Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, June 30, 2007
DANVILLE - Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville, N.C., is pulling out all the stops to convince Danville patients to travel down the road “just a few miles” for their health care.
Once an infrequent advertiser with the Danville Register & Bee, the hospital began an advertising campaign near the first of June with the intent to advertise two or three times a month.
Now area residents also are receiving oversized postcards informing people that the hospital is “ready to serve the people of Danville and Caswell County.”
Annie Penn is part of the Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro, N.C., whose marketing department is handling the campaign.
“Over the last year-plus, Annie Penn and Moses Cone have received increased interest from physicians, patients and employees from the Danville area,” Susan Fitzgibbons, president of the hospital, said Friday.
The advertising campaign kicks off amidst community concerns and an ongoing Citizen’s Commission investigation related to the quality of care at Danville Regional Medical Center.
“Our goal is not to be predatory, but to increase the awareness in the Danville area that there is an excellent facility 25 minutes down the road,” Fitzgibbons said.
She said the postcards were sent out to 5,000 people in the area.
“The postcards are the first mailing,” she said, “and ads have started recently.”
Fitzgibbons said Annie Penn has been aware of the changes that Danville Regional has been going through since its purchase by LifePoint Hospitals Inc. two years ago.
Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco resigned last week after less than a year on the job. He was the third chief executive to lead Danville Regional since LifePoint purchased the hospital in July 2005.
There also appears to be several former employees of Danville Regional moving on to other area hospitals.
Fitzgibbons attends the new employee orientations at her hospital every two weeks and said she always asks new employees where they are from. Lately, there have been a lot from Danville.
“We have seen an upward trend in both Greensboro and Reidsville in employees from Danville,” she said. “We have advertised in Danville, but we do advertising everywhere.”
Even though the situation at Danville Regional has helped with what staffing problems Annie Penn had, Fitzgibbons said they were in excellent shape two years ago.
“We have a few vacancies,” she said, “and, of course, every hospital has a turnover.”
Sharon Troxler, director of marketing and volunteer services at Annie Penn, said Thursday that hospital officials “just want folks in Danville to know about our services.”
“We wish Danville Regional the best, and we hope they get back on their feet,” she said. “Every community needs it owns hospital, but we want the citizens of Danville to realize we would welcome them as patients.”
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What wonderful comments from the people at Annie Penn. We have already experienced their competence and cheerfulness when we took a child down there. God bless them for being there when we have been thrown to the wolves by our community "leaders." God always finds a way!
This is so exciting. Our daughter is now working there and she says the people are great and the morale is the best she has ever seen and shes talking about the morale of the patients AND the staff.
Signed LAJ
Annie Penn and the Mosescone health system are just the saviours that Danville needs right now.
Ta Ta Lifepoint.
If people will give their full support to Annie Penn, this will pave the way for what happens when LifePoint decides to abandon Danville, which they will. Our support of Annie Penn should mean that Annie Penn (Moses Cone) will be the natural one to merge Danville Regional with as a community hospital--so long as the Bank Boys will let the community use that $200 million to work a deal.
Hey this is great. But don't overlook the fact that the Danville Disgrace, as one commenter called the newspaper, is trumpeting the Annie Penn ad campaign in order to MAKE Lifepoint resume advertising.
Whether it;s the Danville Disgrace, or Lifepoint, or the Boys at the Bank, the ONLY thing that matters is MONEEEEEEEE!
