Committee holds meetings to gather feedback concerning Danville Regional's quality of care.
Danville Register & Bee
Thursday, May 10, 2007
DANVILLE - Former patients with stories of how they had been mistreated at Danville Regional Medical Center and hospital employees who defended where they worked testified Thursday at a public hearing.
But no matter what they said, the speakers and the 100 people in the audience were united by a desire to see things at the hospital improve and a hope that LifePoint Hospitals Inc. would listen to what they had to say.
“All of the committees, public hearings, lynch mobs, what have you, aren’t going to fix our problem,” Rita Smith said at the second public hearing organized by the Citizen’s Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center.
“(LifePoint will) have two choices: they can accept the solutions or not,” Smith said. “Then we’ll have two choices. We can hang it up or consider bringing a new hospital to this town.”
The committee is holding a total of three public hearings to gather feedback concerning Danville Regional’s quality of care since LifePoint purchased the hospital in July 2005.
The commission held a similar hearing Tuesday night in Chatham. It plans to hold a third hearing at 7 p.m. May 15 at Yanceyville’s Municipal Services Building in Yanceyville, N.C.
Jim Houser, co-chairman of the Citzen’s Committee, said his group would use testimony from these hearings to come up with a series of recommendations on how the hospital could improve and become a place Dan River Region residents are proud to call their own.
“Some of the pieces are falling into place, but right now we’re just working on a puzzle,” Houser said, adding he would present the report to Mayor Wayne Williams and the Danville City Council when it was completed.
But both Houser and Williams said there was nothing they could do to make LifePoint follow the commission’s recommendations because it was a private corporation. They too are relying on hope.
“I sincerely think that LifePoint wants the hospital to be trusted,” Williams said Thursday night. “Following the commission’s recommendations would give them an avenue to earn that trust.”
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20 comments:
Hmmm...looking at the headlines, we've gone from and "Angry crowd" blasting the hospital to the "Public" seeking solutions.
Were the two meetings that different in tone?
went to the meeting last night. There was the inevitable testimony about the presence of roaches, alive and dead, as well as smeared blood on commodes.
This led to a hospital employee named Betty Walton taking the stand to defend Lifepoint. She argued passionately that the hospital is one of the cleanest you will ever find.
Her concluding statement in defense of Lifepoint seemed to say it all: "You can't [judge the hospital] by a roach going up a wall, or a little blood on a commode!"
A LFPT manager broadcast an e-mail yesterday urging employees to cancel their subscription to the paper because of the "Angry Crowd" story. Maybe the paper got the word and toned down the next article.
Who was It sent to??
Checked my E-Mail today and no such notification located...
Not sure, a friend said he received it yesterday.
The word around the newspaper is that Art called the paper and reminded them of the ton of money they spend on ads propping up Lifepoint, and that's all it took. The paper should have reminded Art of all the silly promotional stuff they have run free.
The Lifepoint propoganda machine -
still going strong.
I am sorry to correct you but nothing promotional that is printed in the paper is free. The hospital is charged for everything.
wonder how seriously LFPT really cares what the gen public thinks of them and the paper's a joke anyway - all a political mess. Why can't the straighten the place out - there's no consistency with ethics, employee rules, etc, etc.
No truer words were ever spoken.
Lifepoint will care only when the books show how much money they are losing by having folks in Danville streaming north and south and east for safer, better medical care. You are right, they do not care about cockroaches and bloody commodes--until enough people start running in the opposite direction.
Three armed robberies in city !
This is scary!
Cockroaches and bloody toilets can be found across Danville and Pittsylvania county wherever the public roams. How many times have you JUST CLEANED and someone came right behind you and messed up?
This is too much. DRMC is, after all, a hospital and people there are sick and that can explain a few bloody toilet seats. But cockroaches. I have been in and out of that place more often than I can count, and I have NEVER seen cockroaches running around. I may have seen some outside, but NEVER in the hospital. Show me a picture, and then I'll believe it.
Doesn't matter if Lifepoint pays for it or not, It's still propoganda. And yes the paper has been seriously biased since it was sold way back.Sound familiar? large corp's buying out the familiar and try to make the locals think something is correct when it's not .Lifepoint spin, better yet, Corporate spin at it's best.
Sensationalistic journalism rules.
Lifepoints take from the poor and give to the rich continues.
Oh and now DRMC is considered "low hanging fruit" by lifepoint. Sad how we were sold out by 5 "people" that had NO right or true authority to sell a community hospital that so many people spent their lives and hard earned (and low paying salaries) to build. Only to have their and their families future health and safety sold out to a money vaccum , which, I might add, is under several other community law suits and it's founders are under investigation for fraud.Proof? read the florida and arizona goings on.
To the writer who thinks it's okay for the hospital to have "a few bloody toilet seats," I say you are mentally ill. It is disgusting. As for cockroaches, I'll take a few cockroaches over "a few bloody toilet seats" any day. Get real!
Don't you realize that the same bank boys who sold DRMC to Lifepoint also sold the Register Publishing Company to Media General--and thus deprived our community from having its own newspaper? Check it out.
yeah that's where I was going with that about the paper.
Danville's history is flooded with FACTS of good ole boy syndrome .
That's why every other area around us has flourished and Danville is still years behind in many many areas,It's not the lack of resources it's the lack of willingness of a few select circles in Danville to "share" the inherent amenities that are geographically afforded to Danville.
As a side note the only other truly destroyed area in South VA
is Martinsville same type of deal just a different bunch of crooks,
Oh and look lifepoint is there also .
Stupid is as stupid does.
It is unbelievable that a person from the hospital would say cockroaches and bloody toilets don't matter. Unbelievable!!!! If they don't care about such things that the public CAN see, just imagine their attitude about things the public CANNOT see. GET RID OF THESE SLIMEBALLS!!!!!
I will not believe that LifePoint has said that bloody toilet seats and cockroaches at DRMC are irrelevant. If they really said that, you need to prove it. It is a reckless and irresponsible charge. There's enough wrong with LifePoint (or DeathPoint?) without claiming that they think nothing is wrong with cockroaches and bloody toilet seats!
Ok, here's your proof ,The environmental staff has been cut to the point that it takes forever to get a room cleaned for a new patient now. And since the ED is on a stopwatch now and it doesn't matter if the patient is treated or not before being sent to a floor , it's a big problem.
You see we have to find out where to put the patient that's close enough to be accessible and then do orders that normally would have been done in the ED to stabilize the patient since they didn't have time because heaven forbid anyone is in the ED for 1 second to get treated.It's not the ED's fault it's the way lifepoint wants it, window dress the problem dump it on someone else and run off with money. It must be sheer hell to work in ED.
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