MRMC Board Votes...9/30

Muskogee Hospital Board Votes To Sell Or Lease Muskogee Hospital

AP - 9/27/2006 11:37 AM - Updated: 9/27/2006 11:38 AM
MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) -- The city-owned Muskogee Regional Medical Center will either be sold or leased to a for-profit hospital in hopes services will be expanded.

The hospital's board of trustees are considering proposals from Signature Hospitals of Dallas; Community Health Systems of Brentwood, Tennessee; Capella Healthcare of Franklin, Tennessee; and Essent Healthcare of Nashville, Tennessee.

Hospital officials say part of the sale or lease agreement will include requirement of no layoffs, no cuts in care for the poor and to keep the hospital's name.

Well, it appears that Essent has a chance, however, the conditions imposed might put them out of the running. What's the first thing they've done: Changed the name (guess they can't do their standard name contest. Wonder if Hud'll do the same speech?) Actually, the first thing has been the layoffs. They have, however, agreed in previous purchases to continue indigent care.

Northeast Essent...2/8

Greetings from the Northeast (specifically, Ayer, Massachusetts)

We are alive but not well! Recently discovered your blog and couldn’t believe what was before my eyes. The same management style has been felt by all current and former employees here at Neshoba Valley Medical Center. Let’s start by setting you straight on former CEO Andrei Soran. Andrei was a “puppet” for Hud and his “buds” and only had one thing in mind. The almighty dollar! Andrei and his senior “MIS-MANAGEMENT” team were and still are incompetent when it comes to their ability to provide quality care to the residents of these communities.

The same tactics of suspension and job termination are issued to quality care givers who speak to advocate for safer working conditions. Essent healthcare is unwilling and unable to provide a quality workplace and a standard of care which is the acceptable standard throughout the nation. It’s healthcare on the cheap.

NVMC is a 57 bed hospital which has never been at capacity and struggles week to week to keep 20 patients on the floor. The 6 bed Intensive Care Unit closes every other week due to lack of patients or no staff. Word is out in these communities to drive a few extra miles to Emerson Hospital, Leominster Hospital or the Lowell Hospitals to have a chance at a good outcome. One patient made a $1000 donation to a local ambulance service to bring him to a facility other than Nashoba Valley Medical Center.

The new CEO Steve Roach (previously the CFO) is a 33 year old bean counter who spends his time photographing employees as they drive up to the back door to punch in. These photographs are distributed to department managers with threats of written warnings and termination. All managers are required to park in a designated area of the parking lot “FOR MANAGERS ONLY.” The security department is often requested to run plates to be sure rules are being followed. The latest is PARKING TICKETS to any staff violating Essent’s parking rules. While all this is taking place patients have empty O2 tanks, antibiotic doses are consistently left over from failure to be given, PACS is down for 3 days, Human Resource Manager functioning as Nursing Supervisor on 11 to 7 shift, patients being boarded in the Emergency Room overnight due to lack of staff, hospitalists are no where to be found after 8 pm , 3 physicians resigned from the medical staff due to the poor quality of care. The “red sox” program for denoting risk to fall patients is a miserable failure. A visiting family found a patient lying on the floor yelling help with her RED SOX on as they came off an elevator.

If you visit the NVMC job postings you’ll see that in 2006 over 100 positions have been open. In the last year the CEO, Risk Manager, CNO, PT Manager, Pharmacy Director, and IT Director have all moved on. Essent’s philosophy of hiring new grads is in full swing up here also. However, it has come back to bite them in the butt. The Radiology Department is currently under investigation by the Department of Public Health for having an unlicensed and unregistered technologist working since May 2006. She has failed the registry 3 times. Essent is facing fines for each day she worked unlicensed. Administration had full knowledge of this and chose to ignore it.

The Board of Registration in Medicine is also in town. There have been 4 physicians on staff at Nashoba Valley Medical Center under investigation by the state for numerous violations. I can assure you it was not due to Esssent’s administration that investigations took place. It was ethical employees and patients who had to go out on a limb to protect the public. Essent’s policy was COVER IT UP. It became a police state in the hospital. If you were caught talking about the situation you were disciplined.

