The commission has found the hospital’s problems include staffing levels, poor patient care, emergency department wait times, employee morale and administrative issues - things the people of this community have little or no direct control over.
Pryor proposed a dialogue between LifePoint officials, community leaders and doctors at the hospital. But is that going to help when some local people believe hospital officials are constantly trying to start a fresh discussion?
Legendary industrialist Henry Ford once said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”
Promises aren’t going to fix the problems at Danville Regional Medical Center. Only the owner of Danville Regional, LifePoint Hospitals Inc., can fix the hospital’s problems.
Danville only has one hospital, and the future of Danville
Regional Medical Center is key to the future of health care in this community. The Dan River Region needs a strong hospital.
But it’s hard to imagine how dialogue alone is going to fix the hospital’s problems - and restore community confidence in Danville Regional.
What could be done?
The hospital could earn full accreditation (it has received a preliminary denial of accreditation). It could rehire those doctors and nurses that have left the hospital over the past two years for jobs with the region’s other hospitals but still live close to Danville. It could replace the high-tech equipment that was taken out of the hospital over the past two years.
Those things might serve as confidence boosters.
LifePoint Hospitals Inc. came into a bad situation when it bought Danville Regional nearly two years ago. People were angry that the hospital was sold at all. But the problems since the sale aren’t the result of bad communication with the community. Danville Regional needs to fix its problems before it can hope to improve its image with the public it purports to serve.

"Hospital stands alone"

2007-06-19T08:34:00.001-05:00

Accreditation commission awaits Danville Regional's next move.

Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

DANVILLE - The Danville Regional Medical Center is the only hospital in Virginia to currently have a “preliminary denial of accreditation” status from the Joint Commission. Joint Commission spokeswoman Elizabeth Zhani answered a few questions about what this means Monday afternoon.
Question: What is the Joint Commission?
Answer: The Joint Commission is an independent not-for-profit organization that monitors care given at nearly 15,000 health care organizations in the United States. The group evaluates care at 97 hospitals in Virginia.
Q: What is a preliminary denial of accreditation?
A: A “preliminary denial of accreditation” status is one step above a full denial of accreditation. The commission gives this status to health care organizations it feels justified in denying its accreditation to, but it lets the organization appeal this ruling before the actual denial takes place.
Zhani said large hospitals like Danville Regional that fail to meet 17 or more standards of care during an evaluation are given this status. She said approximately 1 percent of the hospitals surveyed across the U.S. in 2006 received a “preliminary denial of accreditation.”
Q: When did all of this happen?
A: The Joint Commission sends surveyors to evaluate a hospital once every three years. It has sent teams to 23 Virginia hospitals since June 2006. Commission surveyors last visited Danville Regional on Feb. 13-16.
Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco sent out a news release in March letting people know the hospital may receive a “preliminary denial of accreditation” following this visit. Zhani said the commission’s accreditation board reviewed the survey findings last week and signed off on the decision.
Q: What happens next?
A: Zhani said the hospital could appeal its “preliminary denial of accreditation” status to the commission’s review panel. She said the panel will look over the original survey results and “can deny the accreditation or make another decision” about the hospital’s status. Zhani expects this hearing to take place within the next month. No hospital official would return calls Monday for comment about their plans for the future.
Q: Why is this important?
A: State and federal governments use Joint Commission evaluations as a way to determine whether a health care organization qualifies for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. If a hospital loses its accreditation, the government will have to send its own team of investigators to evaluate the hospital before any decision becomes final.

"Status of hospital remains the same"

2007-06-16T18:28:00.000-05:00

Danville Register Bee
Saturday, June 16, 2007

DANVILLE - Danville Regional Medical Center continues to operate with a preliminary denial of accreditation.
Mayor Wayne Williams said that hospital CEO Art Doloresco sent out a statement to hospital physicians Friday stating that the hospital would remain in this category until further notice.
Danville Regional remains accredited and had hoped to improve its score from The Joint Commission, Williams said. The reason for the status quo rating is the hospital could not verify that certain standards had been met, he said.
“It doesn’t mean they haven’t done anything,” Williams said. “It’s still not a good thing.”
Williams, who appointed a Citizens Commission in an attempt to fix problems at the hospital, said he has confidence that Danville Regional can turn its situation around.
“Personally, I have no problem taking patients to the hospital,” Williams said.
Danville Regional first announced in March that it had received a preliminary denial of accreditation from The Joint Commission, which is the largest nonprofit health care accrediting body responsible for evaluating the quality of care at hospitals across the United States.
The survey was conducted Feb. 13-16.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) use commission accreditations as a basis for determining which hospitals qualify for Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements.
According to the commission’s Web site, www.qualitycheck.org, surveyors conducted their last full survey of Danville Regional on March 19, 2004.
The surveyors found the hospital to be “in full compliance with all applicable standards” and presented Danville Regional with an award for allowing CMS to post its performance measures on the agency’s Web site.

