To the editor:
Less than two years ago, Danville Regional Medical Center was a nonprofit hospital. Its main focus was health care and expansion to provide broader health care. Now with LifePoint Hospitals Inc. at the helm, it has a split focus - health care and profits. The skilled doctors and nurses of this area can certainly handle the health care side, but judging from its first 19 months, LifePoint could use some schooling on the business side.
Anyone with a miniscule amount of business savvy knows that to be successful, a company must have quality employees who believe in their product and trust their employer.
LifePoint has breezed through several CEOs and it replaced a state-of-the-art computer system with one that actually makes it easy for patients not to get charged for expensive procedures, in addition to being slow and cumbersome to work on. LifePoint has allowed nurses, technicians and other staff members with years of experience to resign from departments that are already understaffed, without so much as a thank-you, would you reconsider or an exit interview. Then it brought nurses and staff in from outside at double pay to fill in.Maybe that’s LifePoint’s strategy. If they treat people poorly enough, employees will leave on their own accord, saving LifePoint from having to have layoffs and pay unemployment. Then it will be able to say, “We didn’t go in and slash and burn jobs, the people in Danville just couldn’t handle change.” When you force people to work in a condescending, secretive environment, they cannot help but worry and speculate about their future, neither of which is good for morale or allows them to take pride in their work and employer. Your employees are your greatest asset, and if you continue to treat them as a second-rate liability, they will eventually learn to act as such. Danville Regional is certainly getting its fair share of press, but can anything more than lip service be done? I cannot help but believe that if this were the old nonprofit Danville Regional, the groundswell from the staff and community would elicit more concrete, productive actions from Danville City Council. I also believe that if the five who sold the hospital were true leaders - and truly had what was best for the community at heart - they would have stepped up long before now to try to right their wrong. That being said, who among us has the courage and fortitude to actually step up and get the ball rolling?
Ideally, I would like to see a committee made up of Pete Castiglione, Sherman Saunders, Danny Marshall, Bill Fuller and Coy Harville. Seated before them and answering questions would be LifePoint’s current CEO, Art Doloresco, and the five local business leaders who got us into this mess. Actually though, a little research might forgo the need for that type of meeting. In just a couple of hours, I was able to glean some eye opening facts from the Internet.
There is an incredible blog on the Internet dedicated to Danville Regional and the LifePoint fiasco. Dozens of links to business, news and health care Web sites provide some interesting facts about LifePoint and the changes at Danville Regional. A little reading and a few mouse clicks will cause anyone to have concern for the future of our hospital.
STEVE
Ringgold
EDIT: Hey Steve from Ringgold....thanks for mentioning the blog in your letter!
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COURAGE AND ELOQUENCE
Dixie Shorter Doss, a skilled medical professional, highly admired in her field, has emerged as one of the most eloquent advocates for getting to the bottom of how our community lost its hospital—and what can now be done about the LifePoint mess.
But the ugly specter of censorship has entered the picture. Thank goodness for the integrity of Sentinel Event and this Blog.
Just recently, the Reverend Charlie Warnock, pastor of the Chatham Baptist Church, jumped into the hospital issue by writing a letter to the Star-Tribune with a veiled defense of what the Boys at the Bank have done to our community. Mrs. Doss showed great courage and grace when she objected in print to the fact that the Reverend Charlie Warnock, in his defense of the Bank Boys, failed to disclose that he heads a newly formed group in Chatham that is receiving $3,000,000 from the proceeds of the hospital sale, through the Danville Regional Foundation.
As it turns out, Pastor Warnock, on the side, operates an elaborate Internet Blog called “Confessions of a Small-Town Pastor.” It is filled with his musings on life in general and, in particular, numerous examples of his own brilliant leadership in the ministerial field.
After initially posting his exchanges with Mrs. Doss, the Reverend Warnock then removed all of them and deprived his viewers of reading her final comments to him. Obviously, he either became ashamed of the position he had taken or, possibly, he wilted in the face of Mrs. Doss’ eloquent insights. The latter possibility is more likely.
It is a shame for the public to be deprived of this information, and it seems fitting for your Blog, a truly distinguished contribution to public dialogue, to make available Pastor Warnock’s final attempt to quiet Mrs. Doss’ eloquence before banning her from his Blog.
