Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
DANVILLE - The recent public hearings concerning Danville Regional Medical Center revealed a lot of the issues revolving around the hospital, but there may be more problems to uncover.
A group of hospital employees didn’t testify at the three public hearings organized by the Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Center because they were afraid they might get fired if they spoke publicly, according to Jim Houser, chairman of the commission.
The employees instead shared their concerns with Houser during private moments, he said.
Houser said that this pattern could be indicative of a morale problem at Danville Regional.
“If the morale is low, then certainly the type of services offered aren’t going to be what you’d expect them to be,” he said.
The commission met Tuesday with Ruth McDaniel, acting chief of nursing at Danville Regional, who denied there was a morale problem among the hospital’s employees.
“The word ‘morale’ is such a nebulous thing and it’s hard to characterize that,” McDaniel said, adding her staff was committed to seeing that things improved at the hospital. “We hear every concern that someone has and welcome the opportunity to address the issues in the future.”
She also denied a suggestion by commission member Arlene Creasy that another group of employees was purposefully sabotaging the hospital’s quality of care because they were upset about its July 2005 sale to LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
Houser said the commission is now reading over a 118-page transcript from the hearings the group held over the past two weeks.
The commission also has collected more than 100 surveys from hospital employees and people who attended the hearings.
Houser asked each commission member to compile the data into five different areas they feel the hospital most needs to address and to have the information ready by the group’s June 5 meeting. He also gave McDaniel and other hospital managers a task.
“Describe statistically where you were when LifePoint took over Danville Regional,” Houser said. “Where you are now and where you expect to be in the future.”
Houser said he hopes to have all of this information together by mid-June when the commission meets with its health care consultant, Keith Pryor. The commission and Pryor will then start the final phase of their mission and put together a road map detailing what the hospital can do to improve itself.
“There has been a lot of damage done and it was done in a very short time,” Houser said. “Correcting the damage is not going to happen overnight.”
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22 comments:
"The commission and Pryor will then start the final phase of their mission and put together a road map detailing what the hospital can do to improve itself."
Again...does the Commission have any commitment from LPNT that anything at all will be done with any recommendations or findings? They certainly aren't obligated to do anything, so if there is no agreement that this matters to LPNT, then it's been a feel-good exercise.
If something is going to be done with the recommendations, then I whole-heartedly am appreciative of the time, energy and work that the Commission has put towards this effort.
“The word ‘morale’ is such a nebulous thing and it’s hard to characterize that,” McDaniel said,
WHEW...Thats the best "ducking" of a question I think I've ever heard...she is good.
But this one must come off a recording chip that gets implanted into each manager their first day....“We hear every concern that someone has and welcome the opportunity to address the issues in the future.”
Ruth only hears what she wishes to hear and certainly does not have a grip on the morale of the staff. She travels in a bubble with her groupies and is rude and condescending to others. she openly bad mouths other leaders and has worked to undermine any efforts of others trying to better the organization. she is number one in her mind. Desctruction of Art is number two and all else runs far behind. an organization can not survive when the two highest leaders are trying to hang each other or at least the CNO is trying to hang the CEO.
You would think a company that owns over 50 hospitals would not need a citizens commission and $25,000 consultant to tell them how to fix their problems. Or could it be they sent their own low hanging fruit here to operate it and it's just the local managers that can't figure it out?
Of course that was answered when the one in charge says "The word ‘morale’ is such a nebulous thing and it’s hard to characterize that,”
The moral of any group can usually be determined quite quickly even by an outsider with just brief observations. In fact maintaining moral is one of the chief responsibilities of any good manager in any business.
Sorry but it seems the more we hear from these folks the more hopeless things seem.
Ruth didn't duck the question she just showed her own misjudgement of DRMC's employees and at the same time her own narcissism and true, TRUE, ignorance.
Apparantly Ms.McDaniel thinks we're stupid ,When in fact with the statements that she has made only shadow what this community,and many other communities, has seen from Lifepoint since the beginning. Even though Lifepoint is a corporation the industry sector they have chosen to be in was built on,initially, trust professionalism and the hippicratic oath,Corporations with the total disregard for people,communities,professionalism,and life that Lifepoint has, have no place operating as a healthcare facility.
Even a nebula can be pinpointed,
and I'm pretty sure the general populace of Danville and surrounding areas has pinpointed this gas cloud.
You wrote about Ruth's inabilities to assess morale. When does she actually get out with the masses? Oh yes she does lunch with the CNO upon invitation...why is she not out onthe floors, completing the unit jacho tracers, freely and openly conversing with staff. Many units do not know who she is or what she looks like.
No surprise she knows not the moral!
When I called a friend at the hospital to get their take on the "nebulous" comment, she laughed and said. Have her walk from my station to the cafeteria and she will figure out morale pretty quickly.
The nursing department is the primary problem at this organization. yet we still are struggling with finding a competent effective leader. Fix this...and you fix the organizational problem.
Ms. McDaniels may be exceedingly qualified to fill any "o" position as she so frequently tells anyone who will listen but what seems to be missing is true committment and desire to bring forth change. The evidence seems to be she enjoys blowing her own horn and explaining to the world that she has been sent here to correct problems and all others are disposable.
She needs to look outside herself to bring forth change. she needs to talk with not only other leadership but staff and she needs to listen.
