Reidsville Review
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Local hospitals are increasing their presence in Danville as they compete for new patients across the state line.
Greensboro-based Moses Cone Health System is promoting its Reidsville property, Annie Penn Hospital, to Danville area residents in an effort to lure patients who might normally choose Danville Regional Medical Center.
Moses Cone began an advertising campaign earlier this year promoting Annie Penn's services and the short drive to Reidsville. The campaign has so far consisted of newspaper ads and postcards to 5,000 people.
"At this point our goal is to increase awareness in that area about the services at Annie Penn," Annie Penn President Susan Fitzgibbon said Friday. Doctors reported seeing an increase in patients from the Danville and Pittsylvania County areas, Fitzgibbon said. "Over the last year there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the community about the hospital there."
Danville Regional Medical Center has been in flux over the past three years. The hospital changed from public to private ownership two years ago when it was bought by LifePoint Inc.
Hospital leadership has also had some instability with the loss of the third hospital president in the past two years. The most recent president, Art Doloresco, announced his resignation last week after serving in the job for 11 months.
During his brief tenure, the Danville City Council addressed complaints from the community about emergency-room wait times.
Fitzgibbon said Moses Cone is aware of some of the concerns about the Danville hospital but, she said, Annie Penn is not trying to prey on those.
"We've tried not to be aggressive, but that community needs a hospital," she said.
Eden's Morehead Memorial Hospital is also pursuing patients from the Danville area.
"We have been doing some marketing," Morehead Memorial spokesman Kerry Faunce said. "We've been marketing specific services in that area from time to time."
Morehead Memorial is about 40 minutes south of Danville. Faunce said residents of the rural area between the two towns have long opted for care at Morehead.
"Traditionally, hospitals have marketed to areas, specifically rural areas, where there isn't a large hospital presence," he said. "This is not something that's new, it's something all hospitals do."
Morehead Memorial also targets areas of Stokes, Caswell and Henry counties.
Regardless of marketing, Fitzgibbon said, it's important that people understand they have options regarding their medical needs.
Officials for Danville Regional Medical Center did not return phone calls Friday.
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Notice the last line of that article....is it just me, or is that a trend with DRMC/LPNT these days?
Nice guys...way to present your side of things and try to reassure us.
Interesting scenario here...I hope they take the time to do their research and ask the right questions.
"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."
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=f4b7b7895e012992
Is there any way to set up a "sister" website or a name change that would list this website anytime someone googles lifepoint? Maybe some our techie readers know how to raise this site up the google ladder. This blog brings up alot of important information that should be known to any other prospective acquistitions by lifepoint
FYI: Hal Holtman and Carter Casteel have been made aware of this blog and the related links to their situation.
I asked a top guru how to get this blog's name higher up the ladder with Google. he says that biggest thing is to get LifePoint in the name of the blog.
He also said:
There's no sure-fire solution that I know of. However, it might help if
either the file title (preferably) or the top headline (which currently is
the same as the file title, but need not be) includes the word
"LifePoint".
Even the LifePoint hospital chain doesn't do too well when you google
simply for LifePoint. Several church organizations with the same name rise
to the top of the listings.
Already, if you google Lifepoint Danville the blog has very good standing
and a double listing, although not absolutely at the top of the list.
What will help most regarding Google standing is to get as many webmasters
as possible to link to the blog, thus giving it a higher rating with
Google.
RE: the reference to Casteel and Holtman above:
"McKenna’s board meets, but no decision yet
By Mark Koopmans
The Herald-Zeitung
Published June 29, 2007
McKenna Memorial Hospital’s board of directors met Thursday to discuss the ongoing process of selecting a hospital groups bidding to purchase the local health care system.
However, officials declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting, except to say no new information was available.
“The meeting was just one of many that has taken place, and will continue to take place,” Jennifer Malatek, chief development officer, said Thursday.
Last month, officials at McKenna announced that Christus Health, LifePoint Hospitals 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.”
