A big job
Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Mayor Wayne Williams’ solution to the problems - and allegations of problems - at Danville Regional Medical Center is to form a seven-member committee called the Citizens Commission.
Committees get a bad rap because they are often seen as an attempt to turn down the heat without shedding any light on a controversial topic. But the Citizens Commission won’t have that luxury because too many people have too many questions about Danville Regional.
If the commission is going to get anything done, it needs the full backing of Williams and the rest of City Council. A good way to ensure that happens - and to keep the pressure on Danville Regional - would be to appoint council members Pete Castiglione and Sherman Saunders.
Castiglione and Saunders asked the toughest questions of hospital officials during a recent meeting with the entire City Council. It would be hard to imagine the commission moving forward without those two pushing it along. Castiglione and Saunders would give the Citizens Commission instant credibility.
Williams envisions the group meeting “until the job’s done,” but that could mean a lot of things. Just understanding where Danville Regional Medical Center is today would be a good place to start:
-- When LifePoint Hospitals Inc. bought Danville Regional Medical Center in July 2005, the hospital had the equivalent of 1,357 full-time employees. As of last month, that figure had dropped to 1,132 - a 16.6 percent drop;
-- The loss of registered nurses mirrors that trend - from the equivalent of nearly 300 RNs in July 2005 to about 242 last month. That’s a decrease of 19.5 percent; and
-- Hospital admissions in August 2005 numbered 1,003, but had dropped to 820 a year later. In January of this year, admissions were 952, compared with 945 a year earlier in January 2006.
LifePoint officials insist they have no corporate formula that they’re trying to shoehorn Danville Regional into. To the credit of the current CEO, Art Doloresco, the hospital has shown improvement in the Emergency Department. More people are using it, yet wait times and the percentage of people leaving without care is down.
If that’s an indication of how Doloresco and LifePoint plan to solve other problems and complaints, the work of the Citizens Commission could be easier.
Eventually, our community is going to have to make its peace with LifePoint Hospitals Inc., one way or another. Given the turmoil that has marked the company’s first 19 months here, it’s clear that peace hasn’t been reached.
Fewer admissions, fewer employees and fewer registered nurses - the mayor’s proposed Citizens Commission will have its hands full looking into what’s happening at Danville Regional Medical Center.
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4 comments:
Meanwhile, keep in mind that some people flip houses, Lifepoint flips hospitals:
smallerurl.com/?id=ri1qkvx
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But soon after the purchase, LifePoint announced it was selling the 155-bed St. Francis and 325-bed St. Joseph's.
"LifePoint bought the HCA holdings with the intention of keeping Raleigh and flipping St. Francis and St. Joseph's in Parkersburg," said Sonia Chambers, chairwoman of the state Health Care Authority, which regulates hospitals . . .
(WV State Journal, Dec. 21 '06, Hospital Sales Move at Different Paces)
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The buying and selling of hospitals within/among healthcare systems is nothing new. This often occurs in metropolitan/suburban areas where the market is more competitive than Danville.
I guess this is one more growing pain this community will experience as it moves to ward "world class" status and economic growth. This doesn't mean our healthcare must suffer though.
"The buying and selling of hospitals within/among healthcare systems is nothing new."
True, of course. However, this is not the culture LifePoint is trying to project in Danville.
Other interesting trivia regarding the flipping sale: LifePoint bought the West Virginia hospitals from HCA, the scandal-and-fraud-ridden giant which spun off LifePoint during 1999 in the midst of its woes.
All in the family.
While this "Commission" sounds good, what can really be done be a citizens group (other than gather info. and raise questions)??
Does anyone really think that a "board" (comprised of "average Joe's") can force the hospital into making changes when the physicians (who bring revenue into the hopital on a daily basis through admissions, surgeries, etc)can not??
Even if the "board" got the hopital to make changes, wouldn't that be a slap in the face to the physicians who work there??
In reality, this "Commission" should have been established at the time the hospital was sold so that the public could have an open debate. This would have had much more of an influence than waiting 18 months after the fact. Lifepoint may be "more approachable" now because they realize that the public will and is going to other local facilities for there healthcare. They have to make some changes in order to regain public trust, and more importantly their dollars - after all, they are a for-profit corporation.
And oh by the way...if you didn't know.....there is supposed to be a public forum to discuss the building of the 6th floor at DRMC on Wedenesday Feb. 21, 2007 at 11AM at the public library. Don't you think it would be better to have a debate/forum later in the evening when more people could attend???
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