Consultant's Report to Commission available online

http://www.danville-va.gov/upload/images/City-TV%2020/Report%20to%20Commission.pdf

Cliffs Notes version...just in case you don't have time to read all 6 pages...
We need:

• trust
• dialogue
• leadership

Uh....thanks Mr. Pryor.

'High level of discord'

Danville Register and Bee
Monday, June 18, 2007

Here’s a nomination for quotation of the year: “Your situation bothers me. What shocks me is the extremely high level of discord that you are having here.”

Those are the words of health care consultant Keith Pryor, who was in Danville last week. Pryor is working with the Citizen’s Commission appointed by Mayor Wayne Williams to investigate complaints about Danville Regional Medical Center.
The commission has found the hospital’s problems include staffing levels, poor patient care, emergency department wait times, employee morale and administrative issues - things the people of this community have little or no direct control over.
Pryor proposed a dialogue between LifePoint officials, community leaders and doctors at the hospital. But is that going to help when some local people believe hospital officials are constantly trying to start a fresh discussion?
Legendary industrialist Henry Ford once said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”
Promises aren’t going to fix the problems at Danville Regional Medical Center. Only the owner of Danville Regional, LifePoint Hospitals Inc., can fix the hospital’s problems.
Danville only has one hospital, and the future of Danville
Regional Medical Center is key to the future of health care in this community. The Dan River Region needs a strong hospital.
But it’s hard to imagine how dialogue alone is going to fix the hospital’s problems - and restore community confidence in Danville Regional.
What could be done?
The hospital could earn full accreditation (it has received a preliminary denial of accreditation). It could rehire those doctors and nurses that have left the hospital over the past two years for jobs with the region’s other hospitals but still live close to Danville. It could replace the high-tech equipment that was taken out of the hospital over the past two years.
Those things might serve as confidence boosters.
LifePoint Hospitals Inc. came into a bad situation when it bought Danville Regional nearly two years ago. People were angry that the hospital was sold at all. But the problems since the sale aren’t the result of bad communication with the community. Danville Regional needs to fix its problems before it can hope to improve its image with the public it purports to serve.

"Hospital stands alone"

Accreditation commission awaits Danville Regional's next move.

Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

DANVILLE - The Danville Regional Medical Center is the only hospital in Virginia to currently have a “preliminary denial of accreditation” status from the Joint Commission. Joint Commission spokeswoman Elizabeth Zhani answered a few questions about what this means Monday afternoon.
Question: What is the Joint Commission?
Answer: The Joint Commission is an independent not-for-profit organization that monitors care given at nearly 15,000 health care organizations in the United States. The group evaluates care at 97 hospitals in Virginia.
Q: What is a preliminary denial of accreditation?
A: A “preliminary denial of accreditation” status is one step above a full denial of accreditation. The commission gives this status to health care organizations it feels justified in denying its accreditation to, but it lets the organization appeal this ruling before the actual denial takes place.
Zhani said large hospitals like Danville Regional that fail to meet 17 or more standards of care during an evaluation are given this status. She said approximately 1 percent of the hospitals surveyed across the U.S. in 2006 received a “preliminary denial of accreditation.”
Q: When did all of this happen?
A: The Joint Commission sends surveyors to evaluate a hospital once every three years. It has sent teams to 23 Virginia hospitals since June 2006. Commission surveyors last visited Danville Regional on Feb. 13-16.
Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco sent out a news release in March letting people know the hospital may receive a “preliminary denial of accreditation” following this visit. Zhani said the commission’s accreditation board reviewed the survey findings last week and signed off on the decision.
Q: What happens next?
A: Zhani said the hospital could appeal its “preliminary denial of accreditation” status to the commission’s review panel. She said the panel will look over the original survey results and “can deny the accreditation or make another decision” about the hospital’s status. Zhani expects this hearing to take place within the next month. No hospital official would return calls Monday for comment about their plans for the future.
Q: Why is this important?
A: State and federal governments use Joint Commission evaluations as a way to determine whether a health care organization qualifies for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. If a hospital loses its accreditation, the government will have to send its own team of investigators to evaluate the hospital before any decision becomes final.

