Posted by seakmr (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 10:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

How does the hospital propose to cut employees hours? There is already a nursing shortage in the area I work in. All this negative publicity surely is not going to have nurses breaking down doors to apply for PRN(as needed) positions that by the way make $25/hour which is more than I make an hour as a dedicated employee for 5 years!

Posted by destiny (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 11:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I worked as a dedicated employee for 13 yrs at the same job and never made it past 7.50 an hour.

Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 11:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)

The highest I ever made before starting my own business was $8.50, and that was with an Associates Degree.

Posted by gemccull (Gary McCullars) on March 1, 2008 at 11:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I will state again from another story, I do like the idea of paying tax for a facility that is for all intents and purposes off limits to me. Natchez Regional does not honor my insurance so I use Community.

One would think if a private hospital will honor my insurance then the public hospital should too.

However, I do live in Natchez and the surprises keep coming!

Posted by rushinghjr (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 11:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Everything a public body gets into financial trouble, they want a tax increase! In this case, as I have stated many times in other postings, I am against a tax increase for some poor management! As stated before, it seems like the Chairman of the Hospital Board needs to get some guts and speak up rather the attorney Brown! Quorum Management seems to have failed to some extent, but so has the Board. The "situation" has brewing for a good while! I have been involved in another location with another hospital with Quorum Management. I have some good friends with Quorum. As a taxpayer of Adams County, I feel that there needs to be aggressive management with some Board Changes also! More later as things change!

Posted by getrealnatchez (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 11:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)

The hospital administration and the hospital Board have shown us that they are incapable of managing this hospital. Instead of having closed meetings and making decisions, why can't they have an open meeting with the employees of the hospital, the doctors in the community (both employed and those in private practice), the public and try to come up with some long term solution. Knee jerk reactions and statements from closed meetings from Hospital management, in whom the public have no trust, will not make any difference. Get real Natchez Regional.

Posted by sayitloud (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Quorum’s reputation is they send hospitals into bankrupsy......I'm just saying

Posted by woodduck (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 1:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)

The board is never going to own up to it's involvement in this fiasco. They should have seen this coming for months. They fired the CFO because he was supposedly “cooking the Books”, but Wesselman who was the former CFO, and is all about numbers and figures didn’t know what was going on? Come on, there is more duplicity on that board and the top administration than meets the eye. If the Board of Supervisors wants to do the right thing, they should dissolve this board, appoint a new one with the provision that some of the present members who apparently were out of the loop, could be reappointed.

Now Walter Brown in the article this morning, has stated that he is going before the Board of Supervisors to ask for the millage increase to help bail out the hospital. I hope that the Supervisors should they agree to this decision , also includes an oversight proviso which would require the hospital board of trustees to report to the Supervisors on every decision that is even remotely financial. This is going to be a difficult decision for the Supervisors. They are going to be faced with making a decision that is certain to be very, very unpopular with the property owners in Adams County, should they approve the millage increase. On the other hand they are faced with the eminent closure of NRMC should they vote no to the millage increase. Voting no would probably kill the deal with the local banks for a “bridge” loan to help carry the hospital until tax revenues start to come in. The Supervisors are in a loose-loose situation no matter how they vote. In and attempt to avoid micromanaging the hospital, they have let the present board of trustees and administration make a real hash of things, now they are being called on to come in and clean up the mess.

Posted by getrealnatchez (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 1:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dear Woodduck, Everyone in the administration and the Board have to take resposibility. The hospital financial situation has been bad for many years. The hospital survived on loaned money for the last year. When Jack Houghton left, the CFO, who was thought to be numbers guy and a wizard was made the CEO. The man could be good in numbers, but, he has no management skills and made poor decisions and misinformed the board of the hospital situation. The Hospital Board is not involved with day to day activities of the Hospital, it relies on the CEO to give an honest feedback. The CEO and the Chairman of the Board (who thinks he owns the hospital) both of whom have no health care management experience and have made blunders. For example, we have paid our cath lab director, a radiology tech, over $130K per year for the last 4 years when compared to what St Dominic's hospital pays, where cath lab director gets paid $70K and runs 5 cath labs. The CEO Mr Wesselman said did not know about this till 2 weeks ago. Our chairman Mr Bland said last week that we did not have a cardiologist in our town and that was the reason why we had to let a cardiac nurse go. My Cardiologist, Dr Dulam, has been treating me for the last 5 years and he goes to both NRMC and NCH and the person layed off was the cathlab director, a radiology tech and not a cardiology nurse. This is how misleading and mis-informative this management is.
The bottomline is, no tax increase is a permanent solution to this problem until we change the hospital administation and bring in someone who has healthcare management experience. That's where we should be spending our time and energy. The board will always be a supervisory body. The Board has to really pay attention to where the money is coming from and where and how it is going. Don't make hasty decisions Mr Brown.

