From HCA?....8/30

...or Atlanticare, or Baylor, or ETMC, or the Lahey Clinic? All of these were perusing the blog in the general time period as this comment. I thought I'd covered this ground in earlier comments, but possibly it was too far back.

Frank:
If there is going to be a significant downturn in revenue next year because of reduced reimbursements what would you do if you were running the company? Maybe you should send your resume to Essent's board. Layout out for them a business strategy that would work.

Let's see, so far we have (i) Criticized the company for making money, (ii) criticized the company for losing money, (iii) saying the reimbursement envirnoment is only going to get worse--which I totally agree with you, (iv) don't reduce expenses, (v) criticized for spending money for renovating patient floors, (vi) applauded Baylor-Plano for have flat screen TVs and all sorts of customer niceities and so on.

Also, I am not involved with Essent,contrary to what you think. I am a senior person at another healthcare company and know that we (and all companies) are one kook away from having someone inflict tremendous damage to one of our facilities like you have managed to do at Paris.

Finally, your other poster's reference to "OUR" blog is pretty pedestrian.

Last things first: You'd be surprised at how many people feel that way about the blog--and the hospital. The town still seems to refer to the facilities by their pre-Christus names, much less Essent.

As to the criticism inflicted on Essent, the bulk of it would never have come up, had the administration invested the employees in the process.

They made the mistake of doing it to, rather than doing it with the people that work here.

There have been several changes in style since MBO (Management By Objective) was developed. All of them seem to have one thing in common: The realization that the employees have to be on board with the changes, and that the process can actually accelerate if they are...when they feel part of it, rather than feel the brunt of it. The original "The Customer" program was far truer to that spirit. What we've seen in the one-man-show is ego.



Maybe Essent will never come out from under the shadow of what they initially did (we still call them the old Sears and Brookshires buildings, and they've been relocated for how long?), and maybe it will take another with a bit more people skills to turn Paris healthcare around. Time will tell.....frank