This is a perfect example of what could have happened in Danville. Even though the powers to be think we are stupid and will deny it around every corner, we ALL know that Duke, Carilion, and Moses Cone made bids for our hospital, sadly, the "Bank boys", Ashby, and Davenport saw dollar signs and not patient care. This post may be long but please bear with me as I vent. I have several friends that work for Franklin Memorial in Rocky Mount. About 10 years ago thet were faced with a delima of going bankrupt or selling out to the highest bidder. They took the deal with Carilion and have turned things around. Carilion brought in new services, my friends tell me that everyone's pay got increased and their benefits were much better being part of a large not-for-profit hospital group. Moses Cone has done the exact same thing for Annie Penn, increased salaries, benefits, and services for the benefit of staff, doctors, and most importantly patients. On a personnal note I worked at Durham Regional years ago when they were on the verge of bankruptcy. The hospital fielded many offers from entities such as HCA, Tenet, Kiaser Permenante, Columbia, and Duke. Thank goodness the board had enough sense and decency to appoint an impartial board to handle the negotiations and investigate every potential buyer of the hoispital. In investigating the for-profit hospitals they found very disturbing patterns of mass firings, cutting of services, and intimidation techniques toward staff. Something that could have been easily done by these so-called businessmen. Thankfully, Durham Regional went with Duke and it was a great pairing of two fine hospitals. Services got increased, salary and benefits got better, and morale increased because Duke brought in lower nurse-to-patient ratios. Unfortunately, due to family reasons, I had to take a job at DRMC and be closer to home. I had always heard horror stories about this place. However, with the old DRMC I did have to take a pay cut but the technology that was here was better than at Duke. The reputation was better than I had given them gredit for. Everything was wonderful for a few years then the rumors started flying about us being sold out. Anyone I came in contact with I tried to tell about the horrors we encountered with for-profit hospitals, unfortunately, I am but one person and no one listens to a little ole nurse anyway. Now look at the problems we are mired in, disgraceful. Duke, Moses Cone, and Carilion figured out a long time ago that the way to be porofitable is to invest in services and staff in order to make a profit. More service mean more patients. Happy staff means happy patients. Finally, more staff means better patient outcomes which means more and happier patients. Will Lifepoint ever get that concept?
Amen! BVut now God is guiding us instead of a pack of leeches.
I too am employeed at Moses Cone and am happier than I have been in many years. I would rate my satisfaction with Mo Co about a 9 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being great.
Although they too have their issues, I have never once dreaded making the commute to report in and it never feels like a toxic enviornment like DRMC felt before I left.
The quality of care for patients is EXCELLENT. They have it together and patients are always FIRST!!!
I would like to hear something about Morehead. I live west of Danville and would probably go there in an emergency. Also, what local doctors have privileges in NC hospitals?
In Sunday School this morning, we heard the amazing, horrible story about what happened Friday to the old near-blind patient at DRMC. All I can say is thank the good Lord for having Annie Penn down the road.
It's hard to know which Danville physicians have privileges at Morehead. I suggest that you simply call the offices of the local doctors you think you might need and ask them. They will be pleased to tell you.
-AS-
It's hard to know which Danville physicians have privileges at Morehead. I suggest that you simply call the offices of the local doctors you think you might need and ask them. They will be pleased to tell you.
-AS-
Has anyone heard the rumor circulating that Carilion is looking to build a small hospital in the Altavista area. Wouldn't that be wonderful, but, I think Centra health would fight them over it since they have doctor's offices in Gretna and Altavista?
Also in the Reidsville Review
http://www.reidsvillereview.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RVR%2FMGArticle%2FRVR_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173351849769&path=%21newsarchive
Rumor is new, but I don't see how Carilion could compete with Centra, one of the best-run hospitals in Virginia. The only reason Moses Cone is going after DRMC is that it has become a dump under LifePoint.
Shortage of Care is a must read for any nurse or healthcare professional who is concerned about the "nursing shortage", its causes, and what can be done to fix it.
Just copy and paste.
http://www.seiu.org/docUploads/careshortage_report.pdf
Not relevant to this thread but, don't you wish we'd seen an editorial like this 2 years ago?
McKenna should give public a forum
Editorial Board
The Herald-Zeitung
Published July 1, 2007
It could be a matter of days or weeks until the McKenna Memorial Hospital sale is agreed. No one outside the hospital’s board and senior administration knows exactly how close a deal with one of the three finalists is to being done.
CHRISTUS Health System, Methodist Health Care and LifePoint Hospitals have been identified as the board’s choice to buy the McKenna hospital system. But since the sale was announced in the final week of 2006, local residents and members of the medical community have voiced doubts about the plan.
As recently as this week, a group that includes former State Representative and County Judge Carter Casteel and accountant Hal Holtman — both former McKenna board members — met to discuss the sale issue. Casteel and Holtman and about 15 others calling themselves “Patients to Preserve Community Healthcare” take issue with the plan because they say they feel uninformed about the proposed sale.
It’s time the McKenna board took a leaf out of the Texas Department of Transportation’s book and opened the sale issue to the public. The decision about who buys this hospital is undoubtedly in the hands of the McKenna board. But the people this hospital serves should be kept informed about what is happening to their hospital.