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 2:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)

You know what they need to do. SHUT IT DOWN! we don't need it, or another tax increase. Years of mismanagement at this hospital and Natchez as a whole is comming home to roost . Ask any doctor working in the mis lou and they will tell you Natchez can't support 2 hospitals ANYMORE! The city wants to keep it open Because if it closes it will be the greatest land mark of mismanagement and not taking care of business. These idiots would like everybody to think that this problem is just now happening and the taxpayer needs to help them out. If you think a bunch of runny nose kids with the cold and no insurance has caused this ,GET A LIFE WITH A BRAIN. I have been in business over 24 years in the mislou and let me tell you something like this doesn't happen overnite, or in 1 or 2 years. The writing has been on the wall for a long time at this hospital and the management , attorney, ALL OF THEM HAVE KNOWN IT, If you are in the "click" in this city it has been talked about a lot for a long time, just real quietly! The same about this " tourist industry" and when it goes south they want us to pay for it. There's not much left to go around . All these under table back room meetings is what covers this crap up from Joe citizen seeing it. And when we finally do see it it's too late. Shut it down! If my or your business was about to tank could we raise a tax to bail us out?

Posted by crf150r (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 2:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Most of the problems with Natchez Regional are people with no insurance that can't pay and don't intend to pay anything for services rendered. Of course this large debt did not happen over night and one should wonder why this hasn't been taken care of already. You can't collect money that people don't have. If you think Regional can shut down, and community can handle the patient load good luck to you if you ever have a emergency. By the way it is a known fact that everything at community cost you twice as much so keep complaining about Natchez Regional.

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 3:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)

It's a business decision, cut the hype and spin. I don't think I have read in any of the posts that it's car wreck victims and such that is overwhelming the hospital, but a bunch of people that have sick kids and not so sick kids without insurance. How many major hospitals were in Natchez in the 70's when the population was double what it is now? DUH. With the after hour clinics in the area now all we need is one. Hell, Vicksburg is much bigger than Natchez and has only 1. What's different about Natchez that needs 2? People without insurance have always been around. What you are not hearing is that the market is making a correction in Natchez as it always does in everthing. The market is tightening and somebody has got to go, Why? Because there is not enough paying customers to have 2 hospitals in the Natchez market. A blind person could see that!

Posted by RiverRat00 (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 3:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dear collegues and neighbors:

It is a fact that the OR and cath lab are not making money for NRMC now and that is 100% because of the CEO. Why is he still running the place after the decision to fire Quorum???? He essentially ran off Dr Flattmann (the towns only remaining surgeon) by refusing to meet with him to resolve some minor problems that would make doing surgery at NRMC easier. Now Dr Flattmann operates mostly at NCH and Riverpark. He fired Dr Dulam knowing that he was making more money for the hospital than any other physician there. He kept the cath lab busy most of the time. Is it any wonder Dulam moved all his caths to McComb and opened his own 64 slice CT scanner. This means NRMC's machine is vastly underused. Then Dr Rubinstein came and started using the cath lab and again was making a lot of money for the hospital - obviously he had to go as well. If only the hospital had someone competent doing their billing, they would be rolling in the dough. Now they have fired their cath lab director and moved the other cath lab personnell ( only a matter of time before they leave) - I guess this will help send all this profitable business to Riverpark which now has the only cath lab in the area. Maybe Weaselman has stock in Riverpark - that would explain his actions in firing specialists and chasing others to competing facilities.
If he is serious about being open to any options, perhaps he should swallow his pride and approach Dr. Flattmann, Dr Rubinstein, and Dr Dulam about returning to this facility. Then perhaps the OR and cath lab would again be busy and profitable and help support some of the uncompensated care the hospital is obligated to provide by virtue of being the county hospital. Even better, the interim CEO (hopefully there will be one soon) could make these overtures since he will have a clean slate.

Just a thought - does anyone have a better one?....

