24 Hours Until The S@%t Hits The Fan

DMH's rag-tag team of "hospitalists" are poised to take over hospital patient care for the DMH-employed family practice docs starting tomorrow.

With thousands of dollars in revenue lost by these individual practices, and the increased expense of paying another physician to take care of their patients, how does DMH EVER expect to get ahead?

Answer: IT CAN'T!

See entire post on Blog Decatur.

H&R Admits DMH "Punished Them"

During yesterday's SHOWDOWN at St. Mary's Hospital, H&R Publisher Todd Nelson and Editor Gary Sawyer were reportedly grilled on many topics, all of which related specifically to the Herald & Review's assumed bias towards DMH.

When asked why the H&R would not print the "Press Release" letter to the community, they both said it was because their lawyers counseled them that there was a potential "libel" in one paragraph. (See second sentence in second paragraph in the Letter.) In addition, they stated that is the policy of the H&R to NEVER publish a story, local or from the wire, that is based on "anonymous sources."

From what others have said, the general tone among those who attended was "concerned" to "angry." There were many who did not agree with the newspaper's stance that they are not biased. There were many who said they had stopped their subscriptions because of this perceived bias, and would not re-start these subscriptions until the H&R proves they are not biased.

Of note, both Nelson and Sawyer have only been with the H&R for a few months, so much of H&R's history in this battle is not well known to them. I think before this is over, they will know it very well. Evidently before Nelson/Sawyer joined the H&R, a particular story in the paper concerning "healthcare" did not set well with Mr. Smithmier, so he pulled ALL advertising from the H&R for almost two weeks. He re-started it, only after the paper printed a "clarification" (retraction) of what the original story had said.

The big question is this, then: If the H&R is so afraid that DMH will sue them for printing this letter, what will they do when St. Mary's turns up the heat with more and different ads in the paper? And, what will they do if the H&R bigshots implement changes as a result of yesterday's meetings? Will we see more ads pulled from the paper? Probably not.

The DMH employed docs will need a lot of advertising to keep their numbers up after the BIG EXODUS. Stay tuned.

PROOF that St. Mary's is better than DMH in heart care!

Check this link out:

Go to HealthGrades.com and see where an independent company ranks DMH! See how DMH stacks up against other area hospitals on how it takes care of heart attack patients!

DEAD LAST!

(definitely not the 'clear choice', huh?)

THE SHOWDOWN LETTER

Herald & Review and St. Mary's Showdown!

I received the above letter that my St. Mary's employee friend gave me outlining a "discussion" between anyone who works at St. Mary's (employees, staff, physicians, whoever) and Todd Nelson, Publisher of the H&R, and Gary Sawyer, Editor of the H&R. The meeting is to take place at St. Mary's in the Forum at 10:00am and another at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, September 21, 2005.

Perhaps the long list of cancellations of subscriptions to the H&R from St. Mary's employees and the fact that St. Mary's buys copies of USA Today for all of it's patients may have provided some motivation for the H&R to smooth things over.

I wonder how many DMH-employed doctors will show up to this. Oh wait, they don't go to St. Mary's anymore. I forgot. All of their patients have been abandoned, and must be taken care of by other physicians.

Wow...just like it's going to be soon at DMH!

SSDD

As most already know, DMH's picture pages have been recycled and the same propaganda has been spewed forth into our mailboxes the past few days.

The same line of bull, but now they "explain" the hospitalists to us. I fail to see how doctors that do NOT know me or my family can "seamlessly" pick up the case and do any better of a job than my OWN doctor!! I'm not sure about Drs. Yu and Satyadev, but the other two "specially trained hospitalists" are NOT hospitalists at all!

Dr. Neviackas is a NEPHROLOGIST, and NOT a hospitalist! Many Staley employees and retirees may remember him from when he was the company doctor! This guy hasn't taken care of a NON-NEPHROLOGY case in years, and yet people are going to put their trust in him?!?! He did NOT graduate from a hospitalist residency, and he's reportedly got the worst bedside manner of any doctor in town!...and he's supposed to be the example for DMH?

Dr. Holder is a cancer doctor who recently took up addiction medicine. Although he has seen more "regular" patients than Dr. Neviackas, he still is not a physician trained to be any better than MY OWN DOCTOR!

If I were a DMH-employed family practice doctor in Decatur, I WOULD BE OFFENDED THAT DMH THINKS THESE GUYS ARE BETTER THAN ME AT TAKING CARE OF MY OWN PATIENTS!!!!

If I were a patient of a DMH-employed family doctor I WOULD BE OFFENDED THAT DMH IS FORCING ME TO SEE STRANGERS (NOT COVERING DOCS, BUT PEOPLE MY DOCTOR DOES NOT REALLY KNOW!!) TO TAKE CARE OF ME OR MY FAMILY IF WE WOULD HAPPEN TO GET HOSPITALIZED!!

And now, if any of my kids went to these DMH-owned family doctors, THEN MY KIDS WOULD BE FORCED TO SEE RESIDENTS, DOCTORS THAT HAVEN'T EVEN COMPLETED THEIR TRAINING YET!! If I were a patient of doctors at the residency, that would be different; I would know ahead of time what was coming. BUT IF I SELECT MY FAMILY PHYSICIAN, I EXPECT MY DOCTOR TO BE THERE WHEN I NEED HIM, ESPECIALLY WITH MY KIDS!!

Ken Smithmier having "crazy" ideas is NOT new. Calling everything an "institute" does not convince ANYONE that Decatur is the Mecca for medicine, believe me. And the "progressive, ground-breaking" alternative medicine clinic with Dr. Sharon Collins is really going gangbusters, isn't it? Yeah, we need another crazy idea in Decatur like we need another Walgreens!

But all this doesn't matter to Mr. Smithmier. He only cares about money and power. "The best way to control the doctors is to OWN them."--sound familiar? Look at his million dollar home, and his pathetic advertising campaigns that he tries to run to get people to buy in to his fantasy.

Your time is short, DMH administration. When you're carted off to jail, REAL MEDICINE will still be around Decatur. But it will probably be mostly on the other side of town.

Blogdecatur DMH posts taking off

Many anonymous posters (and even one registered poster who calls him/herself "Anonymous") are posting to Blogdecatur on one of many DMH scandal threads started.

Go to Blogdecatur.

Click on the link for a DMH scandal thread.

Click on "Comments".

Write what you want. If you're a registered user, you can enter your username/password. *If you want to remain anonymous, then leave these fields blank.*

Current topics include hospitalists, cyber-anger, and DMH's financial health.

And so far, no sign of ALLCAPSWEINEE...so far.