Wow...

I’m glad I don’t work there

To the editor:
It is interesting to me that the five men who were behind the sale of Danville Regional Medical Center want us to put the bad service from LifePoint Hospitals Inc. behind us and move on.These are the same people that can afford to seek medical treatment anywhere. They also are supposed to be savvy businessmen, so remember this when you patronize (or not) their businesses.
As a matter of fact, they thought they knew so much more than the citizens of this area, they kept the entire deal to sell the hospital a secret for as long as they could. I also wonder how they actually portrayed us to LifePoint. Did they realize that many of the best doctors actually came to Danville Regional because it was a not-for-profit hospital?
Coy Harville was correct in pointing out the things he did in his letter, “Why do they need help?” (Jan. 4, page A4).
As a former long-time employee of Danville Regional, I can also point some things out. For example, before I went to work for a community non-profit hospital 45 miles away, I tried to understand what LifePoint was about. The local physicians and medical personnel tried to work with LifePoint and were repeatedly ignored or placated. LifePoint officials said all the right things about patient care, but continued to implement their own policies, even when Danville Regional people pointed out that it would be detrimental to the medical care we were used to providing. It was hard to start lowering our standards to theirs.
I got mad and when one of their consultants said, “The nurses here are way overpaid for their abilities.” I drew a line in the sand!I did not become a nurse to pad the pockets of CEOs, CFOs and board members. There have been more than $10 million in bonuses paid to the LifePoint executives and board members over the past two years.
I became a nurse to help people recover from illness and to have better lives. I believe LifePoint preys on the medical staffs sense of duty and love of patients to provide the best of care under the worst of conditions. Short staffing, few supplies and old, outdated systems are not in the best interest of the patients - only the stockholders.I have been gone a year and I still get calls every week from someone who had a bad experience at the hospital or from Danville Regional employees who want a job somewhere else. A large number of excellent employees have resigned from Danville Regional, while others were simply terminated.
Working for LifePoint seems no different than working at Dan River Inc. - making a profit for the company man - only LifePoint hasn’t closed yet.
DIXIE , R.N.
Danville