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 5:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Best idea, shut it down. The demise of this hospital has been by design of a lot of doctors that use to work there and would rather invest in new facilities like riverpark or their own clinics than work for an elephant like nrmc. I have worked for and know many doctors that are very abrest to the situation in Natchez, I hear the same thing from 9 out of ten of them, "Natchez is a one town hospital" you can dress it up, put blame where ever "and there is a lot of that to go to the top" but the facts are the facts, Unless there is a major epidemic, or someone poisons the water both hospitals will never come close to maxing out, there just isn't enough business for it. The place the hospital is going to make money is off of insured patients "PERIOD". That is getting harder to come by in this area will a declining population,and jobs that offer insurance like the jobs of armstrong and I.P. eras. And if you have insurance a good portion will leave the area and go to a different hospial so they won't get screwed and get faster and better service. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that one has got to go. But as always, in Natchez, Tax the people and dump money on it and it will work. Nobody wants to come forward and be man enough and say " Natchez is a one town hospital" if they did they would tee off the establisment, and get tared and feathered.

Posted by unc (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 7:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I have to wonder whyin 2008 Natchez can only support one hospital. when Jeff-Davis was built there wre 3 hospitals in town. Two of them privately owned and the state operated Natchez Charity.

Mrs Varnado owned Natchez General and Ms Hattie Bauer had the Natchez Sanatorium and both also had fully accredited RN trainiing programs.

Mrs Varnado brought coffee to every patient who was awake by 6 am. Wonder if that level of care didn't have something to do with her success?

Posted by justoneopinion (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 7:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Jeff Davis/ Natchez Regional has made millions for Adams County, why in the world do you think Humana came into the pitcure?? Because it made money and lots of it for the county. Now its time for the county to step up and help out this facility!!!

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 8:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)

No, more like you step up and pay more taxes to help out this hospital. I find it real funny that the city didn't step up and help keep I.P. or armstong going when it it was loosing money and much more was at stake. I have been in business over 23 years in Natchez and never once has a goverment official from Natchez call and say, whats going on, what can we do to make business better, how can we help make the atmospere better for business in Natchez. I don't have 100 or 200 employes, but mine make 16+ an hr and have drug cards/dental and health ins. If you can't help the small business man, how in the hell are you going to help the big ones. By the way hummana was built when natchez was at it's pinacle and before the oil bust . When you had 10,000 more people that lived here and worked for armstrong I.P. Johns manville, diamond international, they most all had health insurance cards from their employers. The jobs the people and the insurance is gone now. It's a ripple effect of loosing our best jobs and it's showing now in the health industry by them not being able to make a profit. So next time you hear someone glorify the "tourist industry" ask them to go to these big old houses and ask the yard man if has insurance through the big ole house, or go to any of the resturants and ask the waiter if who they work for offers health and dental insurance. It's a no brainer what is wrong with the hospitals and Natchez in general. IT'S BROKE! and until we get good jobs that do more than allow people to get by or survive it will only get worse. This hospital in the red is only one of the many red flags telling Natchez TO WAKE UP,CHANGE,GET OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!

Posted by sayitloud (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 9:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I'm afraid you may be right NatchezEnema.

Posted by NoWireHangers (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 9:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

As long as Natchez Regional is getting an overhaul, someone
needs to take a look at the nurses hourly wages and see the discrimination and unfair salaries that some of them are getting. I realize that nurses are paid according to their experience and specialty area but some new grads are making $4-$6 dollars more per hour than nurses who have been there for 10plus years. Also the prn(as needed) rate is $25.00 with no benefits because they are fill in nurses. There are nurses who are newly hired for full-time slots with full benefits who are making $25plus per hour. Grossly unfair and it kills morale when the full-time nurses find out about it. Terribly unfair.

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 9:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dahling why do you think it's like that there? Who do you think allows this? It's the magement. But worse than that it's the mindset. Look at the big companies that went belly up like mci and enron. Sure they chopped the head off of the ceo's but the mindset killed the companies, and it just wasn't one person that allowed the mismangement, it was a whole slew of them at the top they have to cover for ech other. Bringing in a new "talking head" at nrmc will not even come close to saving this hospital. I hate to say IT'S OVER. They will raise taxes and this will only fend off a certain death for a short while and making things tougher for Joe taxpayer. The city is more concerned about tax money this facility brings in than employees,patients, or services. get this , That is why they will raise your tax to keep open a facility that is loosing money to get it's tax! go figure!

Posted by Spinner (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 10:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Natchez Enema needs to wake up. If you think that Community can handle the full load of patients that are at both hospitals now you are WRONG!!! They don't have the beds to accomodate the number. I have worked at both hospitals and I can tell you Regional has more caring staff and better care than you will ever receive there. So good luck to you Natchez Enema when you need some care!!! There won't be any room for you over there.

