Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell has stepped into one of the most contentious and complex issues facing this community - LifePoint Hospitals’ management of Danville Regional Medical Center.
Dan River Region residents who are concerned about the hospital should welcome McDonnell’s involvement.
“Our job is to review the court documents (pertaining to the sale) to be sure the taxpayer and the state have been represented,” McDonnell said this week.
McDonnell said he plans to send a senior-level staff member to meetings of the Citizen’s Committee, the group formed by Mayor Wayne Williams to help Danville City Council investigate complaints about the hospital’s operation under LifePoint.
From the outside looking in, it’s hard to know exactly what is happening at Danville Regional Medical Center.
The community has heard from doctors, nurses, patients and interested outsiders who have taken contradictory positions - LifePoint Hospitals has either done a good job since buying Danville Regional or the company has made - and continues to make - bad decisions that affect the quality of care at the local hospital.
Even the most definitive statement about LifePoint’s management of Danville Regional - the Joint Commission’s “preliminary denial of accreditation” - is just that, it’s preliminary and the hospital remains accredited.
The attorney general’s involvement in the hospital controversy is one of the best developments this contentious, often contradictory issue has seen. While McDonnell wasn’t in office when LifePoint bought Danville Regional on July 1, 2005, the office reviewed the sale at the time.
Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, worked to bring McDonnell’s office into the process. “(Putting someone from the attorney general’s office on the commission) will change the perception about this committee quite a bit,” Marshall said. “We want the folks at the hospital to listen.”
While it’s important for the Citizen’s Committee to get hospital officials to cooperate, it’s equally important to get to the bottom of this controversy for the benefit of everyone concerned about health care in this community.
Having the attorney general’s office on the Citizen’s Committee will bring a much-needed outside perspective to the question of what has happened to Danville’s only hospital.
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18 comments:
"From the outside looking in, it’s hard to know exactly what is happening at Danville Regional Medical Center."
Funny...as an insider, it's just as hard to know exactly what is going on.
Its very simple. The same peolple who sold us are the same people who are in charge today. Betty and Bob are the faces of the 5 sad men who voted to take the money. Why did it fail? Well, they lied to LPNT and the Doctors. Then LPNT big dog Ken who they fired came in and announced 85 mh per ? We dont know what that means but someone figured out 500 fewer jobs. We may not be the best but with 500 more people taking care of or at least sitting around watching we didnt do so bad. With 500 fewer we are a very sad place. Thanks Dr Ashby; may you hang your head in shame every last day of your life. Thank you Mr Ben who has washed his hands like Pontius Pilate on this Easter. Give us our money back and let us buy our hospital back!! The atty general is our only hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How sad for LPNT; they run some pretty good hospitals other places, but not here. Give it up or come run it yourself Bill Carpenter !!
THIS, TOO, FROM SUNDAY'S PAPER, BY THE HACK HIRED BY LIFEPOINT TO WORK ON ACCREDITATION:
April 8: In compliance today, out of compliance tomorrow
Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, April 8, 2007
By BEVERLY WASHINGTON, R.N.
As a health care consultant, I have been involved in approximately 30 Joint Commission surveys.
A few months ago, I was asked to assist Danville Regional Medical Center in preparing for its Joint Commission survey. Compared to the last full survey at Danville Regional, the survey process had changed considerably, and that takes an adjustment for everyone involved.
My purpose is to explain the Joint Commission process and describe Danville Regional’s efforts to address compliance.
The Joint Commission is a private organization that evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 health care organizations in the United States. Its mission is to continuously improve the safety and quality of care through accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations.
The accreditation process involves evaluating a health care organization’s performance in areas that most affect patient health and safety. These areas are defined in the 500-plus standards of the Joint Commission by which hospitals are required to monitor and comply. By achieving accreditation, a health care organization makes a commitment to follow the Joint Commission standards, which provide the framework for safe, quality care.
