Citizens Commission meeting - May 22

There will be a Meeting of the Citizens Commission on Tuesday, May 22, 2007, 5:15 P.M. in the Fourth Floor Conference Room, City Hall, 427 Patton Street.

"How about some constructive solutions?"

Letter to the editor - Caswell Messenger
May 16, 2007

To the editor:
A little over a year ago I wrote a letter to the editor asking this community to work together in an effort to constructively address issues related to our hospital. I defined our community as both citizens, employees, physicians and LifePoint representatives. I am disappointed to say that I have seen little progress and am deeply concerned that we are still worried about who is to blame and who's responsibility it is to "repair the damage."
It is everyone's responsibility. The issues we are facing are multi-faceted and can not be placed solely on the shoulders of LifePoint executives. Our community and our biggest asset; our hospital are facing the same issues found throughout the United States. Shortages of qualified professional staff, reimbursement issues, regulatory issues and uninsured populations lacking primary care solutions all challenge healthcare throughout our country. I ask all involved which includes everyone who uses or has the potential to use the services at Danville Regional Medical Center to begin to look outside the anger, hate, political motivations and manipulations dominating this discussion to examine the true issues of healthcare in our community.
I agree, we do have problems in Danville. I see it from all sides. I am an employee at the hospital. I am a citizen of this city. My children go to its schools. My husband has chosen this city as the home for his business. I have had and will in the future have family members treated at my local hospital. I am concerned that the present pattern of attacking, bashing, speaking without knowing the facts and pre-judgement on both sides will lead to not only the destruction of this hospital but the destruction of this community.

Do you not see how dysfunctional this entire issue has become?

Acknowledgement of problems and issues is important but the next step, the one I have not seen attempted, is to begin an effort to pull resources from all sides to work toward the common good. I keep hearing the question what is LifePoint going to do about this? I challenge the community in saying what are you doing to assist LifePoint? I challenge the employees to speak up and communicate to all the work you are doing to provide the best care possible. I challenge politicians to stop worrying about making your name be heard but to make your name be known for your honest efforts to work toward the common good. And I challenge all to constructively offer solutions not just more of the mud that is being flung from every angle.

Laurie
Danville

(NOTE: This letter also appeared in the Star Tribune)

"What's Next?"

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.

"LifePoint says acquisitions area of renewed focus"

Wed May 2, 2007 10:53AM EDT

CHICAGO, May 2 (Reuters) - LifePoint Hospitals Inc., which has had a rocky past in assimilating acquired hospitals, said on Wednesday that acquisitions would again become an area of attention for the rural hospital chain.
Chief Executive William Carpenter told analysts at an investor meeting that the company had a list of a couple of hundred hospitals that it was grading for potential acquisition.
Carpenter said it had refined its approach to buying hospitals, having in the past grabbed at "low-hanging fruit."
He said not to expect anything immediately.
"As other companies lever up to a point that requires a unique focus on debt repayment .... there will be greater opportunities for us," he said. "We do expect that."

LifePoint shares were up 73 cents, or about 2 percent, at $37.19 in morning Nasdaq trade.

"Public seeks hospital solutions"

Committee holds meetings to gather feedback concerning Danville Regional's quality of care.
Danville Register & Bee
Thursday, May 10, 2007

DANVILLE - Former patients with stories of how they had been mistreated at Danville Regional Medical Center and hospital employees who defended where they worked testified Thursday at a public hearing.
But no matter what they said, the speakers and the 100 people in the audience were united by a desire to see things at the hospital improve and a hope that LifePoint Hospitals Inc. would listen to what they had to say.
“All of the committees, public hearings, lynch mobs, what have you, aren’t going to fix our problem,” Rita Smith said at the second public hearing organized by the Citizen’s Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center.
“(LifePoint will) have two choices: they can accept the solutions or not,” Smith said. “Then we’ll have two choices. We can hang it up or consider bringing a new hospital to this town.”
The committee is holding a total of three public hearings to gather feedback concerning Danville Regional’s quality of care since LifePoint purchased the hospital in July 2005.
The commission held a similar hearing Tuesday night in Chatham. It plans to hold a third hearing at 7 p.m. May 15 at Yanceyville’s Municipal Services Building in Yanceyville, N.C.
Jim Houser, co-chairman of the Citzen’s Committee, said his group would use testimony from these hearings to come up with a series of recommendations on how the hospital could improve and become a place Dan River Region residents are proud to call their own.
“Some of the pieces are falling into place, but right now we’re just working on a puzzle,” Houser said, adding he would present the report to Mayor Wayne Williams and the Danville City Council when it was completed.
But both Houser and Williams said there was nothing they could do to make LifePoint follow the commission’s recommendations because it was a private corporation. They too are relying on hope.
“I sincerely think that LifePoint wants the hospital to be trusted,” Williams said Thursday night. “Following the commission’s recommendations would give them an avenue to earn that trust.”

"Angry crowd blasts hospital"

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

CHATHAM - A seemingly never-ending line of people voiced their displeasure about the quality of care at Danville Regional Medical Center at a public hearing Tuesday at Chatham Middle School.
The public hearing, the first of three, was organized by the Citizen’s Committee Related to Danville Regional Medical Center.
The hearing was moderated by Jim Houser, co-chairman of the committee, which was formed in March by Mayor Wayne Williams.
Houser said the seven-member committee was not formed to “fix things” at the hospital, but to make recommendations on how to improve the quality of health care.
“We want Danville Regional Medical Center to be a place of pride,” Houser told the crowd.
The crowd, consisting of at least 100 people, came armed with detailed accounts of unpleasant experiences at the hospital.
Bettie Bailey told the story of how her father died in her arms in February, vividly describing the lack of attention he received before passing away.
Bailey said had she and her sister not been by his bedside during his time in the hospital, her father “would not have received a bath, had his bed changed or even been able to reach his food.”
When her father’s health began to decline right in front of his daughters, Bailey said they rang the nurse’s bell three times and received no response. By the time help did arrive, her father was already dead.
Lisa Murphy said service at the hospital was pretty good until about 2003. Murphy was fighting back tears as she recalled how she was misdiagnosed and given medicine that she did not need. Murphy said at one point a nurse literally shoved medicine into her mouth.
“I just don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” she said.
People also complained of spending several hours waiting to be seen by a doctor.
Glenna Lingafelt, the mayor of Gretna, said her husband once had to wait seven hours before being seen by a doctor, while one of her friends had to wait 11 hours.
“We beg those of you in control to solve these problems,” Lingafelt pleaded to the committee.
Many in the audience were as critical of Danville Regional’s current owners, LifePoint Hospitals Inc. Lifepoint purchased Danville Regional on July 1, 2005.

