Letter to the editor - Register & Bee - Apr 21
To the Editor;
The author of, “Wanted: A good solution to the hospital problem,” (April 11, page A8), was right on target about LifePoint Hospitals Inc., Danville Regional Medical Center and the greed of the people who sold us out.
Those of us who knew of LifePoint’s reputation prior to the sale could have predicted the chain of events which now leads us to this shameful excuse for a health care system. Now, it’s time for the community to band together and rid ourselves of LifePoint and Art Deloresco, [whose] arrogance and lack of concern represent all that is bad about the hospital. We need leaders who are not afraid to take charge and guide the community to a successful resolution to this situation.
The people of Danville deserve better.
KAREN
Chatham
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29 comments:
You would think that the Register & Bee would provide some sort of coverage of last week's Citizens Commission meeting considering all that is being said about the hospital. Oh yeah, don't forget that the Attorney General sent a staff member to attend the meeting. Wonder what they learned. Are there any real issues there, or is it all in our imagination?
Is it possible there is some fraud to consider and they can't release the information.
Maybe they'll find a legal way to end this miserable state were in.
We're all tired.
I almost don't have the energy left when I get home to read this blog and offer any sort of beneficial information.
The ridiculous is becoming the norm.
If you could see what I see every day at DRMC--crushed morale, short-cuts on patients, stupid management "initiatives"-- you would realize there is nothing to be "fixed."
LifePoint should be run out of town, keeping only a few of the brass that we can tuck into jail for what they've done to us.
Biggest recent joke was Doloresco rolling up his French cuffs and pretending to work on a Habitat house. It was embarrassing to everyone.
These people are fakers and playing us for fools.
Sign me SICK AND GETTING SICKER!
What SICK and GETTING SICKER needs to remember is that Lifepoint got tricked into this thing by the same guys who sold us out. If you want to start throwing blame around, you'd better put most of it on the guys at American National Bank. You're nuts if you think Lifepoint is happy about any of this. They paid $200 million for a turkey that don't gobble, while the bank guys are still laughing up their sleeves.
DRMC, as a conglomeration of buildings and as a workforce, was not in great shape when purchased. Lots of things were kept under the rug which now have come out AFTER LifePoint.
I am aware LifePoint has not managed some things well, BUT things are not swept under the rug like in the past.
"Not swept under the rug like in the past " Are you KIDDING ?
Lifepoint is the king of spin and under-the-rug sweeping. The only reason that anyone knows anything about the ineptness of this pathetic company is because other agencies (CMS, JCAHO) don't pick and choose results. Before lifepoint -FULLY accredited ---with Lifepoint -totally unaccredited and LOST the heart program. And Lifepoint may have been tricked by the 5, but if they wanted to "fix" what they bought they would try. Cutting EVERYTHING is not the way to fix it.
Threatening to fire EVERYONE is not the way to fix it.
Non profit status with teaching affiliation = good start.
Doloresco's been at the Habitat house swinging a hammer for the last couple of days. Didn't see Sick & Getting Sicker out there.
While I have entered commentary with my views, and have taken aim at Lifepoint a time or two, I avoid saying Lifepoint is bad or has detrimental intent for DRMC. I have seen people post information about Lifepoint issues in other parts of the country. What I have yet to see is information about how communities with Lifepoint hospitals feel, as a whole. In one such community, before Lifepoint purchased the hospital, it was uncertain if the employees paychecks would be returned due to non-sufficient funds in the hospital account. Lifepoint changed that. So, I am sure there are some good Lifepoint stories.
On another hand, For-Profit does not inherently mean evil or uncaring. It is inherently the type of company that should look for ways of running efficiently and more cost effective. If all the new owner does is make employees angry, they only hurt themselves. I believe Liefpoint execs know this.
What I do believe, however, is that Lifepoint was unprepared for the level of resistance in the hospital and in the community. This was brought on largely by the way the hospital was sold. Can't blame Lifepoint for that. I read Dr. Ashby's piece on the hospital website regarding things about the sale having to be kept secret. Fertilizer.
Hospitals are sold all around the country with public knowledge that a search and bidding process are taking place. While the actual bids are secret, the fact a sale is in the works needs not be a private matter.
I would ask those who enter gripes on this blog to ask yourself a simple question. Be honest with yourself, as you and only you will know. The question?
How much of what Lifepoint is wanting to accomplish is truly bad, versus a desire to remain the same?
I personally encountered many people at DRMC whose only response was that they did not see why we had to do things different. Not that one way was better or worse, but it was a change they did not elect, so it was to be challenged and resisted.
Not all change is good. Not all is bad. The simple fact is that a company bought the hospital. They own its resources and have become responsible for its outcomes. They should be allowed to make changes as they see fit as a benefit of wonership.
Who among you would buy a house and continue to let the previous owners tell you what to do with it? Who among you would buy a hotel, restaurant, or even a hospital, and allow the staff to repeatedly challenge your initiatives to make the changes to the place you paid for?
If it is truly so bad, think about whether you want to be there or not.
How right is it to take a paycheck and spend your time at work complaining about the people who are paying you to be there? Is it fair to your employer to have to pay for your complaining on the clock?
What would you do if your employee was doing this and hurting your business?
I wanted to offer a different perspective out of an overall sense of fairness. I do not like how the hospital is being run. I would like to see changes there. It can be good if the right things happen.
SAVAGE LS
Hoorah to the above writer who salutes Doloresco for being out working with a hammer. Better that he be hammering on a house instead of hammering on the morale and patient-safety within the hospital. Let's get Doloresco a permanent job with habitat--and out of our hospital.
SAVAGE LS....thank you! True.
