Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, May 13, 2007
With two of its three public hearings complete, the Citizen’s Committee investigating Danville Regional Medical Center has inadvertently raised a question that can’t be easily answered.
That question is: What’s next?
If Committee members believe the negative stories they’ve heard from patients and their families outweighs the hard work of the doctors, nurses and other staffers at Danville Regional, then what? The implications of that question are staggering for health care in this community.
Many of the problems heard during the public hearings in Chatham and Danville this week echoed similar complaints that have become a recurring theme in the letters printed on these pages. But at the Danville hearing, hospital employees defended it and offered their own perspective on the complaints.
Take, for example, this issue of the hospital’s cleanliness. One woman who spoke at both public hearings said she saw a cockroach climbing up a hospital wall and a blood-splattered toilet.
But a woman who works for the hospital’s environmental services department said at the Danville meeting that the cockroach in question could have been brought into the hospital - which is certainly true about cockroaches. As for blood on the toilet, that might not have been reported to environmental services in a timely manner.
Her explanations made sense, but it’s shocking that the cleanliness of Danville Regional has even become a public issue.
The debate over Danville Regional Medical Center has shifted in a profound way. People are no longer satisfied with being told LifePoint Hospitals Inc. recognizes that mistakes have been made and things are now being fixed.
What has changed is the hospital’s preliminary denial of accreditation - and the fact that the community hasn’t been given a clear idea of exactly what led to that finding. The preliminary denial of accreditation has given complaints about Danville Regional and LifePoint not only more credibility, but a newfound sense of urgency.
If the Joint Commission had problems with the hospital, why wouldn’t other people? That point was driven home by the speakers in Chatham, including county supervisor and attorney Hank Davis, a city police captain and a life member of the Danville Life Saving Crew.
The problem with promises is that people get tired of hearing them - and that appears to be the case with Danville Regional and LifePoint Hospitals. That’s why for all of its good intentions, the Citizen’s Committee may not be big enough to handle the real solution to the hospital’s problems.
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Sites of Interest
- DRMC's "Here for our community" site
- LPNT - company news/profile (answers.com)
- LPNT news on the web
- Consultant's report to Commission
- Citizens Commission
- Danville Regional Foundation
- DRMC Wikipedia
- LifePoint Company History
- Danville City Council
- Nashville Biz Journal
- DRMC "Danville News & Views"
- DRMC Advisory Board of Directors
Blog Archive
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2007
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May
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- "Hospital unveils evaluation"
- Doloresco discusses Joint Commission findings
- Citizens Commission - next meeting
- Listen to their stories
- Drinking sand
- "Hospital workers' morale in question"
- Citizens Commission meeting - May 22
- "How about some constructive solutions?"
- "What's Next?"
- "LifePoint says acquisitions area of renewed focus"
- "Public seeks hospital solutions"
- "Angry crowd blasts hospital"
- Citizens Committee public hearings begin May 8
- How about some good news for a change?
- Letter in Tuesday's paper
- Letters in Sunday's paper
- Public Forums - times and rules
- Citizens Commission meets tonight
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May
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Letter to Employees, February 7, 2007
Dear DRMC Associates, Physicians and Volunteers:
Thank you for all your efforts to provide healthcare to the citizens of the Dan River Region. Providing healthcare, saving lives, and improving the quality of the lives of our friends, family and neighbors is a high calling, and you are answering that call each and every day. Delivering on the high expectations of those we serve is a tremendous responsibility, shared by everyone – physicians, nurses, technical and support staff, volunteers, managers and administration.
It’s no secret that to be successful in meeting this responsibility, we must work together. We have seen in our Emergency Department the good things that can happen when staff, physicians and management work together effectively. The reduction in wait times and fewer patients leaving without treatment are ample proof. You should all be proud of this accomplishment.
It is our hope that all of us on the hospital team, and indeed the entire community, can come together around Danville Regional and make it a source of genuine pride and positive economic activity for this area. Coming together is way overdue.
When Mr. Bill Carpenter, CEO of LifePoint and three other corporate officers were in our hospital in January, they openly apologized for mistakes made at the onset of the hospital sale. Knowing what they know at this point in time, they would have definitely done things differently. LifePoint has committed the support and resources needed to make DRMC a hospital of which we all can be proud. In addition, we, as leaders in different areas of the hospital, commit our time and energy to that same goal.