The bottom line is residents of the Nashoba Valley expect and deserve to have access to high quality healthcare. It is time for Essent healthcare to put Nashoba Valley Medical Center “FOR SALE” and give these communities a chance to receive the quality medical care they deserve.

So long from Ayer, MA “Where Excellence is (Non) Essential”

Essent is gold--fool's gold. Note to all the bean counters: Only one out of five hospitals has not piped up....frank

Think Globally; Write Locally ...

I have been a FreePint Newsletter subscriber for at least five years. When you click on the following link, scroll down to the Tips Article and catch a very interesting piece by Kristen Giovanis entitled: "Think Globally; Write Locally: What Source Writers Need to Know About Localisation."

Importing from India

Do I need a license to import home décor from India and sell it in the United States? Find out what Ask Inc. has to say here.

Why Global Brands Matter

Where is your next competitor coming from?

Globalization, in its many forms, is enabling global corporations to exploit the “economies of simplicity and standardization” to price-out and replace local competition. Or is it?

Successful global brands recognize the value in understanding the diversity of cultures and tastes in global markets and are now addressing the complexities of adapting the customer experience to match. This is the paradox of globalization -- easier access to international markets creates greater challenges in brand and product management.

Attend this web seminar and gain insight into:

>> The Best Global Brands in 2006 and what factors have influenced their success, as researched by Interbrand

>> Changes in how corporations are managing brands and the related management and technology issues, drawing from recent research by the Economist Intelligence Unit

>> How Hewlett-Packard’s One Voice initiative has created significant financial value in many different aspects of its business as well as substantially reducing product costs

The seminar takes place tomorrow, September 19 at 9:00 a.m. PDT; 11:00 a.m. CDT; 12:00 p.m. EDT; 5:00 p.m. GMT DT; 6:00 p.m. CET. Duration: 1 hour. If you act now, there is still time to sign up.

Register here.

Business As An Agent of World Benefit

A global foum that may be of interest to you.

Read about it here.

And many of the greatest minds (CK, Warren Bennis and Peter Senge) will be presenting.

E$$ential Education...8/10

"School bells ring--are you listening?
Dodged the blame--who you kidding...
She's not out of sight, Bev's happy tonight.
Walking in an E$$ent wonderland."

Hey Frank,
You wouldn't believe who got the job as Clinical Director of the X-Ray program at PJC, none other than Frau Blücher!


So what if the Program Director took three times to pass the registry for CT, the Clinical Director has a BS in public relations (not radiology)--and was fired from the principal clinical site.... Of course they'll provide an exceptional educational environment! Don't you just love it!!

Quality in Education....

Well, the proof is in the testing. Looks like there's a lot riding on the national accreditation test for this first class. Since Mock was teaching there prior, it would seem that no one can claim to be uninvolved. Actually, I wonder how it will play, her being on-site at her old digs.... frank

Corrections are in red. See comments....

And the winner is...9/20

From the emails that have been trickling in, it would seem that Paris Imaging is the winner of this contest. Seems like only yesterday that administration was confident that "the boyz" were going to roll over and play dead...that they couldn't survive without the hospital...it might be the other way around.

Fact: This is the time when out-patient services should be loaded up...apparently they're talking about flexing (forced use of vacation time) staff.

Report turn-around time has become ridiculous. Morning radiographs might be read by the following day. (Paris Imaging has what, an hour delay? Definitely by the end of the day.)

Interventional studies are so erratic that they might as well close the suite. From one week to the next, they don't know if the radiologist that magically appears will even perform the studies. Speaking of the magic, seems like the confirmations are a bit slow in coming from the locum groups....

A lot of studies are not able to be done in the offshifts. Let me take that back, they are able to be done...but not read! VQ scans or anything from Nuclear Medicine that is done from 5PM to 7-8AM just sits...as well as plain films, and sonograms. Now that means that the physician that orders a stat study better be prepared to come into the hospital and read the film himself, and, if it is within the scope of his practice, he's responsible for doing so, since he made the determination that it was stat.

Security of the PACS is a joke, with the ability to look-up a valid password in Meditech! Apparently a tech was suspended for looking at a study that was verbotten...yet was not even on campus!