Although the three corporations are headquartered outside Comal County, as part of its certification requirements, any new owner would have to install a local board of directors chosen from this community.
The three hospital groups were selected for the second phase of buyer selection over six other groups that expressed interest in buying McKenna, Malatek said. Terms for any potential deal, including a price remain a secret.
According to Malatek, the sale would include the hospital, the McKenna Neighborhood Health Centers on West San Antonio Street and Lakeview Boulevard, the outpatient imaging center and medical office building at the Union Street campus and the McKenna Sports, Fitness and Rehabilitation Center on Landa Street. The McKenna Home Health division also would be sold with the hospital.
Sale questioned
The board of directors has conducted several meetings with local physicians groups since last month, Malatek said. However, there are “no public forums scheduled” to take place before a buyer is announced,
However, for some people in the community, the apparent lack of information being shared with the public, is a worry.
“McKenna is a treasure that has served our community for years,” former State Rep. Carter Casteel said Thursday. “I was on the system’s board and I can tell you there is a lot of unsettled feelings about this sale. Knowledge is power and perception is everything. Patients should contact their physicians and ask them what they know, so they can stay informed — and be informed — before it’s too late.”
Along with Casteel, accountant Hal Holtman and about 15 others have banded together in an informal group called “Patients to Preserve Community Healthcare.”
“I was on the system’s board about four or five years ago, and I would like this proposed sale put on hold until we get some more community input,” Holtman said. “This is moving too quickly without enough community input.”
A phone call to Bill Morton, chairman of the McKenna Health System Board, was not immediately returned.
“The board of directors feel very good about the process and where we are, and plans to continue in a prudent manner,” Malatek said. “There is no exact timeline chosen yet when everything has to be completed. Once a decision is made, more information will be made available.” "
"Officials for Danville Regional Medical Center did not return phone calls Friday."
It must be a pretty easy gig to work in the media relations department at LPNT.
Step 1: Listen to voice mail from media
Step 2: Hit 'delete'
Step 3: Rinse and repeat
I guess those advertising ploys aren't working......
'Diseases of the heart'
Danville Register and Bee
July 3, 2007
Give your opinion on this story
In 1995, Danville Regional Medical Center attracted national attention when CNN reported on an innovative program there that allowed patients to work off their debt to the hospital.
Recently, though, Danville Regional received publicity of a different sort - it was on a list of seven hospitals nationwide that were ranked below the national average for heart attack mortality rates.
Danville Regional was the only Virginia hospital on that list.
This is actually worse than it sounds, because Virginia Department of Health reports that “diseases of the heart” are a major health problem in Danville and Pittsylvania County. Over the past decade, the city’s heart disease rate was sometimes two-and-one-half times the state average, and the county’s rate was consistently higher than the state average.
For that reason, it’s hard to believe that the only hospital in Danville and Pittsylvania County would struggle to treat heart attacks effectively.
To the hospital’s credit - and by way of explanation - heart disease isn’t the only health problem affecting people in this community.
“We also live in economically challenging times, and patients come in sicker and don’t have the resources at home for follow-up care,” said Dr. Michael Moore, the hospital’s chief medical officer. “… We take these reports extremely seriously. The first thing that is important to note, though, is that the report looks at a period from July 2005 to July 2006, and even before the report came out, we have been fully engaged in a process of improvements for all cardiovascular care … and have implemented new methods to monitor cardiovascular care.”
While many of this community’s health problems are closely tied to its economic problems, those “economically challenging times” Dr. Moore referred to have plagued this community for years. They are old problems, and this is a new ranking.
It’s reassuring, on one level, to hear that Danville Regional is working on the problem and will probably score higher in the future. But with the preliminary denial of accreditation already hanging over Danville Regional, it’s frustrating to hear the local hospital scored so low on a critical care issue like heart attacks.
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.
Lifepoint didn't "go on" in Arizona,Florida(times3) or Colorado,and it appears McKenna is now saved from Deathpoint.
Sit back and let them corporately rape your community or express OUTRAGE....
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