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 10:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Well I hate hummana also, I have had my insurance bilked there enough, I will never go back there by choice, only if I am out and in an abulance will you catch me there. If nrmc closes everything will be fine. We could get more help from the goverment but since we have 2 hospitals Like we are bigger than Vicksburg or something we get less than most towns our size with 1 hospital. Shut it down and rent 1/2 of it out to doctors the other 1/2 make it a charity center payed for by the goverment, ha

Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 10:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Well all I hear about is a bunch of sick kids or not so sick kids without insurance is what is killing the hospital. Is nrmc beds all full right NOW? Or is it the emergency room is full with a doctor handing out benyldril and aspirin to people with no insurance, that doesn't break a hospital. When was the last time that nrmc had a full load of patients. If humanna's er was full of screaming sick kids with no ins, and a severe car wreck victim came in who do you think would wait or be put to the front of the line. First you have to have a demand for 2 hospitals/ spinner are you telling me there is a demand for 2 hospitals in Natchez? I think not. I would rather have 1 hospital that was banging busy than 2 that was at 1/2 steam . That way it would be more profit to offer better pay to doctors and nurses, and need be it by demand, expand after the market allows it. Look at nrmc, it's a disgrace (not the people) but as a business model. They have big contruction signs, add here, spend there mentality, and the whole time telling people of Natchez they were making a profit. How dare them now say ooops, we have mismanaged, over spent, over expanded, and worst of all LIED, and we need to raise your taxes to survive. Show me a study they didn't come up with that demands 2 hospitals for Natchez before you raise my taxes!

Posted by Rhino (anonymous) on March 1, 2008 at 11:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Well, this is truley ashame. I don't won't taxs raised anymore than anyone else but what choice do we have? I know I don't want HMA running the city's healthcare. It's either pay some tax or pay HMA's outragious premiums. Natchez Community was the most expensive Hospital in Mississippi in 2005 and I doubt it's changed. Check out the link below if you don't beleive it.
Check the link below and download the IHSP Hospital 200 report 2005 and scroll to page 71 for most expensive Hospitals in Mississippi. You will see Natchez Community but you won't find NRMC in the list.

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/pr......

NRMC was paying the Cath Lab Director 130,000 a year. I agree that is just stupid. He is only a X-Ray tech and they make lower than most nurses.
Dulam was trying to take major profit from the hospital and wanted a percentage of each CT Heart we did with our 64 slice. Wesselman wouldn't give in and he bought his own. Rubenstein is a contract jumper. He goes where ever the money is and is a terrible surgon. I have witnessed first hand him calling in Dr. Flattmann to lead him through a basic Gallbladder surgery. He was totally incompetent and NRMC is glad to be rid of him.

Yes Flattmann is using Riverpark,NRMC, and NCH. He goes where his patients want to go and does what is best and easiest for them. Thats why he is the best surgeon we have ever had here. He cares about the patient first.

NRMC has had terrible management but we don't want HMA to lead the healthcare here. Plus NRMC is the largest employer that Natchez has left. Do we really want these people to move from our town if it closes. Natchez Community can't hold all the sick people in this town.

The only way I see it is pay the tax and keep HMA from having a monoply or we will have even a bigger problem

Posted by genlee (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 12:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I say turn it all over to Community. I've met their CEO and he is a really sharp guy. They apparently know what it takes to operate a hospital. I guess they are just sitting back and laughing all the way to the bank over all this mess.

Posted by natchezgrandma (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 8:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)

As for as my family is concerned, they can close it down. I can't use it with my insurance so I do not feel I should be paying higher taxes for somethingf I am not able to use. Sure I can use it if I am willing to pay 50% our of my pocket. How can Community and Riverpark aford to take insurance that Regional can't.

Posted by justoneopinion (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 9:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Does anyone honesty think that the same problems aren't going on at Natchez Community?? They are, but the difference is that they have a large corporation to back them and fund them when they are not doing so well. Natchez Regional doesn't have that... Run Community out of town, if anyone should go it should be them!!!! The best care is at NRMC!!! Natchez Community will steal your money!!

Posted by woodduck (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Rhino,
You are absolutely correct. Geoff Flattman was marginalized by Jack Houghton, over some conflicts with the move from the old Medical Arts office building. Houghton and several others were mad because Geoff refused to sign on to the new office building. The administration at NCH treated him with respect and were more than willing to help him get relocated. Several folks asked Wesselman to try to “mend fences” with Geoff Flattman. Wesselman never ever even had the courtesy of picking up the phone and asking Geoff Flattman what he could do to help. The guy is incapable of having any sort of conversation with people.