I have worked with Ruth in the past few months and felt that she "got it" as opposed to Art and the rotating batch of "O"s. Could you give examples of Ruth being not true to her word and just another flunky? Our future here depends on finding people to follow and trust. Art may be on the rebound if he brings his family in and stays for the long term. Lifepoint may own up to its errors and beef up the hospital to where it should be. Unfortunately if public opinion keeps paying patients away, the collapse of the hospital will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Unfortunately, in a pinch, Duke is too far away to help. If you or a loved one need help urgently, you need a successful DRMC. Otherwise move to Alaska and take a bush plane to help! Be careful what you ask for in Danville, you might just get it.
You ask what is the morale like truely? There are many issues effecting morale. The negative comments coming form the community effect morale. Who wants to go to work when everyone in your community does not feel you can provide the care needed to your patients.
Staff are encountering increased accountability expectations. many have worked for years without such accountability. They are unsure what to do are scared and frustrated.
Many areas have adequate staffing many are still trying to obtain staffing. They watch their managers (nursing) sip their coffees and talk about how stupid they all are and they wish they worked somewhere else. There are 2-3 nursing directors who are working to better their units and stand beside their staff. Interesting enough they are not seen as one of Ruth's girls.
Are there good pieces to morale, yes but they are fleeting. The stress and pressure by the community and regulatory scrutiny has made it terrible. I hear every day someone saying...three steps forward...two steps back.
Article from the Caswell Messenger:
Citizen's Commission hears public opinion on DRMC
Caswell Messenger
May 23, 2007
About 50 people attended at May 15 public hearing in Yanceyville hosted by the Citizens' Commission related to the Danville Regional Medical Center.
This public hearing was the third of three sessions set up to hear citizens' thoughts and concerns about the hospital, which was received widespread criticism - especially concerning staffing levels and emergency room waits - since LifePoint Hospitals Inc. purchased the facility in the summer of 2005.
Yanceyville resident Lewis Turner said a Danville Regional Medical Center doctor refused at first to admit his wife as an inpatient when she began hemorrhaging due to a growth in her uterus. When she was finally admitted, Turner said, she had sustained an infection and was given medication inappropriate to her condition.
Milton resident Jean Scott said she'd been pleased with the service at Danville Regional for many years until she had to go the emergency room in late 2005 suffering from severe abdominal pain and was told there were ten patients ahead of her waiting to be seen and that she could expect a four-hour wait to see a physician. Fortunately, she said, the person who had transported her to Danville Regional was able to take her to Person Memorial in Roxboro, where she was immediately rushed into surgery for a gangrenous incarcerated hernia.
Ruby Graves of Yanceyville expressed concern that while local emergency responders generally transport people who've become ill to the nearest hospital, which for many Caswell residents is Danville Regional, that hospital is not an in-network facility under the MedCost insurance offered by Royal Textiles, where Graves works.
Peggy Simpson, who identified herself as the administrative director of laboratories at Danville Regional, said staff there desperately needed such things as improved technology to screen for patient safety and accurate lab testing and a more sufficient budget to allow health care workers to attend scientific meetings.
It appeared that about half the public hearing's attendees were hospital employees. Kevin Murray, director of the hospital's radiology technology program, told the members of the Citizens' Commission he was proud to work at Danville Regional.
"We do care about people," he said of himself and colleagues.
"If the stories we're hearing are true, I am embarrassed for myself and for the community," he said.
Another hospital employee said she was curious to know why LifePoint's chief financial officer had recently stepped down.
"I just want to know what's going on with LifePoint," she said.
Danville Mayor Wayne Williams established the Citizens' Commission in March, and the commission has held similar public hearings recently in Danville and in Chatham, Virginia.
The goal of the hearings is to gather information for recommendations the city can take to hospital administrators.
How could morale be an issue at Danville Regional medical Center? My manager informed my department that "negativity WILL NOT be tolerated" We are to portray a positive attitude. No problem.
The floggings will continue until morale improves.
Yes my dept has had the "smile or else" talk. People are not being cared for appropriately and lifepoint continues to deny it.Yet they rake in Danvilles money, remember performance raises? now cut,incentive pay gone,retention pay gone,night bonuses gone, weekend shifts effectively gone. All of that money is going to pay for some other city.
Smile or you're history.If we want your opinion we'll tell the newspaper what your opinion is.
Please air out your manager...what departmwents are flogging publically? Who has given the smile or else talk?
Not every manager is working in this mmanner...please tell me so.
Sure, if you'll pay our expenses.
My "Director" is pathetic, power hungry and inexperienced. She is not a leader by any definition of the word. She has the attitude of "if you don't like it then just leave". So guess what, many are leaving from my unit. And guess who made her my boss, Ruth McDaniel.
Now what does that tell you!!
Let me guess you work on telemetry don't you? many of us knew with that appointment there would be trouble but Ruth does not seem to be a good judge of quality does she...look at her other groupies.
Ruth seems to listen to "whatever" she thinks will win favor at the moment and bandaid-it for a quick fix.
Come on,we all hear the same thing but few (if any) of us have the courage to blow her cover.
I honestly don't know what else to do short of leaving.
You are right, courage is required and that is difficult at times. How do we together influence this? Strength in numbers.
"Ruth, a good judge of quality". She doesn't know she's getting the knife in her back from the "groupies" she thinks she can trust.
I sit in the same meetings as many of you and I know how I feel and it makes me sick to see the rest of you playing a game. Just like LPNT!!!
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