"Status of hospital remains the same"

Danville Register Bee
Saturday, June 16, 2007

DANVILLE - Danville Regional Medical Center continues to operate with a preliminary denial of accreditation.
Mayor Wayne Williams said that hospital CEO Art Doloresco sent out a statement to hospital physicians Friday stating that the hospital would remain in this category until further notice.
Danville Regional remains accredited and had hoped to improve its score from The Joint Commission, Williams said. The reason for the status quo rating is the hospital could not verify that certain standards had been met, he said.
“It doesn’t mean they haven’t done anything,” Williams said. “It’s still not a good thing.”
Williams, who appointed a Citizens Commission in an attempt to fix problems at the hospital, said he has confidence that Danville Regional can turn its situation around.
“Personally, I have no problem taking patients to the hospital,” Williams said.
Danville Regional first announced in March that it had 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.
The survey was conducted Feb. 13-16.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) use commission accreditations as a basis for determining which hospitals qualify for Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements.
According to the commission’s Web site, www.qualitycheck.org, surveyors conducted their last full survey of Danville Regional on March 19, 2004.
The surveyors found the hospital to be “in full compliance with all applicable standards” and presented Danville Regional with an award for allowing CMS to post its performance measures on the agency’s Web site.

"Consultant bothered by problems"

Keith Pryor says the hospital's current issues are unnecessary, but can still be fixed.

Danville Register & Bee
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

DANVILLE - There is an unusually high level of animosity within the community following Danville Regional Medical Center’s transition from public to private ownership, health care consultant Keith Pryor said Monday.
“Your situation bothers me,” said Pryor, who was hired to work with the Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Medical Center. “What shocks me is the extremely high level of discord that you are having here.”
Pryor met with the commission Monday to discuss the quality of care at Danville Regional.
He said the biggest problem facing the hospital is a growing lack of trust between members of the community and LifePoint Hospitals Inc. Pryor said this problem started when LifePoint purchased Danville Regional in July 2005.
Pryor said the transition from public to private ownership requires “leaders who are the best of the best” and that LifePoint’s own admission that it made leadership mistakes during this time did not make the process any smoother.
“There is a lot at stake here,” he said, adding the level of distrust could hinder anything from the community’s health care system to its economic development efforts. “(This problem) is so unnecessary and I think you can fix it.”
Pryor told the commission members the best way to restore the trust was to open up a dialogue between LifePoint officials, community leaders and physicians at the hospital.
The participants in this dialogue must be willing to leave the past behind them and focus on some of the core problems that were identified through the commission’s efforts, he said.
“It’s time to start walking on a new path,” said Jim Houser, co-chairman of the commission, adding he felt the “old path was very negative and destructive.”
Houser said the commission identified five areas the hospital needed to improve at its last meeting, including staffing levels, poor patient care, wait times in the emergency room, morale among employees and administrative issues.
Houser said these topics covered most of the problems that were brought up at a recent series of public hearings, but some positive things were said about the hospital as well. People testified that the hospital’s cleanliness, one-day surgery program and heart center seemed to show improvement.
Pryor said some other “good news” was that about 80-90 percent of the community and hospital staff wanted the situation at Danville Regional to improve.
He said LifePoint has no other choice but to listen to concerns because Danville Regional’s situation may hinder the company’s ability to grow.
“We too have come to the same conclusion. We have to build trust,” Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco said Monday at the commission meeting. “Building that trust means having the dialogue that (Pryor) talked about.”

Exactly...