When the standards change, the Joint Commission sends hospitals updates so they can work to comply with the changes. Some standards require policy and procedure changes, changes in documentation or even changes in the way we provide care. There is a time frame that hospitals are allowed to enact the new standards, as well as to monitor and comply with all of the other standards. The Joint Commission calls this a “track record,” and the hospital is scored on the basis of this track record. In some standards, Danville Regional did not have a long enough track record to be considered compliant.
The Joint Commission also looks at the building and follows certain standards to score building maintenance. In Danville Regional’s case, there were certain areas of the building that did not meet the compliance level required by the Joint Commission standards.
Among the other areas that were considered non-compliant were the manner of data collection, insufficient length of time for record keeping, issues with physician and nursing documentation and the need for some additional policy changes in the way we address our care. With 500-plus standards, it is easy to see how hospitals have to work continuously to keep up and adjust their practices to remain in compliance. What may be in compliance today may not be considered in compliance in six months.
Once a survey occurs, the hospital is required to prepare and initiate action plans to address those standards that were considered non-compliant during the on-site survey. The action plan must be approved by the Joint Commission. During that time, there is a series of processes and committee approvals that the Joint Commission must engage in before it can make a final ruling on the accreditation status of the hospital. This process takes several months. Until then, the report remains preliminary, meaning it is a first-round report. The Joint Commission considers this first-round report confidential because it is still working with the hospital, and there may be some additional changes that occur. Once the process is complete, the Joint Commission will notify the hospital and make its final decision public. Until then, a hospital remains an accredited hospital, based on its prior survey results. That is why Danville Regional Medical Center continues to be a fully accredited hospital.
Management at Danville Regional understands that the survey is a means to bring about the best possible care. There is a commitment by the Joint Commission and Danville Regional to achieve the same goal.
The hospital is now working on an improvement plan to address the areas cited in the preliminary report. Some major projects to address the requirements include:
-- Education for employees and medical staff;
-- New processes to comply with the current standards of the Joint Commission;
-- Additional policy development to meet some changes in the Joint Commission’s standards;
-- Development of new forms to improve compliance;
-- Employee, medical staff and governing board’s education on the new processes and policies;
-- A better tracking system to capture information and, thereby, improve documentation;
-- A weekly practice session (called tracers) with the hospital staff to prepare for follow-up surveys;
-- Updates to the building and its maintenance program; and
-- Development of a continuous readiness program to keep the hospital in a state of readiness for survey at all times.
We will continue to work in a spirit of cooperation with the Joint Commission to meet the requirements for improvement. We appreciate the understanding of the public as we correct these requirements so that we can continue to offer the Dan River Region quality health care.
Washington is a consultant for Danville Regional Medical Center assisting with the Joint Commission survey process.
Education??? If only I could reveal to the public how "education" (be it for Joint Commission or otherwise) is NOT valued at DRMC nor has it been since the infiltration of LPNT.
Ms. Washington's feeble defense was written by some pr firm.....these people deal only with tricks and illusions--never with the real deal that we see day in and day out at DRMC. They are fakers. And they really aren't very smart since they fool no one.
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Does it strike anybody as being "funny" that none of the news about LifePoint in Danville makes its way into the Topix LifePoint site?????
AND, the lack of education is one reason we're in the predicatment with Joint Commission.
There is a distinct difference between buying new equipment for a hospital and providing continuing education for staff to stay updated on the latest in patient care at the bedside.
Do Joint Commission standards vary from hospital to hospital? If not you would think an organization as large as LFPT. would know what the changes are and institute the necessary changes at each of its facilities. I can understand a stand alone hospital being "caught off guard". You would think a corporation with 50 plus hospitals under its umbrella would have a divison dedicated to making sure EVERY one of its hospitals was doing what is required to be compliant. To not do so is not only irresponsible but also shows very poor planning, management, and communication skills.
Oh I get it...a team dedicated to making sure all of your facilities are compliant would fall under the "cost" side of a spreadsheet. It wouldn't contribute at all to the PROFITS.
Well, it was certainly nice to read Ms. Washington's comments in the newspaper today. That's the closest thing I have seen to a list of why we failed to re-up our accreditation. In an organization that used to value communication to its employees, we now have to look for scraps of info such as this published in the local newspaper.