NOT JUST PATIENT
The patients of the hospital are not the only one lobbying for improvements.
Karen McClure, representing hospital workers who did not want to publicly criticize their employer, said LifePoint “promised no layoffs, firing or changing of staff” after acquiring the hospital.
“That has been an outright lie,” she said. “The staff change has been significant.”
McClure also noted that much of the equipment in the hospital is “notoriously old,” including computers that were “20 years out-of-date when they (were) purchased by LifePoint.”
Leslie Smith, Danville Regional’s community affairs and media relations coordinator, said that in her 14 years working there she had never seen ownership reach the “political level” that it’s at now.
The workers also feel disrespected by ownership in that they were lied to and are cast away without a second thought.
Calling it a “corporate takeover,” Danville Life Saving Crew veteran Steve Adkins said he witnessed disregard for workers who resigned due to LifePoint’s poor ownership.
“No one was asked why they were leaving or where they were going,” Adkins said. “If that’s not demoralizing for the people still working there, then I don’t know what is.”

TIME FOR A CHANGE
“(In) two years, they’ve gone constantly downhill,” Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Chairman Coy Harville said. “They do not listen to the community. What (the community) is trying to communicate is that the hospital has changed.”
Art Doloresco, chief executive officer of Danville Regional, said that though he’s been hearing many negative comments, it’s good that the people are speaking out about the hospital.
“It’s never good to hear the negative comments about something you put a lot of stock into,” Doloresco said. “But it’s good that people are speaking up.”
Williams said that he’s heard both positive and negative comments regarding the hospital, and will relay all of them to the committee.
“The first step in improving things is gathering information,” Williams said.
Doloresco agreed.
“I think we need to let the commission finish their work,” Doloresco said. “Then I think it will give us a chance to think positively and change the attitude of the hospital in the community. But it has to be done collectively.”
Doloresco’s comments echoed the parting words Houser left with the crowd.
“Every time someone goes elsewhere for their medical needs, they’re essentially firing Danville Regional,” he said. “For the hospital to move forward, we have to be proactive. The mindset of everyone has to change.”

Citizens Committee public hearings begin May 8

Citizen's Committee to hold first public hearing
Concerned residents will get their chance to speak out about Danville Regional this evening in Chatham.
Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

DANVILLE - The first public hearing set up by the Citizen’s Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight at Chatham High School.
A second hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at O.T. Bonner Middle School in Danville, with a third hearing scheduled for May 15 in Yanceyville, N.C.
The committee is asking people who want to speak to sign up at the start of each meeting.
Jim Houser, who co-chairs the committee, said that only 30 people would be guaranteed a chance to speak at each event.
Houser is asking speakers to limit their remarks to three minutes and groups of people who have the same concern are asked to select a spokesperson.
“We want to have as many different concerns brought up as we can,” Houser said.
Danville Mayor Wayne Williams formed the commission on March 6. He asked the group’s seven members to gather information about how Danville Regional’s quality of care has changed since Lifepoint Hospitals Inc. purchased the hospital in July 2005.
Houser said the top two issues of concern have been Danville Regional’s staffing levels and the quality of care present at the hospital’s emergency room.
The Citizen’s Committee will review all the information the group has collected at its next meeting on May 22. Houser said the group will discuss the community’s main concerns with its health care consultant.

How about some good news for a change?

Community Foundation gets $1.1 million grant
Charitable organizations and college-bound students will benefit from the Danville Regional Foundation donation.
Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

DANVILLE - The Danville Regional Foundation announced Monday that it has given a $1.1 million grant to the Community Foundation of the Dan River Region.
“We’re very excited,” said Community Foundation Executive Director Debra Dodson. “This will pretty much double our grant making for next year.”
The Community Foundation, established in 1996, awarded $304,275 in grants to 41 charitable organizations in the Dan River Region earlier this year. It also awarded $200,000 in scholarships to 43 area students in June 2006.
The Danville Regional Foundation, which was formed with the proceeds from LifePoint Hospitals Inc.’s purchase of the Danville Regional Medical Center in July 2005, stipulated that at least half of its gift be used to fund projects in health care and human services.
Dodson said representatives from the two foundations have met several times in the past year. Danville Regional Foundation Chairman B.R. Ashby said the group will take advantage of the Community Foundation’s existing infrastructure as it builds one of its own.
“The Community Foundation can use its organization and grant-making process to address some of the short-term and more urgent charitable needs in our community,” Ashby said in a Monday news release. “In the meanwhile, the Regional Foundation will continue to focus on planning and putting in place policies and procedures for longer term grants.”
Dodson said the Community Foundation would use its regular grant making procedure to award the extra money it received from the Danville Regional Foundation.
The Community Foundation has granted more than $5 million to area nonprofit organizations since its formation.
Any 501c3 organization interested in applying for a Community Foundation grant should call (434) 793-0884.
“We think this is going to be a really good partnership,” Dodson said. “There are a lot of needs in the area and this money could help ease some suffering.”

Letter in Tuesday's paper

They could do much more
To the editor:
Regarding the editorial, “Who pays?” (April 23, page A8), about whether Danville City Council or the Danville Regional Foundation should pay the bill for a consultant to evaluate the situation at Danville Regional Medical Center, I was under the impression that the foundation was established to improve the health, education and the welfare of the citizens served by the hospital.
Putting their proverbial money where their mouth is indicates to me that the foundation is taking action to achieve part of its mission responsibly by paying the consultant’s bill.
The foundation might further consider establishing a free-standing, permanent empowerment and advocacy center for the citizens in this area so they may never again be duped by the likes of boys at the bank. The center could educate ordinary citizens about their rights and responsibilities, not only regarding health care, but civic issues as well. Imagine area citizens having the ongoing opportunity to empower themselves and gaining confidence to speak up for themselves, be informed enough to ask important questions and then become involved enough to expect more of those who lead them!
Perhaps people who are upset that the foundation is footing the consultant’s bill could propose the city contribute that mere drop in the bucket of $25,000 to help co-sponsor the building of such an empowerment center.
PAULA
Danville

Letters in Sunday's paper

Not going to take the space to repost them, but there are three interesting letters to the editor in Sunday's R&B...

http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB%2FMGArticle%2FDRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173351081041&path=%21news%21editor

Public Forums - times and rules

PUBLIC NOTICE

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN on behalf of the Citizens Commission of the City of Danville, Virginia, that Public Forums will be conducted on the dates, times, and locations listed below for the purpose of receiving citizens’ input about what is both good and bad about the care and services offered at Danville Regional Medical Center.
• Tuesday, May 8, 2007, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Chatham High School, 100 Cavalier Circle, Chatham, VA
• Thursday, May 10, 2007, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
O. T. Bonner Middle School, 300 Apollo Drive, Danville, VA
• Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Yanceyville Municipal Services Building
158 East Church Street, Yanceyville, NC (Across from Courthouse).

DOORS WILL OPEN AT EACH LOCATION AT 6:00 P.M. SPEAKERS ARE REQUESTED TO ARRIVE EARLY TO SIGN IN AND WILL BE CALLED TO SPEAK ON A FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVED BASIS. FORUMS WILL BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 7:00 P.M.

GUIDELINES FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
􀂃 Each speaker will sign in at door upon arrival.
􀂃 Speakers will be seated in designated area.
􀂃 Go directly to microphone when name is called.
􀂃 Thirty (30) citizens will be allowed to speak for three (3) minutes each.
􀂃 One (1) spokesperson will be allowed for groups.

For further details, contact Co-Chairman Jim Houser at 434-792-3035 or Co-Chairman Clarissa Knight at 434-836-6277.