Vote with your dollars, folks
To the editor:
There have been several letters to the editor written lately suggesting our community should support LifePoint Hospitals Inc. and Danville Regional Medical Center. While I agree the doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital are dedicated, caring, skillful professionals deserving of our respect, I disagree that we owe LifePoint our support or help.Remember, this is no longer a community agency, it is now a business not unlike any store or chain restaurant in Danville.It is not incumbent upon the citizens to “fix” anything at Danville Regional any more than it would be our responsibility to correct any problems at any other business in the area. I don’t think the officers at LifePoint need our help to run a hospital because they own more than 50. And furthermore, it is LifePoint’s decision to reveal any accreditation problems it has. They aren’t obligated to tell us anything.As a business, it is up to them to sell us on their product. To suggest that we should choose to have health care at LifePoint out of some community obligation is ludicrous.If you feel you will receive the best care possible there, by all means go. If not - and you choose to go elsewhere - it doesn’t make you a bad citizen.Hopefully with research and understanding, you will choose what’s best for you and your family. If you could buy a better car for less money with better service and more perks, you wouldn’t hesitate to drive out of town.Surely, your health care warrants the same.By its own admission, LifePoint’s corporate philosophy is to seek out rural hospitals with no competition. Obviously, it didn’t look at the geography of our region before buying us. Here they have more competition than they are accustomed to - and it is starting to show. It is up to them to convince us we should shop here. We are fortunate to have the Citizen’s Commission allowing us input, but that does not mean LifePoint will have to act on anything we say. In effect they are fortunate in that they are receiving a free customer survey, paid for by the citizens ($25,000 worth), and summarized and wrapped up in a nice package by the commission.If LifePoint wants good PR, then it is up to them to do the things necessary to get it. Internal problems must be addressed by employees. Citizens are powerless to “support” or “help fix” anything on the inside. If Home Depot were to move to Danville, I can assure you Lowe’s wouldn’t put out a call for citizen support. It would do what it always does and compete by upgrading service, lowering prices, and selling itself to its customers.Sadly, there was a time when all of the money you or your insurer spent at Danville Regional was kept here. It was used to pay for and retain staff, upgrade and clean the buildings, open new treatment centers and offer more services. Now, much of that money goes to Tennessee. Don’t be mislead - Danville Regional was making millions every year and probably still is. Unfortunately, a good part of that is going to pay shareholders and corporate salaries outside of Danville. But that is not going to change.It remains to be seen if LifePoint will do what is necessary to retain its customer base, but the ball is in its court. Our citizens can’t - and shouldn’t - be expected to “fix” whatever problems they created. Hopefully, soon the hard work of the many professionals at Danville Regional will prove we should keep our business in Danville. Until then, you are not a bad citizen if you go elsewhere - just an educated consumer.

STEVE
Ringgold

"An open meeting"

Editorial - Danville Register and Bee
Friday, June 8, 2007

As controversies go, this one didn’t last long. The day after an angry exchange between Citizen’s Commission Co-Chairman Jim Houser and commission member Arlene Creasy, Danville Mayor Wayne Williams ended it with a timely e-mail.
Houser briefly argued with Creasy and several other members over a meeting that’s scheduled to take place Monday between himself, Williams and health care consultant Keith Pryor.
“I agree with Arlene,” commission member Samuel Griffith said at the time. “This should be above board. This has the semblance of not being above board.”
And that, of course, is a big part of the reason why the Citizen’s Commission was formed in the first place.
Since the first rumors hit the street that Danville Regional Medical Center was going to be sold, the big decisions have been made behind closed doors. The public is frustrated, as it should be. Danville Regional Medical Center is more than just one of the region’s largest employers - it is the only hospital in town.
When Danville City Council could no longer ignore the citizen’s anger, Williams formed the Citizen’s Commission. The commission, in its information gathering stage, has collected comments. The next step is to meet with Pryor.
In his e-mail Wednesday, Williams wrote of Monday’s meeting:
“… Certainly anyone is welcome to attend. No decisions will be made, simply a review of progress to date and a review of key points that need to be addressed at your meeting. Of course, additional points can always be introduced at the meeting. It is important that we are efficient with Keith’s time as the Commission moves to developing an action plan. …”
One of the biggest challenges facing the Citizen’s Commission is the hardened attitudes that have been created by the way things have been done over the past two-plus years.
Nothing angers people more than the “done deal” presented to them wrapped in a pretty bow and served on a silver platter. Business as usual - which means behind closed doors - would only continue to antagonize and polarize members of the community and run contrary to the reason for the Citizen’s Commission in the first place.
That’s why Williams was right to make sure the Citizen’s Commission continues to operate in full view of the public. Too much is at stake to do otherwise.

