Despite profits, Virginia troubles batter LifePoint’s reputation
By Amy Griffith, agriffith@nashvillecitypaper.comJune 26, 2007
Troubles experienced by a Virginia hospital owned by Nashville-based LifePoint Hospitals Inc. have escalated into a public relations nightmare, catching the attention of analysts and raising questions about corporate acquisition of community hospitals.
LifePoint acquired the 350-bed Danville Regional Medical Center in 2005, shortly after LifePoint’s purchase of Providence Healthcare Co. The following two years saw a number of changes at the management level, including last week’s announced departure of the hospital’s fourth CEO since 2005. And in February, DRMC was Virginia’s only hospital to receive a preliminary withdrawal of accreditation status by the Joint Commission.
Though LifePoint’s performance has remained strong, the troubles in Danville have gained the attention of analysts. John Ransom, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates who follows LifePoint, said hospital ownership “could have done better” in terms of handling the hospital’s accreditation, staff turnover and CEO changes. The situation is not, however, a lost cause. Despite relatively high expense levels, especially in terms of man-hours, Ransom said the Danville hospital still has positive EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — and commands more than 90 percent of the area’s market share. “It’s not critical for them to blow the doors out in Danville to meet the expectations Wall Street has set,” Ransom said. He added that LifePoint’s Danville woes are not unusual in the hospital industry.
“There’s nothing structurally wrong with LifePoint as far as they can run a hospital,” Ransom said. “It’s always touchy when you buy a big, local not-for-profit hospital. Almost everybody has had problems somewhere. It’s a hard business.”
Changes at the hospital have been one of Danville’s biggest local issues in the last two years, according to Arnold Hendrix, editor-in-chief of local newspaper The Danville Register & Bee. Danville has a population of 90,000, and the DRMC is one of the city’s top employers.
“Whatever happens to the hospital is going to have a ripple effect throughout the community,” Hendrix said. “I think everyone here recognizes that a hospital is crucial to a community, whether it be in health care or economic development efforts, just like a school system is critical. We all need LifePoint to succeed here.”
The mayor of Danville formed a citizen’s committee to investigate care at the hospital through public hearings, with the help of an outside consultant. The results of the investigation will be announced at a city council meeting next week. In the meantime, Hendrix said, there is a good deal of public pressure on the hospital’s board of directors to find a way to buy back the hospital.
Ransom said he believes LifePoint can move forward by establishing a CEO, then rebuilding local credibility and hospital structure.
LifePoint owns Tennessee hospitals in Athens, Lawrenceburg, Livingston, Pulaski and Winchester. LifePoint officials did not return repeated calls from The City Paper, and a spokesperson for the DRMC was unavailable for comment.
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32 comments:
As we all know, at least if you deal with the hospital, things are much worse than this report reflects. It's a toss-up whose morale is the worst: physicians, support staff or patients.
Keep in mind, as you read the tepid comments from the Raymond James analyst, that Raymond James collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for brokering the sale of our Danville Regional Hospital to LifePoint. That's who The Boys at the Bank paid to help them create this living nightmare.
As for Arnold Hendrix stating that Danville's "population" is 90,000, that's par for the accuracy and integrity of his newspaper.
With luck, this report will begin to open the eyes of investors about the wretched management by LifePoint.
--Dry Fork
just want to say as an employee-recently a dangerous situatuion at the hospital reminded us all that we are there for the patients-not to swell the bottom line.i know business has its place but humanity is what this is about. I was very proud to be associated with the kind of people employed at the hospital-though certainly very short staffed- they pulled together during intense events and moved 4 floors of patients/their loved ones/equipment/charts/med carts etc... in approximately 45 minutes maintaining a safe environment for all, including staff-I think the corporation may just be seeing us in a different light now. maybe they'll get it now.
Wow Danville's population doubled overnight ,....idiots.
Safe environment ...
Call staff from home into a possibly explosive environment and risk their lives also , yeah that's really smart.
Come on, the situation was handled excellently, anything less would have been met with tons of criticism, and not defending the paper, he obviously missed by saying Danvilles population was 90,000 but was probably pretty accurate for the population of the area that the hospital serves.
I'm as pissed as anyone at how Lifepoint operates, but the animosity should be directed at them and Majors, Davenport, Barkhouser, Ashby and Motley. It's high time they were called out.
"high expense levels in terms of manhours"..doesn't sound good for us. One of our greatest concerns is being short staffed. Does this mean if LPNT stays in the picture that we'll have even further staff reductions? Hate to say it but I believe we will continue to see staff reductions once the dust settles.
The brain and talent drain continues. I just heard Lori Prescott is leaving. sadly, another committed to quality, high standards and success.
June 27, 2007 10:09:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...
Guess she got tired of all the "working together to make things better"
June 27, 2007 10:37:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...