From Warnock:
Hi, Dixie,
Thanks for your comments on my blog, Small-Church Pastor. I have replied to you there, but found your email and thought I would answer you personally. I’d love to talk with you about your concerns anytime that’s convenient with you. I believe that we can work together to solve local community problems. I’m sorry you took offense to my letter, but I wasn’t just referring to the hospital issue. Many, many letters to the editor attack people rather than address issues. If the newspaper encourages that, I’m disappointed. So, if you’d like to talk I’m available, my numbers are below and you can call or email me anytime. I’m not a bad guy -- I’m just trying to help.
Thanks,
Chuck
From: Dixie Doss:
Dear Reverend Warnock,
You completely miss the point. I'm sorry to pop your balloon, but the issue is not about you, and it's certainly not about me. And it is not about whether you and I agree about anything.
In appointing yourself chief public pontificator over the "tone" of newspaper letters, you have been deceptive in refusing to reveal in the newspaper your role as a $3 million beneficiary of the hospital sale. Now that you have leapt into the public debate, your first responsibility is to come clean on that deception.
Then--if, indeed, you actually care about our community--you should interrogate Ben Davenport and other of your wealthy friends to find out what they are going to do to save us from the health-care wreckage they have created.
So, instead of wasting your time and mine meeting with each other, I suggest you demand some answers from your pals who have given us this mess. That's what you should report to the public instead of hiding behind the Golden Rule. I look forward to reading your findings in the newspapers.
--Dixie Shorter Doss
Then, in the Chatham Star-Tribune of March 7th, 2007, Dixie Doss offers yet another eloquent commentary on the Reverend Warnock’s position:
To the Star-Tribune Editor:
Let me first commend the Star-Tribune for launching the Reverend Charles Warnock's debut into the forum of public "dialogue," which he says he loves.
I've heard from members of his Chatham Baptist Church, where I grew up, and most seem pleased for non-members to have a glimpse of Mr. Warnock's stewardship over his flock.
Here's what troubles me: While Mr. Warnock pretends to be an objective referee of the "tone" of your letters column, he refuses to come clean in his public "dialogue" about the $3 million vested interest he has in protecting the Boys at the Bank.
Hiding behind the Golden Rule and sputtering about "personal attacks," Mr. Warnock continues to carry on relentlessly about courtesy, being nice, civility and friendship. He seems certain the public is too dumb to see his true motives.
I don't know where Mr. Warnock was 35-40 years ago, but I know that I was spending my Sundays in the Chatham Baptist Church learning about the life of Jesus Christ.
I learned about a man far more complex and courageous than the one-dimensional Jesus Mr. Warnock describes in his simplistic rendering of "a carpenter from Nazareth named Jesus."
The Jesus I learned about was also a sharp-tongued fellow with plenty to say to big-shots who forced their will upon the helpless.
The Jesus I knew spent His time on Earth caring for those ignored by others. Above all, He was a compassionate healer who gave comfort to the ill and the afflicted.
Based on what I was taught about Christ, I suspect He would object to what the Boys at the Bank have done to wreck health care in our region for those who cannot pay to go elsewhere.
And I believe He would offer a strong rebuke for the callous indifference those same men have shown toward simple people who do not possess great wealth and powerful authority over others' lives.
The one-dimensional Jesus Mr. Warnock uses to defend himself in your columns reminds me of the old Oriental saying about the "Three Wise Monkeys" who choose to "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil."
That's not the strong and courageous and compassionate Jesus Christ I was taught about at his church.
If Chatham Baptist Church is using the same Bible it used when I was a child, I recommend that Mr. Warnock take a fresh look at it before lurching into public print using Jesus Christ to shore up his questionable utterances.
It is a disservice to Jesus as well as to the Chatham Baptist Church.
Dixie Shorter Doss
Dixie Shorter Doss, a skilled medical professional, highly admired in her field,..........
LOL, this is a hoot ! OMG, I can hardly stand it....ha, ha, ha, ha, ha........
You bet she is. Think you better wake up and check around Moses-Cone, and that's what you'll learn. You must be one of those Pro-Lifepoint cats who get so mad whenever Dixie calls em like she seem em! People like Dixie Doss will drive this issue to a proper conclusion by always stating the truth.
EDITOR: This is Steve...Glad to mention the blog! Everyone in the community should be reading it. Unfortunately the letter was edited more than I wanted. Seems someone at the paper thinks the accredidation issue, the actions of former directors, and Doloresco's past are to touchy to bring up. Oh well, getting a few of the points across beats getting none. Keep up the good work on the blog, the more people learn, the more they will do to fix this mess.