"Mayor: Hospital meeting will be open to board"

Commission members were told earlier this week that they were not invited.
Danville Register & Bee
Friday, June 8, 2007

DANVILLE - All Citizen’s Commission members have been given permission to attend a meeting to review information the group has gathered about Danville Regional Medical Center.
Commission members were told earlier this week that the meeting set for Monday would consist of Mayor Wayne Williams, consultant Keith Pryor and Jim Houser, commission co-chairman. Other commission members were told that they were not invited to the meeting.
The mayor, however, has since said the meeting is open.
“Certainly anyone is welcome to attend,” Williams said in an e-mail sent Wednesday night to commission members.
Commission member Arlene Creasy, who questioned why the meeting was initially closed, forwarded the e-mail minutes later to the news media.
No time has been set for the meeting between Williams, Pryor and Houser, the mayor said. He said the purpose is to review information and prepare an agenda for the commission’s 5:15 p.m. meeting the same day.
“No decisions will be made, simply a review of progress to date and a review of key points that need to be addressed at your meeting,” Williams said in the e-mail to commission members. “Of course, additional points can always be introduced at the meeting. It is important that we are efficient with Keith’s time as the Commission moves to developing an action plan.”
Williams said he scheduled Pryor to attend the commission’s Monday meeting because the group has completed the information gathering and is ready to move to the next phase.
“The purpose of the next meeting will be to review information, determine if additional data is needed and begin developing recommendations for Lifepoint,” Williams said.
He said the earlier meeting is not a regular commission meeting, which is probably why Houser told commission members that they needed to talk to the mayor if they wanted to attend.
“This isn’t a secret meeting,” Williams said.
That explanation appeared to appease Creasy. She said there was a communication breakdown and members should have known earlier that this other meeting was being held.
“When I serve on a committee, I want to know what’s happening,” Creasy said, adding she does not plan on attending the early meeting because the focus will be on setting the agenda.

Closed meeting angers group

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

DANVILLE - Citizen’s Commission Chairman Jim Houser will take part in an “invitation only” meeting with the mayor regarding the results of a survey related to the quality of care at Danville Regional Medical Center.
Keith Pryor, a health care consultant hired to work with the commission, Mayor Wayne Williams and Houser will meet next Tuesday to discuss the results but the rest of the commission members aren’t invited.
“Keith and I and the mayor will be discussing some more things on Tuesday to discuss the direction things will be going,” Houser said at the group’s meeting Tuesday.
Commission member Arlene Creasy asked, “Are we invited to that?”
“No,” Houser said.
“Did I miss something?’ Creasy asked. “Why wouldn’t the entire commission be meeting?
Houser’s voice got stern and strained as he responded.
“This meeting was brought by the mayor. I suggest you bring it up with him,” Houser said.
“I will,” Creasy responded.
But Creasy didn’t have the last word, as other commission members voiced their concerns with the meeting being off limits to members as well.
If the full commission brought the findings and worked on this, then the entire board should be involved, members argued, but Houser wouldn’t budge.
Commission member Samuel Griffith hesitated for just a minute, but also objected.
“I agree with Arlene,” he said. “This should be above board. This has the semblance of not being above board.”
Houser refused to comment further and moved the meeting forward.
Members discussed their findings in the surveys they took from staff, the public and doctors at the hospital. The biggest complaints the commission found, included understaffing, poor patient care and problems with care and service in the emergency room. The operating room got some good marks, as did care in the maternity ward and the out-patient surgery areas, but there are still a lot of problems, Houser noted.
After a review of mostly negative findings, commission member Robert Whitt said, “The only comment I have, and this needs to be said, is there’s been enough blood-letting. The administration, the employees and the community needs to pull together and make this thing work. We need to move forward. I think that’s where we need to be at this point. The community’s had its opportunity to speak and now we need to move forward, including the community, we need to move forward, not backwards.”
Houser responded, “Bob, your point’s well taken, but let me say this, the trust and confidence of the public and certain staff members at DRMC has been lost. They don’t have any trust in the hospital anymore. That’s why we’re losing patients to other hospitals. That’s why good quality experienced nurses are leaving DRMC and seeking employment elsewhere.
“Until we build that trust and confidence back, having everybody say let’s pull together and move forward is going to be kind of difficult. We’re going to have to do some crawling before we can walk with this.”

