McKenna finalist under new scrutiny
The Herald-Zeitung (New Braunfels, Texas)
Published July 6, 2007
At least one of the three finalists in the race to purchase McKenna Memorial Hospital in New Braunfels is having to answer tough questions about how it is running a recently-acquired community hospital in Virginia.
Tennessee-based LifePoint Hospitals bought Danville Regional Medical Center, in Danville, Va., two years ago. However, only last month the chief executive officer running the healthcare facility resigned. Art Doloresco was the third CEO of the LifePoint-run hospital since July 2005.
DRMC is licensed for 350 beds, has a 24-hour emergency department and employs a medical staff of about 140, according to the LifePoint Web site. Danville, in south central Virginia has a population of about 48,000, which is similar to the estimated 50,000 in Comal County.
In February, DRMC also received a preliminary denial of accreditation status from The Joint Commission, which is a nonprofit agency that has accredited hospitals nationwide for more than 50 years.
A preliminary denial of accreditation results when there is justification to deny accreditation to the organization. Usually, this is shown by a count of the number of non-compliant standards at the time of survey, according to Elizabeth Zhani, spokewoman for The Joint Commission.
Danville Regional Medical Center failed three points on its home care section, and 21 points on its hospital accreditation checklist, according to public records.
“The decision is subject to appeal prior to the determination to deny accreditation, and I’m not aware that any appeal has been made,” Zhani said Thursday. “However, I don’t see why they wouldn’t, but the process can take several months before being heard by a special board.”
The level of concern in Danville apparently had grown so much that about four months ago, Mayor Wayne Williams — who also is a practicing surgeon — decided to form a special “Citizens Commission.”
He formed the commission to “seek information from members of the community ... to discuss what is both good and bad about the care and services offered at DRMC,” according to information from the Danville city Web site.
The seven-person commission also was “charged with developing a list of key problems from public input, provide progress reports to Danville City Council and work with LifePoint and an outside expert to determine solutions to these concerns.”
On Tuesday, the commission presented its findings to the city council. Afterward, a LifePoint executive told council members the healthcare corporation was committed to fixing the problem at DRMC, according to information from the Danville Register & Bee, the city’s daily newspaper.
In May, officials at the 132-bed McKenna Memorial Hospital announced that LifePoint Hospitals, Christus Health and The Methodist Health Care System of San Antonio had been selected for “extended due diligence with the purpose of selecting one finalist to enter into a formal letter of intent to purchase McKenna Memorial Hospital.”
When asked about the situation in Danville — and its possible bearing on LifePoint’s bid — McKenna’s chief development officer said she was unaware of the case.
“But part of the due diligence process would include looking into something like this,” Jennifer Malatek said Thursday. “And all aspects of each applicant will be looked at. We want to make sure we have the most correct and accurate information.”
Calls to LifePoint were not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=0c1f96a4b9f3565d
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39 comments:
At LEAST they are investigating BEFORE selling!
Great catch. It's very important for every doc in that town to get this blog address. Get their names from 411. Wew can mail them the little cards we see around Danville. That should help them in their decision-making process.
It also broadens the influence of those of us suffering under Lifepoint here in Danville.
Super idea. Here's the link to all the physicians. All of them need top see this blog before rushing into a terrible decision:
http://mckenna.netreturns.biz/Providers/Directory.aspx?Matchall=ALL&Orderby=specialty
Sentinel Event, Can you get this on the front page of the Topix website? At least let them know what they are doing here has further consequences...
Finally, a community looks before they leap! Much wiser move!
The voices of screaming victims of corporate healthcare "deals" could be heard.
Lifepoint Corporation is similar to Viox. "They said it would be good for us.....but then we learned it isn't."
How oddly similar.
How does Sentinel Event find these interesting articles?
Google is your friend.
:-)
Google is OUR friend.
We have a tremendous Christian duty to warn the poor people at McKenna about LifePoint. They muist be stopped before they destroy another community hospital!
I think comments on here have got too high handed. What about stahp infections? Can using germ killers like lysol help or is that something patients cant control. Thank you.
No matter what, don't start taking your own disinfectants into Danville Regional. It may be tempting, but it doesn't do any real good. You need to express yourself loudly and often and MAKE the staff clean up whatever is troubling you. Do not clean up blood or vomit. EVER! As for staph infections, that is beyond anything you can help with. We are doing the very best we can under difficult conditions, and as a "customer," you should scream your head off when we are not up to the best standards.
Whoever alerted McKenna to the jeapardies of Lifepoint has done them a huge favor. They've done their whole community a huge favor!
If they are wise enough to think with their heads instead of their wallets.
Americans, by nature,want a quick, easy, fix. We're spoiled that way. But Lifepoints' fix is like quicksand! Once they own ya, it's hard to dig your way out. They've done it to doctors, nurses, communities everywhere they've been.