BY AUTHORITY OF THE COMMISSION
Annette Y. Crane, City Clerk
Clerk to the Commission

Citizens Commission meets tonight

"The next meeting of the Citizens Commission will take place on Tuesday, May 1, 2007, 5:15 P.M. in the 2ND FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM, City Hall, 427 Patton Street."

http://www.danville-va.gov/page.asp?menuid=2820&sub1menuid=2824&sub2menuid=10761

Public hearings start next week:
May 8 - Chatham High School
May 10 - O.T. Bonner Middle School
May 15 - Yanceyville Town Hall community room (Yanceyville, N.C.)
7:00 pm

UPDATE: Okay, when I posted this, I posted it straight from the Commission website...the note above said the meeting was on Tuesday May 1. I looked at the Commission website today and the note says that the meeting "scheduled for Thursday, May 3...is cancelled". Why the date switch and, more importantly, why was it cancelled?

Who's on first?

More LPNT corporate financial news

LifePoint's Sinking Feeling
thestreet.com
4/27/2007 11:46 AM EDT

LifePoint (LPNT) investors seem lost after the sudden departure of the company's respected CFO.
They have to wonder why Michael Culotta, the company's veteran finance chief, has chosen to leave so soon after CEO William Carpenter's arrival. The company itself has offered no explanation.
"The company does not know if he has resigned to take another position," says Sheryl Skolnick, senior vice president of CRT Capital Group. But "Carpenter did say that a search for Mr. Culotta's replacement has already begun -- so how sudden could this 'resignation' have been?"
LifePoint has assured investors that no major accounting problems loom. Yet, without further information, the company has left Skolnick and others worried that Culotta departed because of conflicts with management. Now, everyone seems to feel a bit uneasy about LifePoint's remaining leaders, particularly Carpenter.
Meanwhile, Skolnick has already expressed concern about the "team player" that Carpenter said he will seek as Culotta's replacement.
"Sorry, but we don't think the CFO should completely be a team player," she said. "At the end of the day, the CFO needs to be the one to say: 'The buck stops here' on financial matters."
Peter Young, a business consultant at HealthCare Strategic Issues, believes that Culotta is a competent CFO who sees trouble on the way. Young notes that LifePoint operates hospitals in rural Southern towns where manufacturing plants -- which often rank as the largest employer -- have been struggling to operate and moving elsewhere as a result. Notably, he says, LifePoint loses lucrative commercially insured cases when that happens.
Moreover, Young adds, tough industry conditions have only made the situation worse.
"When economic hard times befall smaller towns and the payer mix deteriorates, doctors and other in-demand licensed healthcare providers move on to greener pastures -- but the hospital is still there," he explained. "I'd say a competent CFO has the ability to foresee the operating environment ahead and, perhaps in this case, had disagreements with management over agenda" as well.
Lehman Brothers analyst Adam Feinstein promptly downgraded LifePoint's stock from overweight to equal-weight as a direct result of the CFO's departure. Feinstein worries about the possible disruptions and volatile stock performance that could now lie ahead.
Feinstein lowered his price target on the shares from $41 to $38 as well. His firm makes a market in, and regularly trades, LifePoint securities.
Skolnick, who has a similar fair-value rating on LifePoint herself, no doubt viewed that downgrade as more than justified.
"LifePoint still has an untried CEO and an unnamed CFO," she stressed. "That's not a recipe for a buy-rated stock, that's for sure. ... The uncertainty as to why Mr. Culotta resigned, coupled with the fact that the CEO is still untried, could -- and, we believe, should -- create significant pressure on the stock."
The stock indeed took an immediate hit, falling 4.6% to $36.30 on Friday.

News about LPNT corporate

LifePoint CFO Out
thestreet.com
4/26/2007 5:44 PM EDT
LifePoint Hospitals (LPNT) CFO Michael Culotta has abruptly resigned.
The company gave no reason for Culotta's departure when it reported a drop in first-quarter profit on Thursday.
"Nothing ever good happens after a CFO leaves," said Sheryl Skolnick, senior vice president of CRT Capital Group. And "this was one of the best CFOs in the hospital business -- bar none."
Skolnick said CEO William Carpenter was "untested" with less than a year at the helm.
Still, Skolnick saw nothing in LifePoint's first-quarter report to signal any danger.
"The earnings look fine," said Skolnick, who has a fair-value rating on the company's stock. "But I don't really care. ... This is very distressing."
Actually, many analysts had hoped for better results from the company. LifePoint's first-quarter revenue increased 14% to $669 million, missing Wall Street expectations, while net income plummeted 22% to $29.8 million. Operating profit of 61 cents a share came up 2 cents shy of the consensus estimate.
"Our strategy of investing in our communities continues to help us generate excellent financial results for the company and stronger relationships in our markets," Carpenter stated. "We believe that our unrelenting focus on providing value to the communities in which we operate, combined with the implementation of our company-wide strategic initiatives, will not only benefit our company and our communities but will enhance shareholder value for the long term."
LifePoint's stock was unchanged at $38.03 in after-hours trading.

"Who Pays?"

Editorial - Danville Register and Bee
Monday, April 23, 2007
Several members of Danville City Council aren't happy that the Citizen's Committee - the group formed to look into health care issues at Danville Regional Medical Center - hasn't held any public hearings yet.
Those public hearings will happen soon enough. Three are scheduled for early May in Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C.
It's understandable why members of City Council are frustrated with the pace of their committee's work. The public has a lot of questions about the hospital that need to be answered.
But what does the public think about the news last week that the committee's consultant will be paid with money from the Danville Regional Foundation?
"(The foundation) has no input whatsoever into our final recommendations or what the committee is doing," co-chair Jim Houser said.
That's probably true, but in the current climate, how many people are going to believe it?
For those keeping score at home, Danville Regional Medical Center was locally owned until it was sold to LifePoint Hospitals Inc. in 2005. Members of the hospital's board who sold the hospital used the $200 million received from the sale to start the Danville Regional Foundation.
So now we have the foundation, funded from the hospital sale, paying for the consultant who will examine the way the hospital has been run since the sale.
What can be said of Danville Regional Foundation doing this? Either it's a galling irony that won't be lost on anyone, or it's a noble attempt on the foundation's part to reach out to the community it hopes to serve.
Danville City Council created the Citizen's Committee to deal with this issue, but either wasn't asked or didn't want to spend $25,000 to hire the consultant who will help its own committee. While $25,000 isn't walking-around money for most people, it's a drop in the proverbial bucket for a municipal government developing a $102.4 million budget.
Danville City Council should have paid for the consultant advising its Citizen's Committee and kept the Danville Regional Foundation out of it. Allowing the foundation to pay the consultant further complicates a tense situation.