Watch the video

Reminder...

The next meeting of the Citizens' Commission is set for Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 5:15 P.M. in the Second Floor Conference Room, City Hall.

A good start

Danville Register and Bee editorial
Monday, June 4, 2007

Danville Regional Medical Center’s preliminary denial of accreditation has been a dark cloud over the hospital since it was announced in March. While Danville Regional remains accredited, the public can’t help but be shaken by the news.
Last week, Danville Regional CEO Art Doloresco met with members of the local business community to talk about the hospital’s accreditation status - including some of the factors that led to the preliminary denial of accreditation - and what he expects to happen in the future.
Doloresco has come a long way from stating that the hospital’s accreditation status was a “private matter between me, the hospital and the (Joint) Commission.”
“This is only the second time in the United States that a hospital has revealed a Joint Commission decision,” Doloresco said last week. “… This is a unique opportunity for businesses to take a look … There are more than 500 standards and we have 21 of those not in compliance.”
Danville Regional Medical Center isn’t required to explain the preliminary denial of accreditation, but the community served by Danville Regional isn’t required to take what Doloresco and other hospital officials say at face value. Having a national accreditation organization issue a preliminary denial was a shock. Not knowing exactly what the Joint Commission found lacking at Danville Regional has been an additional frustration.
Doloresco should be congratulated for his address to the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce - if the speech is the start of a more open dialogue with the public.
Dan River Region residents have to make up their mind about Danville Regional, and the best way for them to be able to do that is with more information, not less.
Hospital officials should continue the dialogue started by Doloresco during last week’s speech to local business leaders.

A post worth repeating...

"Its up to Lifepoint to sell themselves to their customers, not the customers' responsibility to fix whats wrong."

Amen.

To the Chamber of Commerce Members

So, last Thursday, Mr. Doloresco sat down with the Chamber of Commerce and reviewed the issues (or, rather, most of the issues) that earned DRMC a preliminary denial of accreditation. I'd venture a guess that those in the room that day heard more about Joint Commission than most employees at DRMC have heard since the denial was issued.

With that in mind, I'd like to ask the Chamber members...are you satisfied with what you heard? Do you feel that a real action plan is in place to improve and safeguard the quality of healthcare available to your employees and your family members?

Readers of this blog can make comments that posting on the blog are from disgruntled DRMC employees hell-bent on the ruin of their employer (maybe it's just me, but there has to be some faulty logic in there somewhere). But now, with the Chamber presentation, people who can actually determine where commercial insurance dollars are spent on healthcare have learned more about the condition of their sole hospital.

I'm just curious...how do you feel now? And, if there are concerns, have you voiced them to the management team at DRMC? Please take a moment and post a comment on this blog so that we can start a dialogue with you, our customers.

"Hospital unveils evaluation"

Danville Register & Bee
Thursday, May 31, 2007
DANVILLE - Portions of Danville Regional Medical Center’s Joint Commission evaluation were unveiled to area business leaders Wednesday, but the complete results have not been made public.
The hospital received a “preliminary denial of accreditation” from the national health care accreditation organization in March.
Art Doloresco, CEO of Danville Regional Medical Center, presented the results of the survey Wednesday morning at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
Doloresco, however, would not allow members of the media to have a copy of the presentation and did not want it to be recorded by radio station WBTM.
“This is only the second time in the United States that a hospital has revealed a Joint Commission decision,” he said. “This is a unique opportunity for businesses to take a look.”
He explained that the Joint Commission’s scoring was based on the number of standards with which hospitals are not in compliance.
“There are more than 500 standards and we have 21 of those not in compliance,” he said.
There were 22 RFIs, “Required for Improvements,” but the hospital successfully appealed one.
The areas the commission cited as needing improvement include home health, medical staff, nursing, data tracking, pharmacy and leadership.
Doloresco said the hospital is not only scored on compliance but on how long it has been compliant.
“You could be doing the right thing, but not doing it long enough,” he said. “For example, last August there were 180 patient restraint situations a month. Now we are having less than 30 patient restraint encounters a month, but when the Joint Commission was here, it was one of the 21 RFIs because (the decrease) had been less than six months.”
The survey uses a method known as “tracer methodology” that gives the commission a view of a patient’s stay in the hospital from the minute the patient enters to when he leaves and scores how the hospital processes functioned during that stay.
Nurse to patient ratio is not one of the areas scored, Doloresco said.
“We have sent an eight-page letter to the commission with an explanation of mitigating circumstances,” he said.
The commission will meet on June 14 and issue a decision the next day. The hospital could be moved from preliminary to full denial, conditional accreditation or full accreditation, according to Doloresco.
He said the hospital expects it will be conditionally accredited. Even if accreditation is denied, however, there is still an appeals process available.
With conditional accreditation, the commission will return in six months for another full survey.
“The Joint Commission doesn’t exist to put the hospital out of business but to raise the bar,” he said, adding that the commission has “really raised the bar” and the survey isn’t the same as the one the hospital passed before.
Doloresco said the hospital is in the process of recruiting someone whose only job will be to keep the hospital up to date on accreditation requirements.