As to Dr. Dulam, the story I was told, he and Wesselman/Bland had a disagreement over his reimbursement for the 64 slice CT scanner. Dulam was called to a meeting with Wesselman and Bland.While the meeting was in progress they (Wesselman/Bland ) sent a locksmith over to Dulam’s office to change all the locks. This was allegedly so that they could retrieve some hospital owned equipment that Dulam was using. Would you blame Dulam for being angry with NRMC? I certainly don’t know the whole story, but if any of it is true, they were not operating professionally. What did they think that Dr Dulam was going to steal their equipment?
Rubenstein, along with Brownstein and Silver were all “circuit riders” looking for a big front loaded contract, not much work and a “See you later, thanks for the money!” at the end of the contract. The cath lab at NRMC will never be a “Cash cow” like it is in lots of bigger hospitals. Most cardiologists aren’t very comfortable doing Balloon angioplasties and Stents in cath labs with no cardiac surgery backup. McComb is not a reasonable or safe backup if you have problems. What you will have likely is a dead patient. In bigger hospitals, the cath lab is running 10-15 hours per day doing lots of cardiac procedures that pay well. The stuff Rubenstein was doing was peripheral vascular, he used lots of expensive disposables and the procedures took hours rather than minutes for procedures that at best didn’t have a very high reimbursement. So under the best conditions, the cath lab at NRMC would be a marginal producer at best, even with a good Cardiologist here.

Posted by NRMCnurse (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 11:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Friends,

I have lived and worked in Natchez for a long time and have never posted a blog to this site, but when I see such nonsense by supposedly knowledgeable people, being stated as truth, I have to speak out.

Dear rhino,

Since we work together, I can't believe you don't want what is best for this hospital and to keep our jobs secure.
It is amazing to me that you could be present for something and so totally unaware of what is going on. I saw the incident you mentioned and it was an extremely tough case that even Dr Flattmann was not sure could be done laparoscopically - Dr Rubenstein did the entire case laparoscopically and the patient did well.
I have also seen Dr Flattmann call in Dr Rubenstein to help him and have even seen Flattmann call Dr Schwartz (who is not as good as either Rubenstein or Flattmann) to help when he broke off a catheter in the patients heart.
Surgeons are frequently arrogant, so to call in someone to help is the sign of maturity and keeping the patient's best interest at heart - it is not a sign of weakness or incompetence. Additionally, Dr Rubenstein was doing vascular and thoracic cases here which noone else does and this helped keep us and the anesthetists busier.
Have you been happy with our OR volumes since Dr Rubenstein left and Dr Flattmann cut back on his operating time - I haven't. We should hope the management does everything possible to get and keep surgeons here.

Woodduck - NRMC mistreated Dr Flattmann, Dr Dulam, and Dr Rubenstein and were the reason these physicians no longet do much if any work here. I am not sure about the Dulam story, but I know the story about Flattmann is true. He would rather work here but the hospital made it difficult. Dr Rubenstein is not a "contract jumper" - he tried to stay here and build up a practice but the CEO fired him for no reason. I don't know about Silverstein or Silver, but there appears to be a pattern of administration hiring epople and then not providing the resources or expertise to make them successful.

I didn't work in the cath lab, but my friend was a tech there (she surely didn't make $130,000 per year) and she said Dr Rubenstein was their salvation since he kept the lab busy and saved their jobs. Now they are working part time in other departments and looking for other jobs.
FYI - She tells me the peripheral vascular procedures pay more to the hospital than the cardiac procedures they were doing with Dr Dulam. They are more of a moneymaker even though they are tougher and take longer. Just imagine how good it would be if we had both of them back.

Instead of argueing about petty issues, we should get together and try to convince the hospital board to correct some of the misteaks our fearless (and clueless) leader has made over the past year. Maybe then our jobs will be secure and the city will have a choice of healthcare facilities. I sure don't want to have to go to NCH and will never work there.

