RegionalCare is Lesser of Two Evils

We recently mentioned that two local physicians support RegionalCare over the Helen Keller/Huntsville Hospital alliance. A reader asked:

Drs Heaton and Ba'albaki's letter leaves some unanswered questions:

1. How could a hospital in Colbert county pay taxes to both Colbert and Lauderdale County? I am sure they have this all worked out with the tax people at the courthouses.

2. The agreement/contract to sell ECM to Regional Care specified that the new hospital be built in Lauderdale County. How are they going to get around this?

3. How can 2 hospitals be combined without significant loss of jobs at one hospital or both?

They may be HEART doctors but it seems they are trying to mess with our MINDS.

We'll attempt to answer partially--although such answers may be debatable. The Coffee Health Group was non-profit and probably paid little or no taxes to the county governments--remember they owned hospitals in both Colbert and Lauderdale. Therefore, Lauderdale, if it should be deprived of tax revenue from RegionalCare, won't be losing any longstanding tax dollars.

As recently as last August, ECM CEO Joe Roach was still painting a rosy picture of a state-of-the-art facility in Lauderdale County. If that should be of great importance to Lauderdale citizens, they may just be out of luck. The Coffee Health Group has no desire to negate the contract and take back the hospitals. RegionalCare has already changed the name of the proposed facility once, so we doubt that anything is written in stone.

Considering the size of the new facility, we don't foresee many losing their jobs if Keller were to be swept up by RegionalCare. As it is now, no one seems to have job security at either hospital.

We hope that other physicians and department heads will offer some input into these questions. We welcome all comments, both pro and con; however, as the title of today's blog suggests, RegionalCare would seem to be the lesser of two evils. Lauderdale County has no choice--Colbert does. If you're a citizen of Colbert County, please make your wishes known to the county commission.

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The Connection has published Part I in their series of articles on the Colbert 911 missing funds: Link



Shoalanda

Helen Keller Hospital Afraid of Roaches?

We hear that staff at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield has been carrying roach spray around the halls of the hospital. Is the medical facility infested with the buggy buggars?

No. Apparently it's just the staff's way of warning new Coffee Health Group CEO Joe Roach to stay away. At a recent Rotary gathering, Roach was quoted as saying Keller's board members were short-sighted, fearful, and stupid.

Strong language, but it very well may be true. Just who are Keller's board members? Oddly, while the website for the hospital frequently mentions the board, the nine member panel isn't named. A recent article in the TimesDaily identified Larry Collum as the board president.

Another recent TD article commented on Keller's rejection of RegionalCare as a suitor--a move of which the Colbert County Commission approved. Among the three commissioners quoted was Rex Burleson. You may remember Mr. Burleson for his recent comments concerning the great success of the National Alabama rail car plant in Barton.

Do we think RegionalCare is the savior of health care in the Shoals? No, but neither do we think sending patients from the Shoals to Huntsville will improve the status quo. We have to wonder why Keller is so eager to align itself with a hospital out of the immediate area while it shuns any contact with a similar facility just across the river.

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Lexington lacks high-speed Internet? One would think so if he/she read Francisco Guerra's recent blurb for his new company Front Porch Communications. While Lexington does lack cable in many neighborhoods, high-speed Internet is readily available via BellSouth/ATT and the Dish Network.

Obvisously, not every home has a land line in this era of cell phone communication, but one would think obtaining a television cable service for Lexington would be the top priority for its elected officials.

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Locust Hill: Looking for a copy of Mary Wallace Kirk's book? Here's at least 95 of them--Link


Shoalanda



Get Connected in September!

Would You Survive Being a Patient at ECM/Shoals?

Shoals Hospital - A former employee tells of a staph outbreak affecting an entire floor and of nurses on second shift covering 16 patients.

ECM Hospital - A family member tells of a patient with congestive heart failure being served a sugar free diet, rather than the appropriate salt free fare.

ECM Hospital - Today Denise Crosslin of Killen reports in the TimesDaily that her husband, a cardiac patient, went eleven and one-half hours without a meal and waited 26 hours to see a physician.

Are these isolated incidents or are they the norm for Coffee Health Group? We understand that of the recent layoff of 65 employees, almost 40 were Registered Nurses. What does this say about the quality of health care in the Shoals?

No one wishes to see our local government sell ECM and its affiliated institutions, but things change. We don't pay our medical doctors with pigs and chickens, nor do physicians with tens of thousands of dollars in college loans deliver babies for a pittance.

There will be change in our local health care; it's up to us to accept it and ensure than it's the right change. Investigate the four hospital groups seeking to purchase the Coffee Health Group and make your voice known. Make it known now--don't let CHG become the next Florence Golf and Country Club.


Notice: Due to UNA's closing and the related inclement weather, the Lauderdale County Volunteer Firefighter Association banquet will be rescheduled at a later date.

Shoalanda

Coffee Health Group Lays Off 50 Employees

We constantly hear of the shortage of nurses and other health care workers, but just how acute is the shortage here in Northwest Alabama, the Shoals in particular? Seemingly not that dire at ECM Hospital and its affiliates where several Registered Nurses received their walking papers yesterday. The nurses were a part of 50 who comprised what has been termed the first round of layoffs for the local health authority.

This is particularly disturbing considering the current nurse-patient ratio at both Eliza Coffee Memorial and Shoals Hospitals. For years, both hospitals have complained of the shortage of available nurses, particularly Registered Nurses; however, the shortage more accurately has referred to nurses who were willing to work the floor (the most strenuous of nursing occupations) at the wages Coffee Health Group was offering. It has been only two years ago that ECM phased out all LPNs (trade nurses) in favor of RNs (professional nurses); now even Registered Nurse positions are being cut in the attempt to turn back the sea of debt the health authority is facing.

The Coffee Health Group spends small fortunes in advertisements that exhort us of the Shoals to use their facilities rather than travel to Huntsville or Birmingham. Each ad assures the reader that the quality of care is equal, if not superior, to that found elsewhere in the state. Quality health care cannot be accomplished without nurses, or even those maintenance technicians who keep the plant running smoothly. Interim CEO Jody Pigg owes the Shoals an accurate appraisal of just what yesterday's and future layoffs will mean to its health care consumers.


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