Steve, feel free to share the parts of your letter that were edited out...I promise they'll be posted here for folks to read and discuss.
Sentinel Event
I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE ALL THIS STUFF ON THE WEB. IT IS DESGUSTING FOR THIS WOMAN DIXIE TO SAY WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT THE NICE NEW PASTOR IN CHATHAM. HE SAYS HE NEVER EVEN MET HER, SO HOW CAN SHE KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT HIS THINKING. AND SHE SHOULD BE JAILED FOR WHAT SHE SAID AND WROTE ABOUT JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why can we put this stuff on the web? Hmmm...First Amendment maybe?
Free and open debate is a key virute that should be protected. Perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess if we had a little more of that a while back.
Part of the "not treating your employees well" part was about the former director who labeled Danville "Dumbville" and called the nursing staff "fat, lazy, and overpaid". It also included references to past joint commission interviews that were followed by "Great Job" and "We did it!" Instead of silence with evryone wondering whether or not the hospital managed to get accredited.
I truly hope people will FOLLOW THE MONEY. See how much of the foundations money goes to friends, business associates, and pet projects. That might show the true motivation for the sale of DRMC. And the puzzling part is what good will new buildings, community centers, parks etc. be if the area has the stigma of poor healthcare. If the people of this area have to look elsewhere for healthcare, won't they also look elswhere for jobs and homes? And isn't a communities healthcare near the top of the list when an industry or an outsider is looking to move there?
Just my 2 cents
Sorry, that last post was mine....Steve
Great job Steve and Dixie!!!
WELL, IF YOU KNEW ANYTHING YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THE FIRST AMMENDMENT STOPS THE MINUTE YOU START TALKING ABOUT JESUS.
To Sentinel Event: Is there a way to buy an ad letting people know about this site? If someone could find out, post the info, I'm sure many of us would happily go to the potential advertising source and plunk down the dough. It is troubling how many people seem not to know about this. Since Steve Adkins and Dixie Doss have the courage to use their names, perhaps they could think about it. This frightened, anonymous poster would quickly put up $25--$50.
I don't know who is responsible for this stuff abot the Chatham Baptist minister, but whoever it is calls him Charlie when all we call him is Chuck.
Never heard him called Charlie. He's not your regular minster, and he isn't my cuppa tea, but I hear some of the young people like him, and that's all any church cares about anymore anyway. We just put our old folks in the rest home and get rid of them. I think its excellent for Chuck to take a swing at these people who are against our church. I'd say hallalluyou if I knmew where the Js went and could spell it.
The first amendment stops when you start talking about Jesus? That's an interesting point of view...the same amendment that gives you and I the right to choose the way we worship also guarantees that freedom of speech.
Just because someone's line of reasoning makes you uncomfortable does not make it wrong. As long as that person doesn't maliciously slander another, the very act of debate will uncover truths and, perhaps, solutions to the issues that we face.
I bet Piedmont Shopper would take an ad for this blog.
Editor: The following is from MarketWatch.com re LifePoints selling and divesting of hospitals.
"From time to time, we may evaluate our facilities and sell assets which we believe may no longer fit with our long-term strategy for various reasons. In connection with the acquisition of four facilities from HCA, effective July 1, 2006, we entered into a plan to divest two hospitals, St. Joseph's Hospital located in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Saint Francis Hospital located in Charleston, West Virginia. We sold Saint Francis Hospital effective January 1, 2007, and anticipate selling St. Joseph's Hospital by mid-2007. During the second quarter of 2005, subsequent to the Province business combination, we committed to a plan to divest three hospitals acquired from Province. These three hospitals were: Medical Center of Southern Indiana located in Charlestown, Indiana; Ashland Regional Medical Center located in Ashland, Pennsylvania; and Palo Verde Hospital located in Blythe, California. We divested Palo Verde Hospital on January 1, 2006 by terminating our lease of that hospital and returning the hospital to the Hospital District of Palo Verde. We completed the sale of both Medical Center of Southern Indiana and Ashland Regional Medical Center to Saint Catherine Healthcare effective May 1, 2006. On March 31, 2006, we sold Smith County Memorial Hospital to Sumner Regional Health System. On March 31, 2005, we sold Bartow Memorial Hospital to Health Management Associates, Inc. Please refer to Note 3 of our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report for more information on our discontinued operations.