Posted by getrealnatchez (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 1:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dear NRMCnurse, The person who made $130K was the cathlab director Mr KennyDukes who is a radiology tech. Your friend is a respiratory therapist, (god knows why a respiratory therapist was working in a cathlab) and cannot aspire to get such money. I know you have good intensions at heart. I know it hurts when our OR volume dropped. Peripheral interventions DO NOT make more money than cardiac interventions. Know your facts and by the way Dr Rubenstien was a vascular surgeon and never touches a catheter before he came to Natchez. The fact is, he went to a weekend course in Houma, LA and started to do peripheral catheter based interventions. Vascular surgeons are not trained to use catheters. The cut and operate on patients. Oh, by the way we actually ran Dr Dulum off from our cathlab because of our CEO. You are right instead of arguing the petty stuff, lets get real

Posted by woodduck (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 1:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)

NRMCnurse
Unless you are in the OR every day, you probably are just speculating like a lot of the folks here.If you don’t know who Brownstein or Silver are, you obviously haven’t been around here very long, as both of them were at NRMC in the past 3-4 years. Silver was/is a Cardiologist, Brownstein was/is a Gastroenterologist Rubenstein left because his contract was up and NRMC did not renew it. I’m sure if he had been generating the sort of revenue that you elude to, he would have gotten his contract renewed with no problems. As far as the peripheral vascular procedures, check your facts before you post. they DON'T pay anything like the Cardiac procedures. If they did, every cath lab in the world would be kicking out the invasive cardiologists and letting the peripheral vascular guys do all the work. As it is most busy cath labs, the peripheral Drs have to fight to get a time slot. Your friend was looking at the cath lab, not from revenue producing perspective, but an hours generated perspective. The more hours they worked, the greater their job security. I don’t blame her for that, but let’s don’t get revenue and hours mixed up. Medicare and increasingly private insurers pay on the basis of the procedure or DRG (Diagnosis related Group) It’s a lump sum, no matter whether or not you do a Lap Cholecystectomy in 30 minutes or 3 hours, the payment is the same. If you do a peripheral run-off in the cath lab and take 1 hour or 4 hours, the revenue is the same. If you use one catheter in one hour, probably will make a little, if it takes 4 hours and you use 4-5 catheters, well, you are probably in the red. Also you are burning up lab time, personnel hours, etc. How many hours of overtime were generated in the cath lab that were uncompensated?

That’s all I have to say on the cath lab. It was a mistake, along with a whole lot of other mistakes that were made over the past few years. NRMC has been making the same mistakes over and over for many years. I worked at NCH years ago, and the administration at NCH was ecstatic every time NRMC made a decision, because they knew historically, it would be wrong!! But you know, this is all history. We can argue ad nauseum , about what went wrong. That isn’t going to fix a thing. We need to come up with some real solutions to fix the problem, or another large building in Natchez will be dark at night i.e I.P (Now gone) Armstrong and Johns Manville. All large monuments to changing times and our inability to change with them. We better wake up and wake up fast, or we will all be filling our cars with 4.00 a gallon gas to visit our Dr in Baton Rouge or Jackson. And you dear Nurse will be moving or commuting out of town to find a decent Nursing position.

Posted by ntztransplant17 (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 2:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I must say that I am surprised at some of the "revelations" by NRMC employees that should be of a confidential nature. Unless you were physically present to witness these "events" with regard to Flattmann, Rubenstein, Dulam, Brownstein and Silver, or in a position to be involved with the hiring, firing and negotiations, you may not know what you're talking about.......and, if you were present that means that you are evidently in a rather high position at the hospital and, again, should keep confidential information confidential. Just because you think you know something doesn't necessarily mean you should share it, but that's just my opinion (everyone has one). By the way, I do know that some of the "tales" posted are inaccurate, but I will certainly not go into details.

The best idea I have read on these posts is that both hospitals need to be owned by one entity and merged to run as one facility. Hopefully, that entity would NOT be HMA because Natchez CANNOT afford their prices.

Posted by getrealnatchez (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 3:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dear ntztransplant17, please keep it very confidential where you are going to transplant when NRMC closes. Get Real.

Posted by catahoulatransplant (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 4:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)

NRMC has a great ER. The problem most people have is that they dont understand that the er is not first come first serve. The nurses spend hours studying to become nurses and to be able to triage and determine who needs to be seen first. For the ones of you who dont know this area has a high volume of DRUG SEEKERS. On top of trying to take care for truly sick people they have to spend there time trying to figure out who is there trying to get DRUGS. If you are not happy with how long it takes you to see a doctor maybe look around the waiting room at all the people who really arent sick and you will know why you have been there four hours and havent been seen yet. Oh yeah by the way the staff in the er of nrmc save lives everyday just like community. What would happen to those lives if you take it away???

Posted by NatchezPhiliac (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 8:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)

How much wood would a woodduck duck if a woodduck knew what it was talking about??????