Nice...real nice.
"LifePoint Hospitals News Archives
Does it strike anybody as being "funny" that none of the news about LifePoint in Danville makes its way into the Topix LifePoint site????? "
I have submitted articles from the Register & Bee to Topix several times, but haven't seen them appear on the site yet. Will keep trying.
My impression is that Lifepoint corporate gives alot of "free rein" to the individual O's at each hospital. Which is why so many bad decisions were made by people trying to look good to Brentwood. Now we are in a big mess. Speaking from one of the non-nursing departments, continuing education is also needed for us to stay up to date as well. An article in a magazine is fine, but you need interaction with peers. As the only hospital in town, there are not alot of peers to talk to. Rumor has it that the O's will not approve CE expenses unless it is required by corporate.
The really "funny" thing , besides the obvious financial control over the media is that Washington was here before the hospital failed and it failed anyway.I agree that a corporation that is supposedly widespread and for the "quality" care of the community should be up to date immediately on any Joint Com. changes .It is a lot easier to make changes as they arrive rather than all of the sudden.
AND if she is a true consultant she would be abreast of changes immediately , obviously she's not.
Yet another waste of time, money, and what we had.
Such a shame that 5 "people " could sell something that they didn't own and that so many people in the community contributed to. (whether they could truly afford it or not)and that those responsible for the mess then disappear.
More lies and spin from deceptive Corporations that have NO interest in the good of the community or it's citizens. Hope the AG can help.Out of town is starting to look REALLY nice.I've been here all of my life and I've watched a very few select people sell the future of a perfectly situated geographic area down the tubes $5.50 an hour jobs will not save it .A real Hospital affiliation ,Like the one lost , or a better choice of sale , that was turned down because "It wasn't enough" was short-sighted and ignorant but I've come to expect no better from the "fathers of the community."
Amen!
And now we will have to sit helplessly and watch these "fathers of our community" give away our money to their pet projects like the Institute, which has plenty of well-paid, non-skilled jobs--but NOT for many Danvillians. These guys have even put wives and buddies' wives on the payroll at the Institute, and even the son of Charlie Majors (CEO of the Bank Boys) got a job there when he couldn't make it in New York. It is beyond sickening.
On this auspicious occasion on the Christian calendar, we can note that the "fathers of our community" (otherwise known as the "filthy five" and the "boys at the bank") betrayed their friends and neighbors for 200 million pieces of silver that belonged to their friends and neighbors in the first place. Simply put, they stole it.
We can also note that according to Proverbs 6:31, when the thief is found, ". . . he must repay sevenfold; he must give all the substance of his house."
Admittedly, that's not the Code of VA, but it's the Maker's Code. Since the Maker has stronger enforcement techniques than even the Virginia AG, it seems that the boys at the bank, if the fear of God is in them at all, really ought to be making haste to make amends.
Somebody said on this blog that one of the boys is hiding behind the skirts of his pastor, right? Sounds like the fear of something.
It seems to me that Lifepoint has screwed up one more time! If a reasonable person reads the propaganda Ms Washington wrote, it appears she has indicted herself as to her own value and effectiveness.
She states that she was hired to prepare the Hospital for the Joint Commission survey. Then, as we all know, the Commission scored the Hospital at the lowest, lowest level it could after inspecting HER preparations.
So, who is preaching to who here? Sounds like to me that Lifepoint, ONCE AGAIN, needs a new expert here!
The BOYS AT THE BANK sold us out!!
Turn-about IS fair-play!!!!
BOYCOTT THE BOYS AT THE BANK, and the Ford dealership and the radio station and the head doctors office!!!!!!!!
Ms. Washington has played a valuable role related to issues that need to the settled with Joint Commission. She did not create any of the existing problems.
Bringing Ms. Washington in has to be the most positive move made by Lifepoint since being here.
From the Citizens Commission website:
"**** The next meeting of the Citizens Commission will take place on Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 5:15 P.M. in the Fourth Floor Conference Room, City Hall, 427 Patton Street. *****"
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