Doloresco discusses Joint Commission findings

[From WAKG]
"Three months ago, Danville Regional Medical Center (DRMC) received a preliminary denial of accreditation from the Joint Commission On Accreditation Of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Today, hospital CEO Art Doloresco spoke to local business leaders, telling them that all of the major problems cited by the Commission have been addressed and/or corrected. He cited 22 of the 500+ standards that were judged to be non-compliant by the Commission. Some of the problems dealth with the hospital's method of keeping records, but the medical staff was also called to task for things like failing to put dates and times on orders and using unapproved abbreviations on orders that could be misinterpreted, thereby threatening patient safety. Other problems included expired or unlabeled medications, small holes in the firewalls of the hospital's oldest building and the credentialing of physicians. While Doloresco has not presented the Commission's report in its entirety, he believes they will upgrade the hospital's position to "conditional accreditation" next month."

[From the Register & Bee]
Hospital CEO shares Joint Commission's evaluation with business leaders
Danville Register and Bee - Wednesday, May 30, 2007
DANVILLE -- Art Doloresco, CEO of Danville Regional Medical Center, shared details of the Joint Commission's March evaluation of the hospital with business leaders at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast this morning.
"It is only the second time in the United States that a hospital has revealed the Joint Commission's decision," he said.
For details about what earned the hospital a preliminary denial of accreditation, read Thursday's Register & Bee.

Citizens Commission - next meeting

The next meeting of the Citizens' Commission is set for Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 5:15 P.M. in the Second Floor Conference Room, City Hall.

Listen to their stories

Danville Register and Bee
Sunday, May 27, 2007

No matter what people think of Danville Regional Medical Center, its corporate parent, LifePoint Hospitals Inc., or the sale of Danville Regional to LifePoint, the community discussion now underway needs to include the hospital’s doctors, nurses, technicians and other employees who want to speak out.
During the recent Citizen’s Commission hearings in Danville and Yanceyville, N.C., the hospital employees who spoke strongly defended Danville Regional. Their point was that a number of dedicated, caring professionals worked at the hospital despite strong criticism from the community - and that the hospital’s problems were being fixed.
But what the Citizen’s Commission didn’t hear during the community meetings were current hospital employees complaining about the situation.
This week, Commission Chairman Jim Houser said the reason for that was that at least some of them were afraid they might be fired for criticizing Danville Regional. Houser interpreted that as a sign of a possible morale problem among hospital employees.
“If the morale is low, then certainly the type of services offered aren’t going to be what you’d expect them to be,” he said.
While that’s true, it’s also true that most employers don’t want their employees to speak publicly about what goes on at work. Some companies even go as far as to force their employees to sign legal agreements promising not to speak to outsiders under any circumstances.
In the case of hospitals, there are patient confidentially laws that limit what can be said about individual cases.
It’s hard to say if morale problems at Danville Regional - if they truly exist - are the result of the employee’s ability to speak out about the situation or the situation itself. But it’s probably the latter.
The Citizen’s Commission can’t do its job until it hears from current Danville Regional Medical Center employees. The commission has to get to the bottom of this situation, and it can’t do that if the only people it hears from are those who aren’t worried about speaking out.