They just hook up drainage tubes to every community, suck it dry, then funnell it into their own big shiny pot. Then, a larger "pac-man"-Tenent comes along, and eventually sucks them up. Before you know it its all in one big pot, and America's healthcare is owned by few (Did I mention that John Bush is a huge reaper of Tenent's pot as one of the directors, and that both companies have had extensive FBI investigations that were dismissed by the Executive Branch of Govt.(Side note George Senior is or has been a director of a company that makes military weapons-doubt its his expertise in combat either-Google is my friend too)
And everyone wonders why Healthcare in America continues to demand more of the Gross National Product, and Healthcare Expense is skyrocketing!
Strategic Planning by President Pac-Man! If one owns a major part of America's Healthcare Services-could make for nice retirement, huh?
Don't forget who makes the decisions-good, bad,or ugly, and even mispronouncing it at times? The one with the most money-many times from oil! Spoken usually through those who handle the money.....the bankers.
Who has allowed all of this to happen? We did....we accepted a quick and easy fix.
Who can change it now? ........... We can... We have to.....otherwise quality Healthcare in America will be just another type of tax and slavery.
Ya know, theres a children's game in the middle east that kids play and learn how to control a city . ........and build their own kingdoms......its just play though, right?
Americans played monopoly, battleship, and pac-man.
I just wonder how similarly this all stacks up........
So...with all this corporate hate, surely none of you bloggers shop at Wal-Mart or buy anything that belongs to Proctor & Gamble. Your victim mentality is showing again.
Ask yourself "why was the hospital for sale in the first place?"
Is it just so hard to swallow that LifePoint does a great job in so many communities and that perhaps it has something to do with the suspicious, paranoid little isolationist minds in Danville that might add to the problems?
And now we have the Christian banner being waved? Love thy enemies??
"Is it just so hard to swallow that LifePoint does a great job in so many communities and that perhaps it has something to do with the suspicious, paranoid little isolationist minds in Danville that might add to the problems?"
Uh....yeah...
We're just having a little group delusion that we have managed to drag the media, the attorney general, Joint Commission, CMS, and maybe some folks in Texas into.
Somebody call Agent Mulder...quick!
Read...suspicious, paranoid little minds.
Lifepoint is use to buying very little hospitals with financial troubles, cutting expenses, adding a computer and showing a profit. The problem is, when you do this to a larger more profitable organization that has already cut expenses with automation you destroy it.
The hospital was for sale for the same reason that Ben is trying to sell everything else ... he's tired of dealing with the issues and want's to get money banked that he can use to continue his control of people. It's a shame that he did not instead allow others to handle these issue (as in Intertape) or at least team up with another non-profit organization that had community health as a priority.
"Ask yourself "why was the hospital for sale in the first place?"
Is it just so hard to swallow that LifePoint does a great job in so many communities and that perhaps it has something to do with the suspicious, paranoid little isolationist minds in Danville that might add to the problems?"
Good question, But since the ones who sold it won't talk it's kinda hard to know for sure! Word was (from them) that in 5 years non-profit hospitals would all be in trouble and unable to operate without corporate backing.
Ask anyone who knows and you will find out DRMC was making millions of dollars every year, reinvesting the profits into itself and winning national acclaim for its pharmacy, computer system etc. Extra profits were also used to maintain extra staffing that lifepoint deemed "redundant". Maybe there was excess but it certainly kept the ratio's up and patients well cared for.
Personally I think "the boys" were weary of the work and saw a cash cow. Why else would they have so conveniently appointed themselves guardians of the procedes? Sure large corps. have a lot of money to invest, BUT they will never invest more than they take. We would have been much better off selling to a lower bidder (ie Moses Cone) who would have operated without siphoning off a ton to send to investors or corporate offices. Hell for that matter we could have donated the hospital to them and been in better shape.
Another option would have been to hire a management firm to come in and run it for us. Sure that would take some of the profits but still no money would be sent out to investors and it would have been in their best interest to expand while still being frugal.
And I'm not so sure Lifepoint is doing GREAT in other communities. It's been said a hundred times on here that their other hospitals are much smaller, much more rural, and the people in those communities have no choice. I would guess they're not bitching because it wouldn't do them any good.
Before you deem us suspicious and paranoid, it would behoove you to look deeper into Lifepoints history. We aren't the first hospital they have butchered, and certainly not the worst. We are the largest and with more people being served, hence more disgruntaled voices. Study what they did to the Needles community and you will find concrete proof that profits always trump quality care with them.
They certainly aren't the worst we could have done but most feel we sure could have done a lot better.
But that would have required the boys to turn away some cash, something thats just not in their nature.
