Newspaper and hospital

Who's in whose pocket? USA Today reported that Danville Regional Medical Center had the worst fatality rates in the country for heart attack patients...The 19.6 percent death rate for heart attack patients in 2007 was the worst in the nation. But the statistics for 2006 were actually much worse: 24 percent. Yet what does the Register and Bee say in their editorial?


"The availability of this kind of free, readily accessible information offers our hospital the opportunity to publicly demonstrate that the changes it has made have changed care there for the better. When the hospital was locally owned, the community had no way of knowing that kind of information. Now, it’s on the Internet for the world to see — and for local people to study."

Get a freaking grip Robert.(Robert Benson, editorial writer), that information was NOT posted on the hospital web site for people to find!!! It's on the internet sure, but not because the hospital had anything to do with it. And they can't control it being out there either can they...That information has always been available - but a news organization would have had to dig for it - as USA Today did because they want to provide readers with the truth.

A REAL newspaper had to go dig it up and report it to get it out there.

The community had no way of knowing that information BEFORE USA Today posted it and I reported it here...the Register & Bee certainly didn't write about it. As a matter of fact I was NOT ALLOWED to write about the dozens of people who came to me as a reporter with horror stories about their experience with the hospital. I was TOLD to focus on the positive and the changes. Yeah...you make it seem like things are all better now....Tell that to the young man and his five-year old son who recently lost a wife and mother and new baby at DRMC because a blood clot was diagnosed as a "panic attack" and she was sent home and died. There was so much fear of a cover-up by the hospital her body was sent to Duke for an autopsy. Are you going to gloss over that too? What about the firings of employees who speak out? nah...disgruntled employees aren't they?! The billing system is still screwed up and the fact is change doesn't happen on a dime. It will be YEARS before there is any improvement at DRMC. Change happens incrementally. And it doesn't happen any faster if the hospital is pouring a lot of money into newspaper advertising as Board of Supervisor Coy Harville keeps pointing out ON the record in public meetings. What does he know that the rest of us don't? He keeps saying the Register and Bee has a million dollar advertising contract with the newspaper. Do they? Maybe there's some pressure there to keep that? Remember....

We're talking about a newspaper who forces employees to pee in the parking lot and crap in the bushes because they can't afford to clean the bathrooms. And you want people to believe that the hospital welcomes criticism? Did you mention that the hospital kicked Ray and Jennifer out of their volunteer program because they don't want handicapped people volunteering even though both had been volunteering for years? (Ray and Jennifer are recent Habitat for Humanity house recipients - both of whom are in wheelchairs)