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Hospital’s trip plan sounds solid
Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008
If the map is on the table, planning the trip gets easier.
And Natchez Regional Medical Center’s leaders seem to have the map before them, the bags packed and the car gassed up.
Now it’s just time to hit the bumpy roads ahead.
The NRMC Board of Trustees told county supervisors Monday that it has a plan in place. That plan, ultimately, includes selling the hospital.
Currently Adams County taxpayers own the financially troubled hospital. But getting it off of the county’s responsibility list could be a very good thing.
The current leadership at Regional plans to right the ship before sticking the “for sale” sign out front though.
Pothole No. 1 — The new CEO has said the plan for the future includes reducing the size of the hospital’s employee force.
Layoffs aren’t pleasant for anyone. But, if the trip is going to continue, some changes must be made.
Pothole No. 2 — A certain community stigma comes with the word bankruptcy. And even though it sounds nasty, the experts at the hospital have said bankruptcy is the best way to get to the desired destination.
The new CEO is charged with making the hospital attractive to prospective buyers. The hospital’s staff is responsible for providing quality health care to the community.
And the community is left to stay positive, recognize that this trip has an itinerary and make the best of the potholes along the way.
Comments
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on May 14, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Can you imagine how the staff feels right now not knowing who is going to get laid off Friday? God never closes one door without opening another even thought hell may be in the hallway....
Good luck to the staff...
Posted by caringrn (anonymous) on May 14, 2008 at 7:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Fire thank you for caring about the staff at NRMC. No one there seems to care. Last week was National Nurses week and was not even given a thank you for giving the best care possible even in these tryng times. I'm sure the Democrat will know all about the lay offs before the staff does.
Posted by reader (anonymous) on May 14, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Either the layoffs are made or the Hospital closes, it's as simple as that. I HATE it for the affected employees, but it is probably something that should have happened years ago. I would guarentee that most hospitals that size around the country do not have nearly the size of the staff that NRMC currently has.
Posted by Rhino (anonymous) on May 14, 2008 at 4:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Having 2 for profit hospitals will only hurt the citizens of Natchez. For profit hospitals charge lots more for services than a county owned hospital. Natchez Community was one of the top 10 most expensive hospitals in the state in 2005 according to this article and I'm sure it's only gone up. Follow this link to it and go to pages 70-71.
http://www.calnurses.org/research/pdfs/I.........
Also, the people that have the most experience only stay at Natchez Regional because of the retirement {PERS}. If it is sold the PERS will be gone and the best most experienced employees will be gone. So the city of Natchez will be left with two expensive hospitals and degraded health care. I don't think we should sell our county hospital just because of several years of bad management. The poor people won't be the only ones suffering if this happens, the whole county will suffer. Big Corporations like HMA don't care about patients. They only care how much money they make.
Call your supervisors and tell them you don't want to lose your county hospital to the money hungry corporations. They are the only ones that can keep this from happening.
Posted by Rhino (anonymous) on May 14, 2008 at 4:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
corrected link from above post....sorry
http://www.calnurses.org/research/pdfs/I...
Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on May 15, 2008 at 11:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Uh...admittedly I don't know that much about the ins and outs at Regional, but on the one hand it seems to me that selling the hospital isn't really a way to save it...most companies that are sold due to bankruptcy are absorbed by the company that buys them.
One the other hand, two for-profit hospitals competing in the same market should lower prices, not raise them unless they are in cahoots.
Where am I wrong here?
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