(Note: sorry for the delay in posting this....the R&B website has been delaying the update of their opinion pages....it's a week old, but still worth reading)

"Public hearing dates set for Danville Regional"

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
DANVILLE - The times and dates have been set for three public hearings on the quality of care at Danville Regional Medical Center.
“Things are pretty much set in motion,” Jim Houser, co-chairman of the Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center, said Tuesday night at the commission’s regular meeting.
Danville Mayor Wayne Williams created the commission March 6 and charged the group with finding out what problems are plaguing the hospital and figuring out the best way to fix them.
A key part of this mission involves conducting a series of public hearings where area residents can share their views on the current state of Danville Regional since LifePoint Hospitals Inc. purchased the hospital in July 2005.
Those hearings are scheduled to take place May 8 at Chatham High School, May 10 at O.T. Bonner Middle School and on May 15 in the community room of Yanceyville Town Hall in Yanceyville, N.C.
Houser expects each hearing to start at 7 p.m. and last two hours. He plans to allow 30 people to speak at each event in the interest of time. People can sign up to speak at the hearings as early as 6 p.m.
Houser hopes that groups of people who plan to speak about the same facet of Danville Regional’s care will coordinate their efforts and select one spokesperson to represent their views.
“If one person has addressed wait times at the hospital, then you should give your spot up,” commission member Arlene Creasy said Tuesday.
Houser said it is not the commission’s job to fix what is wrong at Danville Regional, but only to provide a series of recommendations that hospital officials can have to work with. He hopes everyone who plans to attend the hearings will keep this in mind.
“We’re trying to open the door to communication,” he said, adding it would be worthwhile for Danville Regional officials to pay attention to the commission’s requests.

Danville deserves better

Letter to the editor - Register & Bee - Apr 21

To the Editor;
The author of, “Wanted: A good solution to the hospital problem,” (April 11, page A8), was right on target about LifePoint Hospitals Inc., Danville Regional Medical Center and the greed of the people who sold us out.
Those of us who knew of LifePoint’s reputation prior to the sale could have predicted the chain of events which now leads us to this shameful excuse for a health care system. Now, it’s time for the community to band together and rid ourselves of LifePoint and Art Deloresco, [whose] arrogance and lack of concern represent all that is bad about the hospital. We need leaders who are not afraid to take charge and guide the community to a successful resolution to this situation.
The people of Danville deserve better.

KAREN
Chatham

"Foundation to foot bill for hospital consultant"

Public hearings on the quality of care at Danville Regional are planned for May.
Danville Register & Bee
Thursday, April 19, 2007

DANVILLE - The group handling the $200 million acquired from the sale of Danville Regional Medical Center will shell out $25,000 to pay for a consultant to look into the problems plaguing the hospital.
In addition, three public hearings on the quality of care at Danville Regional have been tentatively scheduled for mid-May.
The Citizen’s Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center selected May 8, 10 and 15 for the hearings during its Wednesday meeting.
“I think the sooner (we hold these hearings), the better,” said Arlene Creasy, who sits on the committee. “The public is very frustrated right now because they don’t see us doing anything.”
Danville City Council members criticized the committee, which was empaneled March 6, for not scheduling the hearings yet when it’s co-chair Jim Houser appeared before them Tuesday night.
Houser said Wednesday that he envisions each of the hearings to last a total of two hours and would give 40 to 50 people the chance to talk for three to four minutes.
Committee members hope to have a hearing in Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C., but have yet to work out the details for each event.
“This is the time when you need to open your doors and say, ‘come talk to us’,” said Keith Pryor, the health care consultant hired by the committee to help in its efforts.
Pryor told the committee that he has 25 years of experience working in the health care field as both the president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems, and as a consultant with the Philadelphia-based Health Care Strategies and Solutions Inc.
Houser said the Danville Regional Foundation gave the committee the funds to pay for Pryor’s services and other expenses related to its work analyzing how care at Danville Regional has changed since its July 2005 purchase by LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
But he made it clear this funding would not affect the committee’s overall mission.
“(The foundation) has no input whatsoever into our final recommendations or what the committee is doing,” Houser said. “The citizens are very concerned about the hospital.”
The committee also was joined by Martin Kent with the Virginia Office of the Attorney General. Kent, who grew up in Hurt, has worked in the office for the past six years. He said it would be his job to act as a liaison between the committee and Attorney General Bob McDonnell.

"Health Care Consultant Hired"

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

DANVILLE - A health care consultant has been hired to look into the concerns plaguing Danville Regional Medical Center.
The Citizen’s Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center gave the name of the consultant to Danville City Council on Tuesday night.
Jim Houser of the citizen’s committee said his group has hired Keith Pryor with Philadelphia-based Health Strategies and Solutions Inc. to help evaluate Danville Regional’s quality of care since it was sold to Lifepoint Hospitals Inc. in July 2005.
“We have found the person who would best fit our needs,” said Houser, co-chairman of the committee. “From this point we need to ask the question - where do we go from here?”
Houser said Pryor has a lot of experience helping public not-for-profit hospitals transition to private ownership. Houser said the committee members would have a chance to meet with Pryor at their next meeting, which will be held at 5:15 p.m. today in the Municipal Building.

Houser said he expects the group’s public forums to take place soon but would not give any information about when exactly the meetings would happen. He also defended a decision to remove a link from the committee’s Web site that would let people view the comments people had posted about the hospital’s current state.
Houser said the committee did this because it did not want one person’s comments to affect what another person may post. He said a few other people would not post comments because they were afraid someone else might see what they had written.

Citizens Commission update

The next meeting of the Citizens Commission will take place on Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 5:15 P.M. in the Fourth Floor Conference Room, City Hall, 427 Patton Street.

Keep it in perspective...

Girard V. Thompson, Jr. M.D.
1935-2007

Monroe Patterson, Jr.
1948-2007

Take a break...spend some time with your family and friends. Life is too short.

http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2007/04/18/chatham/obituaries/obit10.txt

http://www.legacy.com/RegisterBee/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=87179295

Letter to the editor: "Public deserves straight answers about hospital"

Chatham Star-Tribune
Wednesday, April 11, 2007

It seems a lifetime ago, but can you recall the pride and joy we all felt when our Danville Regional Hospital became officially associated with the prestigious heart center at Duke University Medical Center?
It was an affirmation of the quality of skill and care at DRMC. It also was the culmination of many years of hard work by devoted cardiac-care nurses and doctors and surgeons who wanted to give our community the very best.
Area newspapers were plastered with stories and full-page ads trumpeting this achievement. Without a word to the public, the DRMC affiliation with the Duke Heart Center has apparently vanished - gone with the winds of negative changes brought to us by LifePoint Hospitals.
I only learned this when making inquiries about cardiac care. Apparently, the hospital still shares the services of a cardiovascular surgeon with Duke, but that's it. Clearly, this is an extremely negative development in terms of our community's health care.
Like others, I have been horrified over what LifePoint has done to our hospital in terms of personnel and services, but it seems to me that the heart center development stands alone as an indicator of how bad things are.
Rumors have it that Duke pulled out because of LifePoint's severe cuts in nursing staff. Other rumors have it that LifePoint canceled the affiliation because it did not want to spend money meeting Duke's standards. Is it too much to ask that we be told the truth?
From the beginning of our nightmare when the hospital was sold in secret, a major destructive element has been the fear and confusion arising from secrecy and, in the case of LifePoint, apparently some outright lies.
For example, while they claimed to be fixing everything, we were actually losing our accreditation.
Rumors can be destructive, but they always arise from the sort of deception and secrecy that have been hallmarks of this catastrophe that threatens to wreck our community.Isn't it time for some truth and light? Could we start by having some straight answers about what happened to DRMC's Duke-affiliated heart center?
Kelly
Pelham, N.C.