I work here and suport my family on this meager salary. If you care about this place, try to be part of the solution and not more of the problem. If you knew as much about the inside workings of NRMC as you claim, you would have to be in administration - then you really are part of the problem. If not, you are just speculating and putting together pieces of rumors like most of the other posters here. Please tell us exactly what peripheral procedures and cardiac procedures pay the hospital and what their DRG/CPT codes are or shut up about it.
Getreal, don't claim to know what doctors or other employees make or what their training is unless you have seen their contracts and CV's - if you have, please let us know how you are privvy to such info.
Ntztransplant17 has it right - don't poison the community with your half - truths and misinformation. If you have real info, support it with documentation.

The hospital is very important to this community and I would hate to see what this city looks like a year from now if it closes. A lot of people will die unnecessarily due to lack of access. The board needs to step in and stabilize things this week and then see what they can do to bring doctors back to this hospital. If not, Riverpark may be the only option for people with money and long distance travel for those who don't have insurance.

If I lose my job, as much as it pains me, I am out of here. I love this place and wanted to raise my family here, but there is no future in this city if NRMC closes. Please only post here if you have real ideas and solutions of if you claim to have actual knowledge, let us know how you found this info.

Posted by soccermom (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 9:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I agree with ntztransplant17, that if you weren't present during these events involving various doctors and the hospital administration, then you shouldn't be spreading rumors about what happened, as that is all they are, unless you were there. I've known Jeff Wesselman since he arrived in Natchez and he is a man of honor and integrity. I'm sure he has made mistakes while serving as CEO. I'm sure each of you has made mistakes during your career also. We all have. I know he has tried to do the best job he could do and bring money into the hospital, bring new doctors to town and keep the board happy. I've worked in the medical field also and that's not always easy to do. Most doctors have over-inflated egos and are not easy to deal with. I moved to Natchez in 2001 and the hospital was in financial trouble then too. It has been for many years, so the current CEO didn't create these problems, he just tried to solve them. Remember, there are always two sides to every story and Mr. Wesselman is not going to disclose confidential information about doctors and their contracts, which is as it should be. Would you want him posting information about you on this website? Try giving him and others constructive ideas about what to do to help the hospital, since a lot of you work there, instead of just criticizing everything he does.

Posted by getrealnatchez (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 9:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I have given contructive ideas in all my posting thoroughout this week. If you feel that their in no element of truth in our postings, why don't you ask the hosptial admistration if these postings are false. Then speakup. Constructive criticism does not mean silence. We do not have to substantiate every fact with a document. Unfortunately, the numbers and names had to be used to show how our hospital has been mismanaged. We all want our jobs and want NRMC to survive. So, wake up to reality and seek the truth. Get Real

Posted by ilovenatchez2 (anonymous) on March 2, 2008 at 10:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Democrat: Please close down the comment sections on these websites. This rumor mill does much harm to this community. These comments do not help anything other than the amount of traffic to your website and your profits.

Posted by SayItRight (anonymous) on March 3, 2008 at 3:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Doctors weigh in on one hospital idea....story in ND in 2005!

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2005...

Posted by signmypaycheck (anonymous) on March 3, 2008 at 8:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I agree with ilovenatchez2...the comment section needs to be closed before the community loses all focus of the real issue.

Posted by EnKiKur (Marty Ellerbe) on March 3, 2008 at 8:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I disagree with both of you. The comment section is the best thing the Democrat has done since Boone came knocking way back when.

One person's opinion of the real issues is different than another's. If people can be exposed to a number of different ideas, perhaps on their own they will modify their previously held ideas. It is not good to have just one set of ideas published claiming to be what the public thinks and what is best for the public.

Posted by signmypaycheck (anonymous) on March 3, 2008 at 8:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)

i totally agree that the public needs to know the real issues. Mudslinging, however only diverts attention to other areas (ie breaking off instruments in someone's heart) Please....you've got great and horrible in every field, in every facility, in everything. If a physician is negligent, they need to be delt with, yes but we are talking about the financial condition of NRMC. The public has always deserved to understand better our hospital. Maybe more people should be asking the question, how the ones that are our set of "checks and balances" have let this go on...and on.....and on..... The employees hands are tied. The employees have been frustrated knowing for years that Quorum should have long been out of there....so, if the employees knew it, doesn't it make you wonder why NO ONE ELSE KNEW IT?!?! HHMMMMM!

Posted by priya (anonymous) on March 3, 2008 at 10:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I for one wants Natchez hospital to stay, and if our community is getting older we might need another hospital. can we afford it? I dont think so. I think a hospital on the river front would be pretty and sooner or later all these fancy motels will be nursing homes. Im just trying to figure out who will be the nurses and doctors to take care of the shortage. When all the elderly cant take care of themselves. If i cant manage my money right should i be able to raise taxes.?!? to support bills I cant pay?!?