"Consultant bothered by problems"

2007-06-12T09:28:00.000-05:00

Keith Pryor says the hospital's current issues are unnecessary, but can still be fixed.

Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

DANVILLE - There is an unusually high level of animosity within the community following Danville Regional Medical Center’s transition from public to private ownership, health care consultant Keith Pryor said Monday.
“Your situation bothers me,” said Pryor, who was hired to work with the Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center. “What shocks me is the extremely high level of discord that you are having here.”
Pryor met with the commission Monday to discuss the quality of care at Danville Regional.
He said the biggest problem facing the hospital is a growing lack of trust between members of the community and LifePoint Hospitals Inc. Pryor said this problem started when LifePoint purchased Danville Regional in July 2005.
Pryor said the transition from public to private ownership requires “leaders who are the best of the best” and that LifePoint’s own admission that it made leadership mistakes during this time did not make the process any smoother.
“There is a lot at stake here,” he said, adding the level of distrust could hinder anything from the community’s health care system to its economic development efforts. “(This problem) is so unnecessary and I think you can fix it.”
Pryor told the commission members the best way to restore the trust was to open up a dialogue between LifePoint officials, community leaders and physicians at the hospital.
The participants in this dialogue must be willing to leave the past behind them and focus on some of the core problems that were identified through the commission’s efforts, he said.
“It’s time to start walking on a new path,” said Jim Houser, co-chairman of the commission, adding he felt the “old path was very negative and destructive.”
Houser said the commission identified five areas the hospital needed to improve at its last meeting, including staffing levels, poor patient care, wait times in the emergency room, morale among employees and administrative issues.
Houser said these topics covered most of the problems that were brought up at a recent series of public hearings, but some positive things were said about the hospital as well. People testified that the hospital’s cleanliness, one-day surgery program and heart center seemed to show improvement.
Pryor said some other “good news” was that about 80-90 percent of the community and hospital staff wanted the situation at Danville Regional to improve.
He said LifePoint has no other choice but to listen to concerns because Danville Regional’s situation may hinder the company’s ability to grow.
“We too have come to the same conclusion. We have to build trust,” Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco said Monday at the commission meeting. “Building that trust means having the dialogue that (Pryor) talked about.”

Exactly...

2007-06-11T22:01:00.000-05:00

Vote with your dollars, folks
To the editor:
There have been several letters to the editor written lately suggesting our community should support LifePoint Hospitals Inc. and Danville Regional Medical Center. While I agree the doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital are dedicated, caring, skillful professionals deserving of our respect, I disagree that we owe LifePoint our support or help.Remember, this is no longer a community agency, it is now a business not unlike any store or chain restaurant in Danville.It is not incumbent upon the citizens to “fix” anything at Danville Regional any more than it would be our responsibility to correct any problems at any other business in the area. I don’t think the officers at LifePoint need our help to run a hospital because they own more than 50. And furthermore, it is LifePoint’s decision to reveal any accreditation problems it has. They aren’t obligated to tell us anything.As a business, it is up to them to sell us on their product. To suggest that we should choose to have health care at LifePoint out of some community obligation is ludicrous.If you feel you will receive the best care possible there, by all means go. If not - and you choose to go elsewhere - it doesn’t make you a bad citizen.Hopefully with research and understanding, you will choose what’s best for you and your family. If you could buy a better car for less money with better service and more perks, you wouldn’t hesitate to drive out of town.Surely, your health care warrants the same.By its own admission, LifePoint’s corporate philosophy is to seek out rural hospitals with no competition. Obviously, it didn’t look at the geography of our region before buying us. Here they have more competition than they are accustomed to - and it is starting to show. It is up to them to convince us we should shop here. We are fortunate to have the Citizen’s Commission allowing us input, but that does not mean LifePoint will have to act on anything we say. In effect they are fortunate in that they are receiving a free customer survey, paid for by the citizens ($25,000 worth), and summarized and wrapped up in a nice package by the commission.If LifePoint wants good PR, then it is up to them to do the things necessary to get it. Internal problems must be addressed by employees. Citizens are powerless to “support” or “help fix” anything on the inside. If Home Depot were to move to Danville, I can assure you Lowe’s wouldn’t put out a call for citizen support. It would do what it always does and compete by upgrading service, lowering prices, and selling itself to its customers.Sadly, there was a time when all of the money you or your insurer spent at Danville Regional was kept here. It was used to pay for and retain staff, upgrade and clean the buildings, open new treatment centers and offer more services. Now, much of that money goes to Tennessee. Don’t be mislead - Danville Regional was making millions every year and probably still is. Unfortunately, a good part of that is going to pay shareholders and corporate salaries outside of Danville. But that is not going to change.It remains to be seen if LifePoint will do what is necessary to retain its customer base, but the ball is in its court. Our citizens can’t - and shouldn’t - be expected to “fix” whatever problems they created. Hopefully, soon the hard work of the many professionals at Danville Regional will prove we should keep our business in Danville. Until then, you are not a bad citizen if you go elsewhere - just an educated consumer.

STEVE
Ringgold