The important thing to remember is that on one person or small group can make this hospital successful. It will take the support and commitment of every single one of us who are connected to DRMC in any way. We need your help to make this happen.
Going forward won’t be easy. Any organization of this size and complexity has issues.
But it is time to move on, and move ahead. Constructive suggestions are always OK, and in fact welcomed, because there is almost always more than one “right way” to accomplish goals. Bitter, destructive criticism isn’t OK. There’s a reason they call it “holding grudges,” because the only person who feels bad is the one holding them. It’s time for us to let these go.
Good things can happen if we channel our energies on positive activities. Never has this been more important than now.
During 2006 and 2007 $26 million is being invested to create some good things – the build out of the 5th and 6th floors, the new radiation/oncology equipment, addition of PACS and a new state of the art CT machine. These improvements, coupled with your caring approach, will provide better, more complete care for our patients, close to home.
Recent patient satisfaction scores have improved, and will continue to improve as long as we focus our efforts on providing the best care for our patients and support for each other. We also fully recognize the importance of improving staff and physician satisfaction, and the positive impact this will have on the patients we serve.
We also have a big challenge that will require everyone’s best – our Joint Commission accreditation review, which will occur sometime in the next couple of months. When you think about it, it is not a stretch to say that the lifeblood of this community is dependent upon Danville Regional maintaining Joint Commission accreditation.
Joint Commission accreditation is a key to the continued success of one of the largest employers in the region, and the place where the majority of our citizens come to receive healthcare. An accredited hospital makes the community more attractive for residents who already are here, and also for those people and their employers who are looking for a good place to live, work, play and invest. It also directly impacts the livelihood of all associates and physicians.
We need to place a tremendous amount of importance and urgency around preparing for Joint Commission, because accreditation is vital to all of us. While some might think loss of accreditation hurts LifePoint, the real losers are those of us who live and work in this community. We must join together to protect one of our most valuable community assets. Our region’s economic recovery depends on it.
So we go back to our original points: we are fortunate to be in a position to serve others, which is a tremendous responsibility we accept every day. All of us want to make this a better place to work, and a better place for our neighbors to receive treatment. We are committed to supporting you and know that together we will make DRMC the very best it can be. We appreciate each of you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Betty Jo Foster
Chairman, DRMC Advisory Board
Arthur M. Doloresco
President/ CEO
Richard A. Smith, M.D.
Chief of Staff
20 comments:
I thought we'd moved beyond cockroaches and bloody toilet seats, but I realize they are important.
Still, you would think this newspaper might note the slur on our whole community--calling us low hanging fruit, on top of the comments about Dumbville, and the contempt Doloresco has shown for us all. But of course the newspaper is no longer a community newspaper any more than DRMC is a community hospital, and they probably look at us the same way Lifepoint does.
Let's face it, despite all our hard work, and the sacrifices of our families and our parents, Danville just may be forever hopeless.
You got it right!
If you want a good life around here, go try to get one of those jobs at the Institute, or one of the government hand-out companies we have. What you find is that the guys who sold our hospital control all those jobs, and you won't get them because they are all for their friends and kin. All your fit for is to go work at a store for low wages and pitiful benefits.
So if you want a life, and if you want a decent hospital, you better get the hell out of Danville.
Poor But Proud!
I see no reason to keep beating up the hospital under Lifepoint about cockroaches, bloody toilet seats, or even the disgusting insult by the Lifepoint CEO, William Carpenter.
The issue, as this editorial points out in a reasonable way, is broken promises. Most people I know have had a wait-and-see attitude, realizing that we needed to give any new owner (of anything) time to adjust and get its own programs running.
It is the parade of promises that became broken promises that have robbed us of our hope. You start to feel dumb by accepting a fresh promise from someone who has proved his untrustworthiness.
The most heartfelt-sounding promises were given by the Lifepoint brass earlier this year. Then came the biggest disaster of all, the preliminary denial of accreditation.
Why should we believe anything they tell us at this point? They are playing us for fools. And, indeed, we are fools if we continue to listen to them.
Make no mistake, this tragedy is consuming our community at a time when many people have worked very hard to give some hope to this region. It is sad beyond words.
Just another nail in Danville's coffin. The dreams of a retail center are just that, empty dreams.
Too many areas around us have too big of a head start.