Ask the right questions...

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that LPNT sponsored a speaker in town last week who spoke on personal accountability (the tagline on the author's site - "Helping Organizations Make Personal Accountability a Core Value"). So, today, in the absence of any news from the Citizens Commission, updates on Joint Commission accreditation, or info on the next allotment of the $200 million from the foundation, I was looking for a little something that was thought-provoking to post on the blog. I thought you might enjoy reading this little intro from the QBQ.com website:

"Ever heard questions like these?
- Why do we have to go through all this change?
- When is someone going to train me?
- Who dropped the ball?
- Why can’t they communicate better?
- When is that department going to do its job right?
- Who’s going to solve the problem?
- When am I going to find good people?
- Why don’t they share the vision?
- Who’s going to clarify my job?
If so, QBQ! is for you. In every organization — corporations, nonprofit, schools, churches, even families — there is blame, complaining, and procrastination. QBQ, Inc. provides practical tools that help people eliminate these dangerous traps and improve their lives."

I don't know about you, but I am actually inspired to start asking the "questions behind the questions" (trademark - QBQ Inc. www.qbq.com).

Okay, back to work now.

"Outside Help"

Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, April 8, 2007

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell has stepped into one of the most contentious and complex issues facing this community - LifePoint Hospitals’ management of Danville Regional Medical Center.
Dan River Region residents who are concerned about the hospital should welcome McDonnell’s involvement.
“Our job is to review the court documents (pertaining to the sale) to be sure the taxpayer and the state have been represented,” McDonnell said this week.
McDonnell said he plans to send a senior-level staff member to meetings of the Citizen’s Committee, the group formed by Mayor Wayne Williams to help Danville City Council investigate complaints about the hospital’s operation under LifePoint.
From the outside looking in, it’s hard to know exactly what is happening at Danville Regional Medical Center.
The community has heard from doctors, nurses, patients and interested outsiders who have taken contradictory positions - LifePoint Hospitals has either done a good job since buying Danville Regional or the company has made - and continues to make - bad decisions that affect the quality of care at the local hospital.
Even the most definitive statement about LifePoint’s management of Danville Regional - the Joint Commission’s “preliminary denial of accreditation” - is just that, it’s preliminary and the hospital remains accredited.
The attorney general’s involvement in the hospital controversy is one of the best developments this contentious, often contradictory issue has seen. While McDonnell wasn’t in office when LifePoint bought Danville Regional on July 1, 2005, the office reviewed the sale at the time.
Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, worked to bring McDonnell’s office into the process. “(Putting someone from the attorney general’s office on the commission) will change the perception about this committee quite a bit,” Marshall said. “We want the folks at the hospital to listen.”
While it’s important for the Citizen’s Committee to get hospital officials to cooperate, it’s equally important to get to the bottom of this controversy for the benefit of everyone concerned about health care in this community.
Having the attorney general’s office on the Citizen’s Committee will bring a much-needed outside perspective to the question of what has happened to Danville’s only hospital.

Irony?

LPNT sponsored a program on accountability here in Danville yesterday...

"Answers to the right questions"
http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB/MGArticle/DRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350584981&path=

I think Mr. Miller's books should be required reading.
http://www.qbq.com/

"Hospital group gets help from state AG"

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
DANVILLE - A new partnership between state and local officials could give more teeth to the Citizen’s Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center.
Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell said Tuesday that he plans to add a senior-level staff member from his office to the seven-member group.
“Whenever these meetings are, we’ll send someone down,” he said. The staff person will participate in the committee meetings and listen in on citizen’s complaints.
McDonnell said he has been interested in Danville Regional’s current state of affairs since he met with Mayor Wayne Williams and the Dan River Region’s state legislators in early 2006.
“I wanted him to be aware of some of the issues that were developing in Danville,” Williams said.
The mayor said he shared some early concerns about how LifePoint Hospitals Inc. was managing Danville Regional since the company purchased the hospital in July 2005. McDonnell, who had previously worked in hospital management, took some of these concerns to heart.
He called a group of LifePoint executives into his office and shared Williams’ concerns with them. After this meeting, McDonnell said he “felt that things were pretty well on the way to turning a corner.”
But public concern over the hospital’s quality of care peaked up again this winter. Williams then formed the citizen’s committee on March 6 to collect public input about the issue.
Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, said he started talking with Williams about the committee soon after it formed. Marshall said Tuesday that he remembered the group’s initial meeting last year and felt McDonnell’s office should get involved.
“(Putting someone from the attorney general’s office on the commission) will change the perception about this committee quite a bit,” Marshall said. “We want the folks at the hospital to listen.”
The attorney general’s office played a major role in reviewing the sale of the hospital when it took place. McDonnell, who was not in office at the time of the sale, said former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore’s staff had to approve the sale documents since Danville Regional operated as a public not-for-profit institution before it was sold to LifePoint.
“Our job is to review the court documents (pertaining to the sale) to be sure the taxpayer and the state have been represented,” McDonnell said. The attorney general said Tuesday that he has not reviewed the sale documents yet.
Williams said he was very happy to have the attorney general’s office involved in the hospital committee. He said the group stopped meeting a few weeks ago because they wanted to bring in a medical expert who could provide them with information about the hospital’s practices.
Williams said he is in the process of interviewing such an expert now but was uncertain how long the process would take. Despite this, Williams said he is very pleased the attorney general’s office is interested in joining his efforts to learn more about Danville Regional.
“I think having the attorney general on the commission will be very helpful,” Williams said.

"Attorney General wants staff member on citizens committee"

Danville Register and Bee
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
DANVILLE -- Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell would like to place a staff member on the citizens hospital committee.
Mayor Wayne Williams formed the Citizens Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center group last month to collect public input about a number of complaints people have related to care at Danville Regional Medical Center since the hospital was bought by LifePoint.

---------------------

ALSO, in the April 4 edition of the Register & Bee is Mr. Doloresco's response to the March 19 editorial about DRMC's recent Joint Commission's denial of accreditation:

Doloresco explains
To the editor:
I agree that your editorial, “A lost opportunity” (March 19, page A8), taking me to task for referring to the Joint Commission’s preliminary findings as a “private matter” was on target. I was attempting to convey the Joint Commission’s view on confidentiality of preliminary findings and didn’t do that very well.
The quality of our community’s hospital is not a “private matter.” It is a public responsibility and a privilege that the board, medical staff and I, along with our very hard-working associates, gladly undertake around the clock, 365 days a year.
ART DOLORESCO
Danville

Ciizens Commission, are you still out there?

It's been a month since the Register & Bee last gave us an update on Mayor Williams' Citizens Commission...so, what's new?
The only development in recent weeks is the removal of the Public Comment archive from the website....no minutes, no updates....nothing to let us know they are still alive and well.

Time is not really a luxury we have with this situation.