Wonder if we could be as lucky as Palo Verde? No lease to terminate but a sell-back would work!
Steve
More on Palo Verde:
City manager envisions a busy 2006
Hospital, Wal-Mart, Blythe Energy’s new plant and new home construction expected to be issues in coming year
Marty Bachman
Palo Verde Valley Times
Blythe City Manager Les Nelson has a full schedule of projects he’s committed to seeing through in the coming year.
Nelson was forced to spend the closing days of 2005 in search of funding to save Palo Verde Hospital from closing after the hospital’s management firm, LifePoint, gave notice they were leaving. Nelson was successful in putting forward a financial package that kept the doors open after LifePoint’s Dec. 31 departure and while the hospital is not yet out of the woods, Nelson is able to refocus his attention back City Hall issues.
from http://www.paloverdevalleytimes.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=6276&SectionID=24&SubSectionID=36&S=1
I wonder why LifePoint would have to pay more for "contract labor" at DRMC (Can you say nursing shortage?)
The large increase in salaries and benefits in the third quarter of 2005 as compared to the prior period is the result of the Province Merger and the 2005 Acquisitions. Contract labor as a percentage of revenues increased due to higher utilization of contract labor at the former Province hospitals and DRMC.
Our man-hours per equivalent admission were higher at the former Province facilities (92.1) and at Danville Regional Medical Center (150.0) during the quarter ended September 30, 2005 than we have historically experienced.
From: http://excite.brand.edgar-online.com/EFX_dll/EDGARpro.dll?FetchFilingHTML1?SessionID=BglqITdF5792OES&ID=3977273-114917-312445
From: http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/88/880/88004/items/196075/LPNT-Transcript-2006-04-28T14-00.pdf
A Lifepoint conference call with investors.
Jess Judy - LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. - Division President -- Gateway Division
Thanks, Ken. I'm pleased to report that we are making steady progress in Danville.
The
hospital has continued to receive increased positive media exposure and complementary letters to the editors by patients,
employees and physicians.
We are beginning to overcome much of the negative community reaction resulting from the sale of the hospital and expect to
see continued improvement as we complete the projects previously mentioned. There is no physician mutiny.
http://smartvoter.org/2005/11/08/ca/rv/meas/I/
Palo Verde Hospital is at a critical point in its survival. In July of this year LifePoint, the company that recently took over operating the hospital notified the District that it was terminating the lease and its relationship with the hospital. Measure “I” has been placed on the ballot to prevent the closure of the hospital and ensure the hospital’s continued ability to provide modern emergency room and health care services to the residents of Blythe and the surrounding area.
For victims of automobile accidents, heart attacks and other traumatic injuries, receiving emergency care within the critical first 60 minutes can mean the difference between life and death. Having a full-service hospital and emergency room in Blythe avoids forcing patients and their families to travel over 100 miles for hospital care or even to deliver a baby.
Local doctors, nurses and employees of the Palo Verde Hospital urge support of Measure “I.” No one knows when a life-threatening emergency will strike or when you will need to use the hospital. Measure “I” ensures that medical care will be here locally when you need it.
Please vote YES on Measure “I.”
By:
David Brooks, M.D.
President, Board of Directors
Palo Verde Healthcare District
(No arguments against Measure I were submitted)
It's a shame the sellers of our hospital didn't look into the past few posts before signing the deal.
"The hospital has continued to receive increased positive media exposure and complementary letters to the editors by patients,
employees and physicians.
We are beginning to overcome much of the negative community reaction resulting from the sale of the hospital and expect to see continued improvement as we complete the projects previously mentioned. There is no physician mutiny."
Okay, that quote was made in the shareholder conference call in April of '06...fast forward to April of '07...the letters aren't positive anymore and there is a Citizens Commission appointed by the local government.
I look forward to reading the April '07 transcript.
Nor were the letters "positive" in April, 2006! Sorry just more lies from Jess Judy and Lifepoint.
MRS ALL CAPS: So what are you saying? That Jesus is not STRONG, nor COMPASSIONATE,nor COURAGEOUS? Do you think all Christianity is about is the Golden Rule? Well, let me ask you this, where was the Golden Rule when the boys at the bank sold the whole community out by turning DRMC into a pile of money to fill up their sand box?