Robert Wampler (Gateway Division CFO who really put the screws to Danville) is part of the group trying to purchase Portneuf Medical Center. I sort of thought Province disapeared after the Lifepoint merger, but no. Those involved in that company have formed a new one and are on the hunt for more meat to butcher (http://www.tennessean.com/business/archives/05/03/69523457.shtml?Element_ID=69523457).
http://www.pocatelloshops.com/blogs/Journal_Opinion.php?id=3205
"Is it just so hard to swallow that LifePoint does a great job in so many communities and that perhaps it has something to do with the suspicious, paranoid little isolationist minds in Danville that might add to the problems?"
Did you miss that news story from South Carolina about the hospital they just sold which projected a $7M loss in FY07 and 08?
That hospital, by the way, was just opened in 2004...so you can't blame years of mismanagement before LPNT rode in on their white horse for any of their financial woes.
Get it straight about the bank boys. They ain't that smart. They were complete idiots when it came to running a hospital, but instead of finding someone who could, they sold it to get cash to spend themselves on their pet projects.
Oh ye little simpletons who've discovered Google, etc.: Province did disappear. Dan Slipkovich had been at Lifepoint before joining Province. When Province was purchased, Dan formed a new company with a couple Province guys (not Wampler). The two companies are distinctly separate. And no, I don't work for LifePoint...I can simply make more rational judgments based upon fact.
Lifepoint was developed to deceive over fraud charges that are still pending , new shell more fraud , the game continues.
But you just don't have all the facts. You are only expressing opinions, and it seems that there are many more voices from across America that validate otherwise. Not just two states.
Lifepoint has trully and personally hurt thousands of American families through the practices that they condone and even encourage.
They are practices that are only after a healthy bottom line, far from true quality healthcare.
It is just that until recently, all of those victims did not have a large unified voice. Transparancy laws helped accomplish that.
There have been so many complaints through the last several years made to attorney general's offices, inspector generals offices-both on state and national levels, and obviously to FBI and Joint Commision that you could resurface several interstates with the paper!
There have been so many hands tied to correcting the VARIETY of problems that have haunted Americans- directly linked to Lifepoint's operations, that corrective measures were stifled.
Until now.
As far as suspicious little minds..........and Danville being responsible for part of the problem? I think that's hilarious! Lifepoint says that in every city in which they operate!
If you are not part of Lifepoint....you sure sound like you are...or your methods are the same. Guess you went to the same "school of thought".
We obviously hit a nerve with you...........which of your pockets do these comments jeapardize? Why else would you visit us?
Additionally, "Make no mistake about it" we will continue to wave our Christian flag, we will continue to seek the truth, and we will continue to educate and watch over our brothers, sisters, and neighbors, because that is what Love and true Compassion is all about.
Forgiveness? Of course we do....through LOVE....but we are smart enough to know that we are not judge and jury in the end. We are just tools of Love, and sometimes tools have to pick up megaphones so that all can be warned-for their own safety.
It is Love for those who unkowingly walk into Lifepoint's traps, that inspires us to warn them. ...and Love Does Conquer All.
If you have trully read all of these posts, you'll see a whole lot of Faith that the wrongs will stop happening. You'll see Hope, that tomorrow's healthcare will be of better quality, and you'll see statements and reportings that could be initiated by nothing other than Love. Faith, Hope, and Love (pretty good team, don't you think), but the greatest of these is Love.
So, if you're gonna be angry at a community, consider the source. Everyone finds more strength and peace through Love!
Love Always,
So someone could not sleep last night, and we should all be glad. Exxcellent comment, and thank you.
You can look at LPNT's Stock page on yahoo finance seems they've slid a bit But NO Danville had NO influence. yeah right, we have major influence.
Sunday, July 8, 2007, 10:54AM ET - U.S. Markets closed. Dow 0.34% Nasdaq 0.37%
Lifepoint Hospitals Inc. (LPNT) On Jul 6: 39.90 0.20 (0.50%)
LIFEPOINT HOSP INC (NasdaqGS:LPNT)
After Hours: 39.78 0.12 (0.29%) as of Jul 6 on 07/06/07
Last Trade: 39.90
Trade Time: Jul 6
Change: 0.20 (0.50%)
Prev Close: 40.10
Open: 40.16
Bid: 38.00 x 600
Ask: N/A
1y Target Est: 41.96
Day's Range: 39.61 - 40.16
52wk Range: 30.89 - 40.80
Volume: 363,572
Avg Vol (3m): 1,001,090
Market Cap: 2.30B
P/E (ttm): 16.34
EPS (ttm): 2.44
Div & Yield: N/A (N/A)
And the days range was a loss.