So, if you want to wait a day for your reading, be treated to an early-garage-sale appointed department, go to the hospital. If you like fast turn-a-round, clean, new and comfortable waiting areas, go to Paris Imaging...most of the docs do...you should, too.

Doing Business With the World

The Doing Business database provided by The World Bank Group is fabulous. It provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement -- spanning across no less than 175 economies.

And the new "Doing Business 2007: How to Reform" has just been released. Check it all out ... here.

The Innovation Sandbox

I have been a huge fan of CK's ever since he co-authored "Competing For the Future" with Gary Hamel. He has this unique ability (giftedness) to predict what's around the corner well before the rest of us arrive.

This article tells me he hasn't changed much -- which is a good thing. Care to see what's ahead on cutting-edge "global" innovation? Or, how about learning what it takes to change the world with your next big idea?

Read more >> here.

P.S. Rest assure, when I visit India, I will be staying at the indiOne hotel.

Socialized Medicine...10/4

Nurses, teachers 'in crisis'. Still dedicated despite hardships, survey finds.
Kathryn May, Montréal Gazette, August 25, 2002

Canada's nurses, doctors and teachers are the most committed, overworked, stressed and politically maligned workers in the country, a landmark federal study of nearly 31,500 working Canadians indicates.

It found that those employed in health, education and other social services work the hardest and longest but feel the least appreciated and believe they are unfairly blamed for mismanaged systems. Linda Duxbury, a co-author of the National Work-Life Conflict Study, said the health and education professions have been so badly "devalued" by years of job cuts and poor labour relations that the country's schools and hospitals can't keep or attract workers. ...

While a universal healthcare program may seem to be a good idea, those that have it have significantly less healthcare availability, those in the professions feel less than appropriately appreciated...and when has any government program come in under budget?

Going Global: Small Firms Take On The Challenge

Small firms that take on the challenge of selling overseas find new frontiers and untapped opportunities.

Read the article here.

Abridged Borderbuster: 9/5/06

CONTENTS

If you are not a subscriber to Borderbuster, here's a glimpse of what you missed this month:

1. Welcome From The Publisher
2. Feedback From Our Readers
3. Worldwide Market for Offshore IT Services Is Booming*
4. Business and Cultural Tips: Have Some Fun!*
5. Niche Trade Titles Talk the Talk*
6. How I Went Global: Ongoing Series // Martin Lindstrom
7. A Reader Asks: Q&A*
8. Everybody Loves a Freebie -- repeat: FREE OFFER*
9. Go Global Out of the Gate*
10. Going Global*
11. Fashion Conquistador*
12. Blog World: International Herald Tribune*
13. Laurel’s e-Book: “GODZILLA Global Marketing!”
14. Take A Walk On The Wild Side (TAWOTWS)*
15. Wind Behind Your Sail*
16. Miscellany*
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

*Indicates exclusive to Borderbuster subscribers only.

Sample section:

12. Blog World: International Herald Tribune*
*Subscriber Exclusive*

Managing globalization.

Visit the blog here.

###

To subscribe to Borderbuster, visit:
Sign Up For Borderbuster!

Happy Labor Day

Labor Day is a celebration and a tribute to the contributions of workers in America who have made our country stronger. Enjoy.

P.S. This photo is taken a block from where I live.

Breakfast...for a Price...10/12

A couple of months ago, Sharon Hospital was nice enough to solicit campaign contributions from hospital staff and physicians for a political fund-raiser (breakfast) at the hospital. $500 was the asking price. All on hospital stationary.

The recipient was labeled as a "true friend" of the hospital who cut the red tape in allowing the first (and only) conversion of a not-for-profit community owned hospital to a for-profit entity.

"The letter may have violated several federal election laws: While a for profit corporation may hold fundraisers for politicians, they are prohibited from making donations as a corporate entity unless they register as a political action committee. A corporate PAC would be allowed to solicit campaign donations only from executives and stockholders, and a solicitation letter must include a statement that employees will not be punished if they don’t participate."

Politics as usual?...the affair was cancelled.....

Heck, why can't we all be like Hud...his political contributions totalled $17k in '04 and '06 cycles. And, he contributed $5k to the red-tape remover. (Hal Andrews added another $1,250.) It will be interesting how much is donated in this off-year election