Dixie Doss
Look it is not important what Rev. Warnock is like or what Dixie is like. You're getting off track here....the point is KEEP FOLLOWING THE $$$$$$. As the sandbox empties watch where it goes. Warnock may be a good man, however his integrity and credibility suffered when he jumped in the fray to take the heat off of Ben Davenport and failed to mention that $3,000,000 worth of sand was being shoveled his way.
Give the $3mil back and sing the praises of Davneport, the other 4 or even LifePoint itself, until you are blue in the face.
Better yet, keep the money but use it to build a clinic in Chatham you might need it worse than a community center.
HALLELUJAH!!!! I have nothing at all against Chatham Baptist Church, there are some very fine people there. I take exception, though, when a minister goes into the public arena promoting his own agenda while criticizing others for doing the same thing( and we didn't have 3 million reasons to do it.) Dixie Doss.
Palo Verde Hospital nearly had its doors shut? Town manager had to scramble to keep it open? Surley not! LifePoint whose main concern is it's community and healthcare wouldn't just pack up and leave a community with no hospital for 100 miles. Or would it? Well, they did and probably because it wasn't going to turn enough profit. Let's all hope and pray the citizens commission gets some answers and makes some plans. What's even scarier is we could wake up tomorrow and find out good old LifePoint has sold us-to someone who might be even worse.
Why would anyone or any company continue to LEASE a business not showing a profit? Healthcare facility or otherwise, in light of no available buyer.
Unless of course you're one of the "astute" business developers like we have in Danville (he,he). That downtown area is really taking off isn't it and is it true another big box low quality store is coming 'cause you paid several millions to get it? Economics 101 just didn't make any sense to you did it?
I realize healthcare has become a business. However if LifePoint was that astute why would they (lease,buy) a business that wasn't going to be profitable? Other businesses are expected to act ethically why not a healthcare business? My point wasn't that they decided it wasn't profitable and they needed out, my point was they were abandoning a community and leaving them without a hospital for 100 miles! Plus equating downtown development with a community being abandoned without so much as an emergency room shows your "astutness".
7:29 AM poster
You said "we have in Danville" and "you paid several million(s)" like you aren't sure whether or not you're supposed to be from Danville. You aren't a LifePoint plant are you?
There are multiple entries from Tennessee daily, almost hourly to this blog. There are many Lifepoint "Plants" on this site.
Ya do know that if someone views this blog while they are at the DRMC, their server is probably in TN, right?
To the blog editor,
I received an interesting e-mail from the folks at Palo Verde about how they got in their situation and what they have done since. Out of respect to this person's position at that hospital, I don't think it is appropriate to post it here but would like for you to see it. Let me know how we can pull that off. Thanks for the blog and the info. it provides.
Steve
Steve,
You can send it to my email at drmcanon@hotmail.com.
Thx.
Sentinel Event: It's on the way!
I agree that Charles Warnock is not a bad person, and the Chatham Baptist Church is a great institution. But Warnock obviously is a very weak guy who was brought in to serve the Davenports, and that's what he does. He is paid for it. The guy has to make a living. That's why he protects the bank boys, and that's why he celebrates the soft side of Jesus that supports his protection of these people. Who knows, but what he might be a real stand-up guy under other circumstances. I think you should give him a break. If you miss my point, think of all the garbage we have to smile and accept to keep our jobs at DRMC!
Half right and half wrong. I know people in Warnock's church, and they all say that Davenport brought him in to grow the church. They even dropped the immersion requirement for Baptisms. Anything to beef up the congregation. They also gave Warnock two assistants so he could spend most of his time working on a Blogsite to put Chatham Baptist on the map. It's silly to say Warnock came in to protect Davenport, or anything like that. He came in to grow the church. --Dry Fork
That $3 mil came with alot of fertilizer, so he ought to be able to grow that church alot. Have you read the blog, Dry Fork? He has a high opinion of himself.
Someone sent me Warnock's comments about himself from his Blog. Yes, he is certain that he is truly the center of the Universe. It's comical in one sense, but by golly, it's his Blog. If he enjoys being a poster child for all the New Age nonsense that he thinks will grow Chatham Baptist, that's his business. In what was sent to me, he was claiming to be a "friend" of God--the worst New Age concept of all. "Friendship" suggests an equal footing, of course, so Warnock nicely sets himself up as God's equal. But if that's what Chatham Baptist wants it's their business and no one else's. --Dry Fork
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