The Hospital is on life support and the big-time teaching facility affiliation is gone Dr. Cohen will stop doing back surgeries in Danville soon(it's in today's paper) and surely the last few cardiac surgeries can't be far off,the last remnant of a once proud affiliation.
Did anyone see the news report about the Magnet hospital in Lynchburg nearing completion on their new tower ? Alot of the new technology added that DRMC already had ...until Lifepoint.
Danville is often compared to Lynchburg, and years ago, Winston Salem and Greensboro, well they've all surpassed Danville many times over. O well I guess it's time to look at the Roxboro hospital and it's job growth with the "new" Duke affiliation.
Oh and it's sad that a few dominated employees would stand up and defend a disgusting, unethical,corporation like Lifepoint. No one ever said that the employees were no good ,indeed alot of the employees that made DRMC what it was are still there just handcuffed and overtaxed by a greed oriented unethical money sponge called lifepoint. sad indeed.
I think LifePoint's strategy is to keep making promises, then breaking them, so that they finaly wear us all down to the point we don't care anymore. We just accept their sorriness and move on, feeling more hopeless than ever. In the end they wind up with a sorry hospital, but it could be that their bean-counters have shown them that you can make more money running a sorry hospital than running a good hospital.
I certainly feel like giving up the fight. It isn't worth it. We can go out of town for medical care, and in an emergency, we just have to leave it up to the Lord.
So Dr. Sharp is gone and now (as far as the hospital goes) so is Dr. Cohen. I would think Dr. Cohen's surgeries going elsewhere would have some impact on revenues. How many nurses and staff will they have to let go to make up for that?
why is it taking so long for you people to catch on? lifepoint doesn't care about all your bitching and moaning. the bigshots don't care. we're all just low hanging fruit to them. we work for nothing, and the people running this rotten old dump of a city have NEVER cared for the little people. just look at the electric rates. come on, lifepoint is not about to fix anything....they'll just talk and talk locally and laugh and laugh in tennessee and tell people they just grabbed off some low hanbging fruit down in old dumville. wake up, idiots.
We are not idiots, but as for the rest of it you're right.
I was an idiot until my last experience with Lifepoint. No more. I might be dumb, but I'm not dumb enough to ever go back. And I'm not goana waste my time and yours by telling about it.
No question that the bastards are winning. Most people I hear just say it's useless. We're gonna have a second-rate hospital just like so many other second-rate things. Have you ever wondered who came up with the joke about Danville being a World Class Organization? I'd like to know.
You don't have to tell the story there are so many bad lifepoint stories....I'm leaving also, they've jeopardized me and my patients too many times.....You and I will be so much better off elsewhere , good luck.Danville's "elite" is not and has never been proactive ,at best reactive, and at worst inactive. The only way they can have any power is to keep everyone else down.The one's who know better will and do leave, just as they always have. Danville has always settled for outdated and second rate , well I won't.
21 new nurses hired!Has it occured to anyone that the reason they are staying at DRMC is to pay off their education obligation to the hospital and not because they want to work for deathpoint?
Yes , I know lots of people who went there for LPN/RN.
The loan repayment was horrible if you don't work out your obligation.
It's an awful situation to go into to work out your obligation in a HORRIBLE environment, God bless them if they make it,it'll be a long long haul.
If you're gonna dance to the music the ya gotta pay the piper! Didn't they read the terms when they asked to enroll in the program ? Get real people.
Whoah! The one who brung 'em to the dance left--walked out, sold out, abandoned them, and left them in the hands of as morally corrupt breed of charlatans to be seen in these parts since the Boys at the Bank were riding high. You can blame a lot of people in this one, but please don't blame the fine, good-hearted, smart, hard-working people who answered the call to become nurses.
And don't forget that they started their education when this fiasco was just beginning two years ago. Who could have predicted?
Best of luck to this new class of nurses.
And may God guide their hands and minds as they are dumped, inexperienced, into a wretched minefield of back-biting and incompetent, evil management.
How ironic that LifePoint has declared its view of us as low-hanging fruit--which means over-ripe, perhaps rotten fruit.
Do they really just happen to like rotten fruit? Is that why they have installed management at DRMC that is rotten at the top?
How did the Yanceyville meeting go?
I notice there is no coverage online of the forum in Yanceyville...not even on the Caswell Messenger page. For you print subscribers, did anyone do an article that just didn't make it onto the web?
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