To the person with so many questions, we all have all these questions, the only problems is we are not getting any answers, no lies necessarily, but nothing at all, we find things out when it hits the paper and we all know how reliable that information is. Waht we need is for someone, anyone to come out and start telling us something,better yet tell us something that is complete, truthful and realistic, and for those with the information they are not sharing, it would be real nice for them to realize that trust will not grow from their silence, or denial of any problems, or makeshift surveys that make it all seem better, and realize a huge percentage of this community still works at this hospital and know some truths and recognize lies when we hear them.
Oh yes and by the way, we are not idiots!!!!
To Savage, well said!
If conditions at the hospital are really as dysfunctional as proclaimed by the nursing staff, why do they stay?
My hope is they remain because they are confident their presence will make a difference. If not, they need to leave and stop moaning and groaning in the corners.
Be the advocates your profession has taught you to be..
If you work in DRMC before and now you would realize that it is worse , it is extremely dangerous for the employees and for the patients.
Just move ...
Ok ,I'll letyou build your house with hard earned money for generations move into it and I'll buy it from someone who doesn't own it move in and threaten you with eviction.
Afterall you can just pick up all of your family and move .
You cannot advocate when you are threatened with firing.
The only reason we are here is that you are our neighbors and families and we care about you , don't you get it?
"If conditions at the hospital are really as dysfunctional as proclaimed by the nursing staff, why do they stay?"
Uh...maybe because there is only one hospital in town and to go to work for another involves major lifestyle changes?
Maybe for the fact that they have invested years in providing healthcare to their neighbors and are willing to stick it out in the hope that something will improve before something bad happens.
Of course, some people are taking your advice and are turning in their notice....it's happening quite often, actually. Are they being replaced, or is LPNT taking that opportunity to meet the numbers in that department by not replacing the departing employee.
This "threat of being fired" rant I continue to hear is such BS. I have never felt this way and have always asked the burning questions I felt I needed answers to...of any one at DRMC. I have chosen the appropriate forums, open to all or with an appointment with a single individual, and conversed in an appropriate manner.
You are either not an RN or you live in another world if you don't get the firing message it's quite clear and rampant .Lifepoint will fire you as a scapegoat for their shortcomings. They are on a witch hunt and they have told us so.With the right people in the right meetings in the correct forum . WAKE UP.
wake up is right. there are a few at DRMC that are swept under the sheets vs the rug as a matter of fact 2 come to mind immediately. These issues must not continue.
Well, it's nice to know some people are privileged to be able to get questions answered in open forums or one-on-one. Which "O" are you finding that has time to talk??? I know my supervisor has a hard time catching the O for our department. Forums are frequently postponed or they are at inopportune times. We frequently hear that our paid man hours are above standard. Above standard for what?? We are short-staffed and have to maintain a certain number of people on each shift. No one wants to work the night shifts or every weekend. But, yet, here we are getting it done day in, day out. Our homes are in Danville. Many professions are limited in availability in the surrounding area unless we commute or move to places like Durham or Greensboro. This is where we live. This is where our children are growing up. Many of us like what we do whether we give bedside nursing care, fill prescriptions, clean, deliver supplies, register patients, draw blood, take xrays or answer the switchboard phones. We all contribute to patient care. One part falls, we all fall. As many of us are doing or on the verge of doing. Be in your ivory tower of ignorant bliss. Perhaps your tower will not crack and crumble before all this is said and done.
I do not believe there are any more associates quitting the hospital due to LPNT.
I also do not believe rumors regarding "threats of firing".
I do not believe the fine managers and directors working there have any issues with LPNT or the current administration. These leaders are nice people and would not subject you or themselves to such unethical management.
Our managers and directors are good people, but like the rest of us they have the choice to get with the program or hit the road!
I know that a lot of what the directors are forced to pass down to the staff is not of their choosing.
They have to have a job, pay their bills, and for whatever reason they need to work in this area.
Their families are here, their homes are here. They have to keep sucking it up just like the rest of us that choose to stay here.
I am sure if the truth were told they hate the changes they are forced to make more than anyone.
They don't like telling their staff to make do with less. They don't like cutting staff when they know it makes it harder on everyone.
If they want to keep their jobs, they have to do what their boss tells them to do, just like the rest of us.
If they don't preach the party line, they will be out of there. Management is expected to support management. Managers are a dime a dozen, because there is always someone who wants to move up. My advice to anyone seeking these positions- careful what you wish for, you may get it.
To the person who doesn't seem to believe anything, there are several people leaving still, but they are not jumping ship as quickly, because we have learned from those before us that we need to know that the new situation will work for us. But I know someone leaving for less pay, and further drive, because of the constant fear that this hospital will not survive with the current management in place.
There appear to be a few managers and directors left that might care about the hospital but there are plenty of them that sold their own workers down the river to fatten their own pockets with initative bonuses for reaching their "targets". I only know one director that tried to make things better for her department that is still there. The ones that really fought hard and stood up finally left. The ones that stayed, put on their large pair of a-- kissing lips and are still there today.
What a bunch of whiners.
You should change that, if you're gonna call us whiners you had better call us very well educated whiners with various types of College degrees and experience, we know what we are talking about, In theory and in practice. We give lifepoint any consideration and they take more and we do with less our patients do with less, and this community does with less, RN's are being sent to work on floors of the hospital for which they have NO training, EXTREMELY dangerous, EVERY floor is always short staffed EXTREMELY dangerous,
and the hospital in general is EXTREMELY dangerous.Know the argument before you start judging the participants.!!!!
I live the argument.
So do I
where's docnabx been staying?? Who's he "fooling" this time
PLEASE no-one respond to the above post....Let it wither and die with no further comment until Sentinel Event can delete it.
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