Posted by tellmestraight (anonymous) on March 3, 2008 at 8:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Well, so much for NRMC learning from their mistakes! After getting themselves
up to their (excuse me, our) eyeballs in debt, guess what they have done! Well,
gone right out and signed a contract with another physician! Yes, folks, that's
right! With their backs up against the preverbial wall they went right out and
did it again! This time it's a cardiologist in his 50s who just happened to be
in town today. If it weren't in our little community it would be laughable.
Instead it screams of the gross incompetance of our esteemed hospital board.
Rather than utilizing the services of the cardiologist already in practice here,
they just couldn't resist the urge to go out and spend more money that they
(excuse me again, we) don't have! Just how long do you think he might stick
around? Long enough to complete his contract and collect those nice paychecks
for just being in town? What about the patients
Regional manages to funnel into his practice? What happens to them when he's
done his time here and moves on to the next town with a fat yearly contract?
It's one thing to buy out practices of established physicians, at least you are
relatively assured they'll be around for some time. With an older, out of town
doc, there's no reason to believe he'll stay here long enough to unpack his
diplomas, much less put down roots! You know the old saying "you can't teach an
old dog new tricks", well, I guess our old dogs can't get even get their old
tricks right.

Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on March 3, 2008 at 8:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I had heard that yesterday, but since the person who told me only overheard a conversation I wasn't willing to say anything. Does anyone else also find it ironic that NRMC's ads are still running on this web site, on the front page, and also in the paper copy of the ND? Now how much money does that cost, and do we really need an ad to let us know about the hospital?

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on March 4, 2008 at 9:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Someone up above posted that when Regional was built, there were 3 other hospitals in Natchez...I guess we know now why they closed! When Community was first built, I thought then, that there wasn't enough patients for 2 hospitals, but it seems to have held steady for many years. Natchez Regional was one of the first places I ever worked. I made about $1/hr, lol. I really hate to see the old girl shut down. I like both hospitals and have no complaints to add here. It seems to me that Regional would be the better of the two hospitals to keep open, if this area can't support two hospitals. Regional is much larger and would provide more hospital rooms, while Community could be turned into a much needed mental hospital and drug rehabilitation center.

Dangyankee, please inform your friend that many folks who worked at IP made about $5 more than the $17 or $18/hr that he begrudged them for making, while others did make that and less. The ones that stuck around here make less than that now, however...so, I hope your friend is happy, because our bills didn't decrease like our paychecks.

Posted by mropinion (anonymous) on March 5, 2008 at 12:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Evidently there are a few people out there who really do know everything. What people make, who was fired, and other details that a good person wouldn't gossip about. For the record, peripheral vascular and cardiac procedures done in the cath lab should be extremely profitable as well as helpful to the people that need them. I do know the codes and reimbursements, average salaries, requirements for personnel, etc when referring to the cath lab. It takes more than "just an x-ray tech" to make a program profitable. It takes experience. A lot of experience. It takes money to bring experience to a town that has been struggling in more ways than one. Yes, NRMC has some serious issues. It must now make some very serious decisions. For instance, should we give up? Should we remain "Mayberry Like"? No. We should fight for what the people of this community need. I for one do not want to have to go more than an hour for emergency treatment for the leading cause of death in this region. Cardiac Disease. We must fight for our hospital. For the department director that continues to mention names, stop. You are only hurting others with your so called knowledge. It is your type of thinking that has probably spawned much of the fear and hatred that others try so hard to avoid.

Posted by toosweet23 (anonymous) on March 8, 2008 at 2 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I did not read all of these comments, because they were just too much. However, I would take NRMC over Ntz community anyday. The nurses are very nice and professional. Dr. flattman did a surgical procedure and I could not met a nicer down to earth person. I have been to the community 's ER several times and I mean several, the nurses are fine, but the doctors on call are ridiculous. They talk to you like dogs. One in particular told me that U was only coming there for drugs, and he also told me to take two aspirins and call him in the morning, and then laughed very evil. I have heard this same doctor tell an elderly woman that she was there for drugs, she just cried, he also told another patient that she had just about wore her welcome out. He is the rudest man I know. What makes it so bad, the nurses hear everything he says, and they just don't say anything. I know this is going to get deleted but the doctor I am talking about is Dr Wheeler or Wheelis or something. He has no right being in that profession, but I promise you one day he will reap what he sow. Why everytime you pick up the paper, the community hospital has several openings, why is the turn over so frequent.