Drinking sand

A comment made in today's newspaper article got me to thinking....Ruth McDaniel was quoted as saying that "morale is such a nebulous thing and it's hard to characterize". The newspaper also mentioned that McDaniel denied that there was a morale problem. Personally, I don't see how that statement can be made...it feels as though morale is at an all-time low.

So, the question becomes, what can be done on the personal level? That applies to each and every employee, as well as every patient and family member. And, yes, it applies to senior management at LPNT as well as community leadership in Danville, Pittsylvania and Caswell. Problems at DRMC, whether real or perceived, will impact healthcare choices in the area and people will begin to respond by choosing a facility other than DRMC. This becomes especially painful when those who are commercially insured choose to go elsewhere.

And, for the value of this blog, what we get out of it is only as good as what goes into it. There have been suggestions by some (including from managers at the hospital) that there is no value in comments made anonymously on this blog. True, some folks have used the cover of anonymity to take low shots at community leaders, management and even each other. But the vast majority of posts on this blog (and I've read them all) have taken the conversational tone of employees talking with each other. Some are very well informed and some seem to come to the blog looking for information. If the blog made you sign your name to every post, I feel that posts would drop off by a large percentage. So, I think it's better to make sure that the comments don't get out of hand and delete a few, than to shut down an outlet for anonymous discussion.

Back to the bigger issue...perhaps the recommendations made by the Citizens Commission will give LPNT some valuable insight into issues that need to be addressed. All we can ask is that LPNT is forthcoming with the community about issues (such as Joint Commission). When more people feel that they are getting all the information they need to do their job, then maybe that paves the way to better results.

There was a quote that I used much earlier in the life of this blog, but I'll bring it back here. Maybe more people are relying on the anonymous ramblings of this blog, rumor and fiction because they aren't hearing the real information they need coming from their leaders (whoever those leaders may be)....so I'll stop rambling and leave you with some pretty good words from "The American President"...

"People want leadership. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership...They're so thirsty for it, they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.
People don't drink the sand, 'cause they're thirsty...They drink it 'cause they don't know the difference."

"Hospital workers' morale in question"

Danville Register & Bee
Wednesday, May 23, 2007

DANVILLE - The recent public hearings concerning Danville Regional Medical Center revealed a lot of the issues revolving around the hospital, but there may be more problems to uncover.
A group of hospital employees didn’t testify at the three public hearings organized by the Citizen’s Commission Related to the Danville Regional Center because they were afraid they might get fired if they spoke publicly, according to Jim Houser, chairman of the commission.
The employees instead shared their concerns with Houser during private moments, he said.
Houser said that this pattern could be indicative of a morale problem at Danville Regional.
“If the morale is low, then certainly the type of services offered aren’t going to be what you’d expect them to be,” he said.
The commission met Tuesday with Ruth McDaniel, acting chief of nursing at Danville Regional, who denied there was a morale problem among the hospital’s employees.
“The word ‘morale’ is such a nebulous thing and it’s hard to characterize that,” McDaniel said, adding her staff was committed to seeing that things improved at the hospital. “We hear every concern that someone has and welcome the opportunity to address the issues in the future.”
She also denied a suggestion by commission member Arlene Creasy that another group of employees was purposefully sabotaging the hospital’s quality of care because they were upset about its July 2005 sale to LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
Houser said the commission is now reading over a 118-page transcript from the hearings the group held over the past two weeks.
The commission also has collected more than 100 surveys from hospital employees and people who attended the hearings.
Houser asked each commission member to compile the data into five different areas they feel the hospital most needs to address and to have the information ready by the group’s June 5 meeting. He also gave McDaniel and other hospital managers a task.
“Describe statistically where you were when LifePoint took over Danville Regional,” Houser said. “Where you are now and where you expect to be in the future.”
Houser said he hopes to have all of this information together by mid-June when the commission meets with its health care consultant, Keith Pryor. The commission and Pryor will then start the final phase of their mission and put together a road map detailing what the hospital can do to improve itself.
“There has been a lot of damage done and it was done in a very short time,” Houser said. “Correcting the damage is not going to happen overnight.”

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