Until you walk in the mocassins of the men who made the decision to sell, you cannot possibly understand the dynamics and synergies present at that time. Someday, they may be free to speak and explain. It was one piece in the larger picture that will rescue this entire region. Until then, people who do not/ cannot understand should keep quiet.
Are you saying that they are not "free to speak" about why they sold our hospital?
Well that just explains everything.
We do understand. Alot of us have more experience and education than all of them combined yet, 5 people are able to sell something that 100's of thousands built.
Money grab plain and simple .
From The Herald-Zeitung
McKenna
Letters to the Editor
July 6, 2007
To the editor:
Recently I was required to have a procedure done which was performed at McKenna Hospital. Starting with the pre-registration, then the pre-admission, admission, procedure, and finally discharge, every person I had contact with was extremely friendly, knowledgeable and professional. I have names, but it doesn�t matter who drew me, I know the team woud have had the same demeanor. I was offered footies to keep my feet warm, was given a flower upon discharge and had a follow-up call the next day to make sure I was doing well and to give me a number to call if I had any questions or problems. Above and beyond � you betcha.
I am fully confident that whoever purchases McKenna will continue to offer the same quality of service. The doctors and staff of McKenna won�t have it any other way.
Josephine Fulgham
Letters to the Editor
July 3, 2007
To the editor:
Concerning the McKenna Hospital.
It is obvious something is being hidden from us and the doctors who use this hospital. The doctors aren't happy and we in our town have grave concerns, maybe someone who was on the board in the past would give us some idea what the reasons are for this pending sale. Mr. McKenna would be very disappointed in how this is being hidden.
Myrtle Voigt Clark,
Re July 8, 2007 3:31:00 PM comment -- A planned economy (and the related grantscam locally called "economic development") can't work: there's not enough knowledge and expertise among the small controlling cadre to make the millions of daily economic decisions wisely. Certainly there was little or no knowledge of this hospital's situation and possibilities in the play-doh minds of the little bank boys.
Dear Mocassins of Men from July 8; 3:31
That theology sounds similar to a famous person in history who killed and abused millions as he sincerely thought he was bettering a civilization. His name was Adolph Hitler.
Sometimes it is better to exchange mocassins.
Some mocassins can lead one down the wrong path. It becomes "fake success". It is quite painful to realize it sometimes.(I've bought that T-shirt before too) True Wisdom and Direction comes from personal prayer. Sometimes one can think they're doing the "right thing", and learn they couldn't without Perfect Guidance. It sincerely can set one free. Really.
Love is patient. Love is kind. Love never fails....I Cor. 13
Still waiting on an explanation for:
"It was one piece in the larger picture that will rescue this entire region."
If they couldn't even run a hospital what makes them think they are capable of running an entire region?
Since this post has turned into a place to quote scripture, I'll remind everyone of the scripture that was quoted by Dr. Ashby in the press release announcing the sale of DRMC to LPNT.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish,”
Proverbs 29:18
http://www.danvilleregional.org/absale.html
"Sad to say, deah's a whole lotta perishin' goin' on out deah."
- Sen. Foghorn Leghorn
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"Since this post has turned into a place to quote scripture, I'll remind everyone of the scripture that was quoted by Dr. Ashby in the press release announcing the sale of DRMC to LPNT.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish,”
Proverbs 29:18
http://www.danvilleregional.org/absale.html"
Not sure your point, however; There obviously wasn't much vision at the time of the sale of our hospital....and now the vision appears to have dimmed more.
If you will follow the history of DRMC you will find tons of vision and visionaries. Their eye was on quality community healthcare, LFPT's is crossed-eyed; one looking toward Tennessee the other toward wall street. To have moved from its meager beginnings to where it was a couple of years ago is proof of the vision. I won't bore everyone with the long list (thats been posted on here ad nauseum) of what we've lost in the past 2 years.
July 8 3:31p.m.
"you cannot possibly understand the dynamics and synergies present at that time. Someday, they may be free to speak and explain. It was one piece in the larger picture that will rescue this entire region. Until then, people who do not/ cannot understand should keep quiet."
The above quote is like saying,
"you cannot possibly understand why we put a hungry lion in this locked room with you and laid a peice of raw meat on your head. Perhaps someday we'll tell you. It's just a little game we play of tug of war. If you cannot convince the lion into leaving the room without the meat then you really should be quiet, until another unsuspecting person comes into the room with a bag full of hamburgers."
Shouldn't you just have said, "I am too afraid to tell anyone that I put a lion in that room, so I'll tell them its a monster and they'll all be too afraid to open the door!" ?
“Where there is no vision, the people perish,”
Proverbs 29:18
http://www.danvilleregional.org/absale.html"
Not sure your point, however; There obviously wasn't much vision at the time of the sale of our hospital....and now the vision appears to have dimmed more."
I think that you made my point. That's exactly what was meant.
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