What will happen to McKenna’s outstanding staff to patient ratio? What will a change of ownership do to the patient satisfaction ratio that ranks in the top 10 percent of the nation. This is a community hospital founded and funded by those who live here. Before the community ownership is given up, the leaders of this community’s hospital should open the process to the public and directly answer their patients’ questions.
WHO DO WE THANK FOR THIS HORRIBLE DISTINCTION--CITY 'FATHERS' OR LIFEPOINT?
Danville's infant mortality rate high
By SUSAN ELZEY
Register & Bee staff writer
Monday, July 2, 2007
DANVILLE - The numbers are out and the Danville area continues to have a higher infant mortality rate than the state average.
“Danville’s five-year average infant mortality rate was 12.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to the five-year rate for Virginia of 7.4,” Cindy Hetzel, director of data and research for Voices for Virginia’s Children, said in a news release.
The organization is a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that produces research and policy briefs and maintains online locality data on children.
Hetzel also noted that although the percent of babies born at low birth weight was higher in Danville at 9.9 percent in 2005 than in Virginia at 8.2, it has dropped in Danville since 2001 when it was 11 percent.
An increasing number of babies are being born premature or of low birth weight in Virginia, both of which are precursors of infant mortality, according to Voices for Virginia’s Children.
Of the 10 localities in Virginia with the highest infant mortality rates, Danville ranks sixth. Portsmouth is the highest with 15 deaths per 1,000 live births and Arlington the lowest with 3.6 deaths.
Dr. John McConnaughey, a pediatrician with Health Centers of the Piedmont, said he suspects the lack of good prenatal care in the area is the single element that affects the area’s mortality rate the most.
“Prenatal care is available, and I think what is available is good, but in an economically depressed area it might be hard for people to get prenatal care,” he said Thursday.
“Certainly, there are clinics at the health department and at doctor’s offices, so it’s available, but it’s a geographically large area with few providers and people lack the resources to get there.”
McConnaughey said it would be helpful to emulate the prenatal care in European nations where the care is brought to the homes of the woman, but said the resources are just not in place to do that in the U.S.
“The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is a remarkable number when you look at the rest of the developed countries in the world,” he said.
Dr. Louis Eliacin, who supervises the health department’s prenatal program, said he sees several reasons why area women, especially poor and black, don’t receive prenatal care.
“What I’ve heard from this people is that the most common problem is transportation,” he said. “The number two reason is that a woman who has three or four children doesn’t seek care. They just don’t show up - it’s either lack of motivation or they think they know.”
Eliacin said another factor is that so many of the pregnant teenage girls are being taken care of by their grandparents.
He also estimates that 75 percent of the pregnant patients he sees are on some type of government aid.
Dr. Geoffrey Smith, director of the Danville Health Department, cautioned that although every death is important, the infant mortality rate deals with relatively low numbers.
“One death more or less could make a significant difference in the rate,” he said.
The first results from a new survey, the Virginia Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, will be available in about 18 months, Smith said. The survey is studying the mothers of newborn infants to learn why some infants are born healthy and some aren’t.
Neither....as much free care as there is available, there is no excuse for lack of prenatal care!
However part of the $210,000,000 could be used to improve this figure.
Guys, Face reality. Lifepoint is a multibillion dollar corporation. Danville will not hurt it, no matter what happens. Trying to throw stones at Goliath will not work in this century. There are quality problems that are being addressed. Staffing levels are concerning but not horrendous. Things could be much worse, believe it or not. To keep "boycotting" the hospital does not hurt Lifepoint, they will make money selling gas to you leaving town. It only hurts the quality people staying behind doing their jobs. Then when things hit the fan, you will have a "transfer station" that hopefully will take care of you. In reality that does NOT exist. You are not going to build another hospital. The Boys at the Bank will grovel until the furor dies down and not contribute anything to help us. Lifepoint will go on, with or without you. Face reality! This is, what it is. If there are specific concerns, bring them up, to the newspapers, to the attorney general, to your doctor. Blanket condemnations do not work and do not bring about change. We asked for a new CEO, now we have one. Stop for a minute and give him a chance. Do you even know what to ask for next?? If so, be specific! Otherwise the only losers in all this will be the doctors, staff and patients (now and future) that live in Danville. You can bet Lifepoint and the Boys could not care less.
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