If true then I suspect she got tired of the constant character assasination by those people who don't know her nor really cared to. She had a difficult job to do, both before and after coming to the DOE. She performed her responsibilities to the best of her abilities and did a good job at it. It was usually the very immature who she had problems with, and those have been the most vocal. Those persons seem to villify anyone who does not support their side in the MINDLESS bitching and whining about the hospital, without offering any VIABLE solutions to the problems. They also seem to constantly berate anyone who supports meaningful dialog to improve conditions here. Unfortunately this, as well as other blogs, tend to encourage "drive by" comments when the posters are not required to indentify themselves. Anonymity seems to promote audacity. While this forum DOES provide a mechanism for venting frustrations about Lifpoint, it has gotten out of hand with the spammers, character assassins, whiners, and people who really have nothing to say, but insist on doing it anyway.
Signed,
Tired of "Drive By" Comments
June 27, 2007 11:41:00 AM EST
"
This blog is like any other public forum or public place, open to the occassional graffiti artisit. Unfortunately we have to take the good with the bad. If I remember correctly though she was the one who wrote a letter to all of the papers encouraging people to be quiet unless the had constructive solutions yet, provided none herself, kind of the pot calling the kettle black. Unfortunately for many, the only thing they can do constructive or otherwise is to identify the problems they see, and that is well within their rights and should be expected of them. (excluding personal attacks) She should have known though that when you choose to put your name out in the public you have to be prepared for the shots coming your way. Have no idea how much vilification she may have taken at work though and that part is a shame.
The staff that came into the hospital on Monday on their day off should be commended. The hospital needed as much help as possible and the staff responded appropriately.
Thank you for a job well done.
"Signed,
Tired of "Drive By" Comments"
Ummm....we noticed you didn't sign your name.
To the post above's point...it is encouraging to think, in the midst of all this negativity, that when faced with a very frightening situation, the staff stepped up and did what needed to be done to safeguard the lives of patients and visitors alike.
And to the post about people being called in from their homes during this situation to work...well, that's kinda what we do when the hospital goes on alert due to a potentially disastrous situation either internally or externally.
"LifePoint officials did not return repeated calls from The City Paper, and a spokesperson for the DRMC was unavailable for comment."
Hey, way to try and get your story out there, LPNT.
Laurie Prescott has NOT resigned.
response to the true "idiot" who believes that the hospital put others in danger by calling them to help during our crisis situation-that's our job-our purpose is to respond when the need is there-we've been doing it for years. as for L.P. resigning-i think not- she's committed to turning the tide for the pt's and staff and I applaud her efforts as well as those who were scheduled/came in for meeting their obligations as caregivers of the community as a whole
Your "obligation" is to heal not to defend you are not trained in weapons,explosives,and or terrorism. The only thing you do by walking into a situation like that is to increase the load on those who's job it is to "save" people .Learn something about risk benefit analysis as it is taught by Allen Brunacini and you will then have a different take on the idea. Talk to your Police fire rescue and military and learn something instead of arguing something that you obviously have NO experience in. Going into a situation half a**ed is dangerous negligent and stupid. What you have always done does not make what you do the correct thing to do. And in the future you should know the argument before you choose a discussion on which I'm quite sure you do not have formal knowledge. NOW back to the topic ....
The last poster is obviously not a health care provider or if you are not one committed to the patients. To describe what happened here on monday as a "half a**ed" procedure is uncalled for.
Is the staff properly trained to deal with explosives no but the experts were here very quickly. Without the committment of those hospital workers (both professionals and ancilliary support staff) approximately 70 patients would not have been moved to a safer spot within 45 minutes time. They may not have had the skills to deal with explosives etc but they sure had the skills to move vented patients, and complicated equipment in a safe organized manner as well as hold the hand of the frightened patient. No expert in explosives could have done that but trained, competent healthcare workers could.
Why not recognize that despite being scared, concerned and having worked all night many people came back to assist in an effort that was extraordinary and selfless. Why must you continue to kick down the very people that are trying to care for your community?
"Your "obligation" is to heal not to defend you are not trained in weapons,explosives,and or terrorism."
And leaving helpless patients in harms way is in no way a part of "healing". No one was asked to come in and assist with bomb disposal, merely to help move all people out of harms way and then back to where they belonged after the "all clear" was given. I didn't hear the conversation, but would imagine the ATF,State Police, Danville PD, and DLSC were calling the shots as to whether or not it was safe for employees to assist in moving patients, were it not safe for us I have to imagine they would have forbid our help and moved them themselves. BTW a lot of the reason people were called in was to have "healers" nearby should they be needed.
Check with Brunacini and see if he thinks its a bad idea to have caregivers on standy should things not work out so well.
These comments give another victory to LifePoint, the single entity determined to destroy whatever morale is left. When they have broken ALL of you, they will try to rebuild into the sort of monster that sucks the profits out of the community into those of fatcats in Tennessee and New York.