Then again, maybe it is...it has, after all, been almost a month since we found out about the Joint Commission preliminary denial of accreditation and few outside the inner sanctum have any idea what didn't pass muster.

Tick...tock....

Hospital is people's business

Star Tribune - letter to the editor
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
(Note: this letter ran at the same time that the Star Tribune printed a copy of Coy Harville's letter to the editor which is posted below....ALSO, this letter was run in the Register and Bee on April 4)

Of all the horror stories and deceptions coming out of Lifepoint's Danville Regional Medical Center, the most disgusting has to be the callous words of CEO Art Doloresco when asked about the hospital's probationary status in terms of its accreditation.
According to the newspaper, he said, in effect, that it is none of our business to know the areas where the hospital failed in the inspection that landed it on probation.
Whose business does he think it is? He says it's between him, the failing department, and the accreditation group.
Nonsense! It is primarily the business of us poor people who have to risk our lives going to the hospital.
How can anyone make an intelligent decision without knowing which services to stay away from?
Doesn't Doloresco realize that the only answer to his policy is for prospective patients to run from the place?
Above all, his statement shows clearly that he doesn't even think in terms of what's good for the patients.
It's one thing for Lifepoint to think we are all idiots, which they clearly think we are. It is quite another for them to treat us openly with such contempt.
What do we have to do to run them out of town and get back a decent hospital?

Mary
Danville

Yin and Yang

A couple different points of view in Sunday's letters to the editor...

http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB%2FMGArticle%2FDRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350505600&path=%21news%21editor

"A Change for the Worst"

(Register & Bee)
To the editor:
After the last letter I wrote concerning our LifePoint hospital, I was summoned to a small meeting in Danville with William Carpenter, the CEO from Tennessee, as well as the local CEO, Art Doloresco, and former local CEO Jess Judy. I understand they held a number of such meetings aimed at putting out the fires of discontent.
In my group, they offered urgent promises about fixing the things wrong at LifePoint’s Danville Regional Medical Center and working hard to win the shattered confidence of the community. I try always to assume the best about people, so I accepted their promises and waited.That was two months ago, on Jan. 22. What’s happened since then?The main thing that has happened is that Danville Regional, after enjoying decades of top ratings (and even commendations) from the accreditation panels of the Joint Commission, has in effect been placed on probation. Under LifePoint management, Danville Regional is now operating under a “preliminary denial of accreditation.”

It is nothing short of a disgrace.

How can this be, when I heard the CEO of this $2 billion hospital chain sit and state that everything possible was being done to fix the problems? His underlings sat there and nodded in agreement. How can things be so horribly wrong when they had been so very right? Keep in mind that Danville Regional was at the top of its game when LifePoint bought it less than two years ago.
To say the least, my confidence is shaken after personally listening to such bold assurances two months ago. The men I met with made a big point of insisting that Danville Regional is as much our community hospital as it was before it was sold to LifePoint. But do they mean what they say? It’s as if they do not understand one of the basics we all learn in our life experiences - we can never fix our problems until we admit we have them.
The first thing LifePoint should do is make public the Joint Commission report, including details about the areas of the hospital that flunked the inspection. Doloresco called those points of failure “a private matter between me, the hospital and the commission,” according to a news story. Such an arrogant statement has no place at the table.
As a matter of public health and safety, we at least deserve to know the areas of the hospital that are in trouble. With that information, the public can make more informed decisions about which services are safe at Danville Regional.
Meanwhile, it is high time for the men who secretly sold our hospital and got us into this situation to come forward with our $200 million and help us find a solution.

COY HARVILLE
Danville

Citizens Commission website update

So much for an open forum...

First, the link to the archives of public comments on the Citizens Commission website was removed.
Bad, but not terrible, because the old links to the archive pages still worked. So I posted them on this blog.

Today? Click on one of the links below and it takes you a big white page with "The page cannot be found"

Oh well. I guess it was too good of an idea. Hopefully, members of the Citizens Commission will come to this blog to keep on top of public comment related to events at DRMC.

Citizens Commission website....public comments disappeared

Anyone know what happened to the archive of public comments on the Citizens Commission website?
http://www.danville-va.gov/page.asp?menuid=2816&sub1menuid=2841&sub2menuid=10761

Until we figure it out, here are links that I have to the archive pages:
Mar 14
http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Hospital%20Comments%20%20March%2014th.pdf
Mar 15
http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Hospital%20Comments%20March%2015th.pdf
Mar 16
http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Hospital%20Comments%20March%2016th.pdf
Mar 19
http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Hospital%20Comments%20March%2019th.pdf
Mar 20
http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Hospital%20Comments%20March%2020th.pdf

"A lost opportunity"

Danville Register & Bee - editorial
March 19, 2007

Danville Regional Medical Center missed a huge opportunity last week to silence some of its critics. It was a misstep that shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Last week, the hospital announced that it had received a “preliminary denial of accreditation” from the Joint Commission, a national health care accreditation organization.

Here’s what Danville Regional’s CEO, Art Doloresco, said about that in a hospital news release: “Danville Regional Medical Center is accredited today, and we have every intention to remain accredited. The hospital will continue to participate in the Medicare and other payor programs while it works to address the requirements for improvement. While we have considerable work to do, the Joint Commission was complimentary of the effort of our staff and physicians and our commitment to fulfill the mission of the Medical Center to provide excellent healthcare. We will work in partnership with the Joint Commission to uphold the high standards of safe, quality patient care.”

But when Doloresco was asked exactly what areas had concerned the Joint Commission, he told a reporter for this newspaper that it was a “private matter between me, the hospital and the commission.”

A private matter? Really? Danville’s only hospital has received a “preliminary denial of accreditation” and it’s a private matter?

LifePoint Hospitals Inc. has taken a lot of criticism in this community for not only its management of Danville Regional Medical Center, but for the sale of the hospital itself. In fairness, though, it’s not LifePoint’s fault the hospital was sold.

But everything that’s happened since the hospital sale was finalized in July 2005 is on
LifePoint, and here’s the opportunity that was missed. Telling the community what the Joint Commission found wrong during its on-site inspection, what was being done to fix the problems and how LifePoint would make sure this never happens again would have raised

LifePoint’s stature in the community it claims to want to serve.
Openness in the face of bad news builds confidence. In this case, it could have finally put LifePoint on the public relations offensive in Danville.

Calling the preliminary denial of accreditation at Danville’s only hospital a “private matter” will do nothing to improve LifePoint’s standing among the people it hopes to win over. It’s too bad LifePoint has missed an opportunity of this magnitude.

http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB%2FMGArticle%2FDRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350289737&path=%21news%21opinion

New letters to the editor posted (Mar 16)

"No accountability?"

and

"What about most of us?"

Read them here:
http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB%2FMGArticle%2FDRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350238147&path=!news!editor

"Probe cites hospital weak spots"

Commission finds areas of Danville Regional that need to be improved to be accredited.