No one has criticized the fact that LifePoint's DRMC workers wanted to help. These are wonderful people who love their neighbors and are committed to care-giving.
Who knows, LifePoint itself could be behind these reckless comments. All they want to do is to divide and conquer. It's an old trick.
According to Mr. Brunacini:
"Standard risk management also becomes an important part of incident safety -- that is, we will take a significant risk to protect a savable life, a little very controlled risk to protect savable property, no risk for what is already lost."
I would estimate that in a fire or disaster situation, healthcare professionals on the scene become the first responders. Once external emergency personnel begin arriving, those healthcare workers become support personnel and take to tasks related to protecting life during the incident. Just like in any dangerous situation, we rely on the direction of the "IC" to determine safe haven locations to continue the care of those patients. More support personnel are needed as the workload increases, therefore, it is necessary to bring in additional support.
I am sure that the IC in charge of the incident at the hospital was made aware of DRMC's disaster plan and had to approve the call to bring in more staff and then, had to approve how those staff accessed the building and were deployed.
Obviously the poster who first quoted Brunacini didn't read as clearly or concisely as the last poster.
Thanks for the clarification, and I agree, if you can criticize what happened Tuesday are are ripe for division.
"I would estimate that in a fire or disaster situation, healthcare professionals on the scene become the first responders."
Correct I agree , but , In a bomb/terrorism situation you do not add to that which is in peril.
Otherwise it went very well.
I know this is ridiculous, and this whole post has gone off track but PLEASE explain..."that which is in peril".....
How were any of those called in "in peril"? It wouldn't surprise me to find out IC ok'd or even requested additionl help for dealing with patients and they would have surely denied access to anyone they thought was going into a perilous situation.
You're really grasping at straws...
"Troubles experienced by a Virginia hospital owned by Nashville-based LifePoint Hospitals Inc. have escalated into a public relations nightmare, catching the attention of analysts and raising questions about corporate acquisition of community hospitals."
Has anyone done web research on this? I would like to see more analysis of corporate acquisition and transition from not-for-profit to for-profit. Perhaps the Citizens Commission has learned of some statistics or information that could help us. It seems to be a lot bigger than just what is going on with DRMC.
going into a situation with a suspected explosive device is considered perilous.
Back to the problem at hand --Lifepoint.
"in peril"do you think the patients,visitors,staff would be in less "peril" had we just kept it secret? not moved them away from"peril"? we in the emergency medical system (ems) practice for just this reason, I'm glad we practiced- everyone was great!
going into a situation with a suspected explosive device is considered perilous.
Back to the problem at hand --Lifepoint.
So the next time there might be a "suspected" explosive device in the hospital, your suggestion would be for physicians, nurses, and staff to all run across the road and leave the patients to fend for themselves?
Geez I'm glad you weren't in charge that day.
LISTEN . what you have committed stays that way . You do not committ ADDITIONAL resources.
LISTEN .
I'm in EMS too and you know you have Zones at the events that WE practice for you don't throw all of your resources into the Hotzone.
If you would have been in charge everyone would have been inside , the device would have gone off and No one would have been left to help.You also would have forgotten that "terrorists" generally have a second device in which you'd have killed the remainder of us.
The end.
LISTEN
so I guess all the lives saved/. lost/changed on the fateful disaster at the world trade center were all for naught!!guess you would've directed ems to practice "bystander apathy" and felt good that you were'nt maimed/dead/having health problems/trying to put your life back together after losing loved ones. am I right?
I guess you'll never look beyond your own narcissistic ignorance.
Goodbye.
LISTEN. ATF, State Police, Danville PD were incident command, NOT Lfpt or staff, calling in staff and offering there services to the professionals was not a bad move. If YOU think staff being used was a BAD move critcize Incident command NOT Lfpt or the staff.
Come on man....you act as if the hospital called in a bunch of staff and sent them charging into a hotzone without going through incident command.
Your points are valid, you don't endanger lives unneccesarily, and I don't think that happened. But, if it did it wasn't because the hospital sent people running into one of your hot zones without the request from or OK by Incident Command.
But thanks for your analysis Mr. Armchair quarterback.
Guess what I wasn't sitting I was doing . And we were called into a hot zone. It takes 45min to 1 hour for all of the above except the State Police to get here an hour we were in danger... And initially lifepoint was command since DFD doesn't do bomb calls. But...It seems we both have valid comments and a draw of sorts.?
Close to a draw.....you were complaining about the ones "called in", not the ones "on duty".
If you don't expect to be of service for an internal disiaster while your on duty, then you need to look for a position that will allow you to exit the building as soon as the code is called. No way should caregivers on duty be expected to abandon patients.
Totally agree , You should NEVER abandon your post. Not complaining about the "on duty" they did an OUTSTANDING job, merely ticked at the handling of exterior resources that would absolutely have been needed had this turned out to be "real".
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