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

DANVILLE - Danville Regional Medical Center’s status as a fully accredited institution could change in the near future if certain improvements are not made.
Danville Regional sent out a news release Wednesday afternoon verifying that it has received a “Preliminary Denial of Accreditation” from The Joint Commission, which is the largest nonprofit health care accrediting body responsible for evaluating the quality of care at hospitals across the United States.
Commission spokeswoman Elizabeth Zhani said Wednesday that the evaluation is “not final,” adding her group is still reviewing the results of a survey it conducted Feb. 13-16.
“At this time, (Danville Regional) is still fully accredited,” she said.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) use commission accreditations as a basis for determining which hospitals qualify for Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements.
But Zhani said it is ultimately up to that federal agency to make this decision and a lack of commission accreditation does not necessarily mean a hospital will no longer receive these reimbursements.
Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco said Wednesday that the commission surveyors found some areas the hospital needed to improve that could prevent it from being fully accredited.
“We are already working hard to make the improvements that are required,” he said in the hospital news release.
When asked to elaborate, Doloresco described the areas of improvement as a “private matter between me, the hospital and the commission.”

Read the rest of the article at http://www.registerbee.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DRB%2FMGArticle%2FDRB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350219666&path=!news

Now available...Citizens Commission Website!

Here is a link to the Citizens Commission website...

http://www.danville-va.gov/page.asp?menuid=2820&sub1menuid=2824&sub2menuid=10761

In addition to contact information for each of the commission members, there is also a "Public Comment Form" and a "Comments" archive.

I encourage you to visit their site often and provide them with valuable information to assist them in their mission. Please encourage others you know who may not visit this blog to visit the Commission's site....it's very important that they get feedback from all levels in the Danville region (including employees, patients, and the general public).

"Preliminary Denial of Accreditation"

That is Joint Commission's verdict on LPNT-DRMC.

Not Accredited...

Not "Provisionally Accredited"...

Not even "Conditionally Accredited"....

Preliminary Denial of Accreditation.

According to Joint Commission's website:
Preliminary Denial of Accreditation results when there is justification to deny accreditation to the organization as usually determined by the number of not compliant standards that exceed established thresholds at the time of survey. The decision is subject to appeal prior to the determination to deny accreditation; the appeal process may also result in a decision other than Denial of Accreditation.
http://www.jointcommission.org/GeneralPublic/Decisions.htm

Don't forget...

The Citizen's Committee meets tonight (Mar 13).
The meeting will be held at the Danville Municipal Building conference room (instead of at the hospital). The meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. tonight.

Accreditation countdown...

Week #4....still no word.

"Second verse...same as the first...."

Thanks to Steve from Ringgold, I've been doing some interesting reading about Palo Verde Hospital in California.
Take a moment to do some reading about their transition from Lifepoint back to a community-based hospital. I would recommend visiting this page on their site:
http://www.mypvh.org/Archive.asp
Scroll down to "PVHD Board Minutes" and then select 05/05/2005 (page 2, section III).

When Lifepoint exited the picture in January of 2006, a new management team took over. From other sources I have read, the new management had to deal with quite a few issues just to survive...a 25% reduction in staff (including key managers), litigation with their medical staff and the physical plant was in disrepair. And, they were paying exorbitant contract pay rates to keep nurses....sound familiar?

Not knowing the full story of Palo Verde, I am certainly not saying that it is an apples-to-apples comparison (they are a much smaller hospital, for one), but it is worth reading just the May 5, 2005 board minutes to hear familiar refrains.

Time to make your voice heard...

Committee seeks input on hospital
The group probing problems at Danville Regional Medical Center is planning public forums and a Web site.
Danville Register & Bee
Friday, March 9, 2007
DANVILLE - The Citizen’s Committee Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center hopes to have at least three public forums so residents can voice their opinions about the hospital’s quality of care.
Committee Chairman Jim Houser said he wants at least one hearing to take place in Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C., because those are the three localities served by the hospital.
He said the city’s information technology department also is building a special Web site where people can share their thoughts about the hospital if they do not want to testify at a public meeting.
“(Mayor Wayne Williams) wanted for us to report what the public believes is or is not working with the hospital,” Houser said at the committee’s first official meeting Thursday night at the hospital, just two days after Williams formally introduced the group at a City Council meeting.
The seven committee members are currently working out the details, such as the time and place, for the hearings and hope to have a special meeting where hospital employees can share their feelings anonymously.
The committee also reviewed a recent batch of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems data that gave Danville Regional an overall quality score of 3.46 on a scale of 0-4. Bill Keith, chief operating officer at Danville Regional, said this data is collected by a private contractor and used by the federal government to rank hospitals on 13 different fields.
The hospital had an overall quality score of 3.29 in August and the average LifePoint hospital had an overall quality score of 3.28. LifePoint Hospitals Inc. completed its $210 million acquisition of Danville Regional Medical Center on June 30, 2005.
Danville Regional scored above the average LifePoint score in six fields, including a nurse’s ability to explain things in a way a patient could understand and a staff member’s ability to explain the uses for new medicine.
Committee member Linda Green thanked Keith for explaining the data but said the commission needed more information to evaluate the hospital particularly when it came to emergency room wait times, the amount of patients leaving without treatment, employee satisfaction and patient-to-staff ratios.
“When I was talking about metrics (at a brief informal meeting Tuesday), I was talking about standard benchmarks we can use to compare the hospital to other hospitals,” she said, adding she wanted data specific to hospitals that are the same size as Danville Regional Medical Center and located in similar areas.
Each committee member said they had already received several calls about the hospital since the group’s formation.
The committee is asking city clerk Annette Crane to take the minutes of its meetings instead of Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco, who volunteered for the job at the group’s Tuesday meeting.
The group also is going to hold their regular, open meetings at a Danville Municipal Building conference room instead of at the hospital. The group’s next meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Taking the message to the people

Hospital CEO speaks to seniors about mistakes, changes
Art Doloresco announced that there will be a groundbreaking next week for a vault at the Radiation Oncology Center.
Register & Bee
Thursday, March 8, 2007
DANVILLE - After speaking to a group of senior citizens gathered Wednesday at Ballou Recreation Center, Art Doloresco said he wished he could spend all his time in those types of meetings.
The seniors had come together for their weekly luncheon and to hear Doloresco, chief executive officer of Danville Regional Medical Center, talk about the mistakes the hospital has made since LifePoint purchased it in 2005 and to assure them that the hospital cares about them as much as their doctors and nurses do.
“There have been a lot of changes,” he said, “and some of them, frankly, weren’t that good, but now we’re backtracking and trying to change that.”
Doloresco cited the opening of the fifth floor of the Landon Wyatt Jr. Tower and the future opening of the sixth floor of the tower as positives.
“When we’re finished, all the patient care from the old part of the building will be in a new environment, which is better for the patients and staff,” he said.
Doloresco also announced that there will be a formal groundbreaking next week for a vault at the Radiation Oncology Center, which will house a new linear accelerator to better treat cancer patients.
He credited the teamwork at the hospital for bringing about improvements in the Emergency Department, where wait times and the number of patients who leave without being seen have decreased.
“The entire effort was a team effort,” Doloresco said. “We have some really great people.”
Citing a change in an old policy as a positive, he said that until recently applications for employment were not taken on Fridays, but that has now been changed.
“I’ve seen hospitals in much worse situations, but this one is very resilient and has people who work very hard,” Doloresco said.
He admitted that there are times when Danville Regional is short on nurses, but said the hospital is “beefing up the staffing to cover as many situations as we can.”
“We have probably had 80 to 85 nurses leave, but we have recruited 50 to 60,” Doloresco said.
The audience had very few questions for Doloresco, although one person complimented the hospital on new pre-admission procedures and one complained about a food tray that couldn’t be reached.
Doloresco said the same problem with a tray happened recently in his father’s room, and he said if that ever happened again at Danville Regional to call and let him know.

What do you think? Should we make this our new slogan?

Letter to the Editor - "Not all that much longer?"

To the editor:
Less than two years ago, Danville Regional Medical Center was a nonprofit hospital. Its main focus was health care and expansion to provide broader health care. Now with LifePoint Hospitals Inc. at the helm, it has a split focus - health care and profits. The skilled doctors and nurses of this area can certainly handle the health care side, but judging from its first 19 months, LifePoint could use some schooling on the business side.
Anyone with a miniscule amount of business savvy knows that to be successful, a company must have quality employees who believe in their product and trust their employer.
LifePoint has breezed through several CEOs and it replaced a state-of-the-art computer system with one that actually makes it easy for patients not to get charged for expensive procedures, in addition to being slow and cumbersome to work on. LifePoint has allowed nurses, technicians and other staff members with years of experience to resign from departments that are already understaffed, without so much as a thank-you, would you reconsider or an exit interview. Then it brought nurses and staff in from outside at double pay to fill in.Maybe that’s LifePoint’s strategy. If they treat people poorly enough, employees will leave on their own accord, saving LifePoint from having to have layoffs and pay unemployment. Then it will be able to say, “We didn’t go in and slash and burn jobs, the people in Danville just couldn’t handle change.” When you force people to work in a condescending, secretive environment, they cannot help but worry and speculate about their future, neither of which is good for morale or allows them to take pride in their work and employer. Your employees are your greatest asset, and if you continue to treat them as a second-rate liability, they will eventually learn to act as such. Danville Regional is certainly getting its fair share of press, but can anything more than lip service be done? I cannot help but believe that if this were the old nonprofit Danville Regional, the groundswell from the staff and community would elicit more concrete, productive actions from Danville City Council. I also believe that if the five who sold the hospital were true leaders - and truly had what was best for the community at heart - they would have stepped up long before now to try to right their wrong. That being said, who among us has the courage and fortitude to actually step up and get the ball rolling?
Ideally, I would like to see a committee made up of Pete Castiglione, Sherman Saunders, Danny Marshall, Bill Fuller and Coy Harville. Seated before them and answering questions would be LifePoint’s current CEO, Art Doloresco, and the five local business leaders who got us into this mess. Actually though, a little research might forgo the need for that type of meeting. In just a couple of hours, I was able to glean some eye opening facts from the Internet.
There is an incredible blog on the Internet dedicated to Danville Regional and the LifePoint fiasco. Dozens of links to business, news and health care Web sites provide some interesting facts about LifePoint and the changes at Danville Regional. A little reading and a few mouse clicks will cause anyone to have concern for the future of our hospital.
STEVE
Ringgold

EDIT: Hey Steve from Ringgold....thanks for mentioning the blog in your letter!

Citizens Committee Named

Hospital commission takes shape
Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

DANVILLE - Seven Dan River Region residents have been tasked with finding out exactly what is wrong with the Danville Regional Medical Center and figuring out how to fix it.
“Every one of you will be able to offer a truly objective recommendation that our community can take to heart,” Mayor Wayne Williams said Tuesday night as he introduced the Citizens Committee to Danville City Council.
Williams told the group that he wanted them to hold a series of meetings with community members over the next several weeks to discuss what is both good and bad about the care offered at the hospital, especially since LifePoint Hospitals Inc. purchased it in July 2005.
The hospital commission would then use this information to come up with a list of key problems the hospital faced with its quality of care and work with LifePoint and an outside organization to come up with ways to address them.
“(This task will be) immensely complicated and I do not envy you at all,” Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco told the group, adding he would be happy to provide the commission with any information it wanted and even volunteered to take minutes of its meetings.
Williams told the commission that he wanted it to provide council with its final report in the next 90 days and that he wanted regular updates on the commission’s work to take place at every council meeting. He then walked out the door and let the group get to work.
Commission members include Jim Houser, Clarissa Knight, David Caldwell, Arlene Creasy, Linda Green, Samuel Griffith and Robert Whitt.
Within 45 minutes, the group had chosen Houser, an environmental health specialist with the Virginia Department of Health, and Knight, an assistant superintendent with Pittsylvania County Public Schools, as its co-chairs.
“I’m looking at three things: accountability, plain truth and a vision for the future,” Houser said, adding that his biggest concern was to divide “what has been sensationalized from what is the factual truth.”
The group has scheduled its first formal meeting for 6 p.m. Thursday in the hospital’s main conference room. Houser said it would probably take a few weeks before the commission is ready to schedule any public forums.

So, what's new at the foundation?

Back in December, the Danville Regional Foundation posted a release on its site that a “comprehensive assessment of the interests and concerns of the region” would take place in 2007. Wonder when that is going to take place? Seems like now would be a good time, what with economic development and the current condition of healthcare in the region as the big topics in the area.

As I read through the release (dated Dec 20, 2006), a couple comments stood out:
-“The preface of the values statement is that the Foundation “believes in the ability and necessity of individuals working together to advance the common goal. We work in partnership with people who share our commitment to expanded opportunity and increased well-being for all the region’s residents.” The values that guide the Foundation’s work are equity, excellence, engagement and openness.”
-“The four areas of focus are 1) economic transformation, 2) educational attainment, 3) health and wellness, and 4) community engagement. “The Foundation believes that long-term investments in these areas are among the most beneficial that individuals can make in themselves and that the community can make in its people,””
-“A major task for 2007 will be developing an assessment of the needs, opinions and perceptions of the community to help set priorities for the Foundation. “We must have a definitive understanding of the landscape to help the Board make difficult decisions on allocation of its resources,” said Ashby. “We are aiming high, and our goal is that our work will make a transformational difference to build a brighter future for everyone in the region.””

http://www.danvilleregionalfoundation.org/vision.html

My question is how many different groups are looking at these exact issues, and how much collaboration will there be between them? We have the Foundation doing its assessment, a City Council-convened Citizens Commission to study healthcare in the city, and Citizens for a Better Danville (who has a healthcare subcommittee, by the way). Throw in the Community Foundation of the Dan River Region, the United Way and the Future of the Piedmont Foundation (are they still around now that the IALR is open for bidness?). Bottom line...lots of groups working on the same topics. The big question (some would say the $200 million question) is are they all working in the same direction?

Three weeks...

It's been three weeks since Joint Commission visited us...I still haven't heard whether we are or we aren't....how about you?

Take a break...

Ran across this interesting read....it has nothing to do with Lifepoint or The Deal.

...or, then again, does it?

http://www.execupundit.com/2007/02/note-from-boss-to-employees-what-some.html