Residents, city officials have a lot of questions about emergency care
TARA BOZICK/REGISTER & BEE
Fran Terry, of Danville, holds her tired 3-year-old son, Christian. Terry questions if Danville Regional Medical Center has enough staff in its Emergency Department. She waited eight hours on Labor Day in hopes that her son could receive stitches before leaving for a South Boston facility, where Christian received five stitches.
One Danville woman worries about the care other mothers and children might receive at the local Emergency Department.
Fran Terry’s 3-year-old son fell and knocked his head on Labor Day. She immediately took Christian and his bleeding head to the Danville Regional Medical Center Emergency Department at about 5 p.m.
Terry held paper towels to Christian’s head, anticipating she would need to wait. She sat wondering if her son had a concussion. But after eight hours, Terry left to have a South Boston facility give her son five stitches. She waited 45 minutes there.
Terry wonders if DRMC had enough staff on hand.
“To me, that tells me there is a problem,” Terry said. “When a baby cannot get stitches, that is a problem. I hope it doesn’t happen to anybody else.”
Mike Hamilton, a maintenance worker, didn’t mind waiting 4 1/2 hours at DRMC’s Emergency Department for his five stitches. He understood there would be a wait. In the past, he’s received treatment pretty quickly. What Hamilton didn’t understand was his bill: $1,500 for five stitches.
As a single dad, he’s pressed hard to afford it and can only pay it back in monthly installments. He wonders if he should get a sign and protest rising health care costs.
“They treated me fine,” he said. “But I could have sewed it up for $1,500.”
Terry and Hamilton aren’t alone in their questions. Residents of Danville had raised questions to the mayor and City Council members over the past year about how the hospital operates.
At the request of Danville City Council, Mayor Sherman Saunders compiled a list of 10 pages of unedited questions from community members with a letter and hand-delivered them to the hospital in December 2008.
In May 2009, Saunders sent another letter and invited DRMC’s leaders to come to City Council for a chance to answer the questions.
Saunders and the City Council still haven’t heard back on the specific questions, the mayor said Wednesday.
Questions and concerns first arose when LifePoint Hospitals Inc. bought the not-for-profit hospital in June 2005.
In the past, hospital leaders had told Saunders and other community leaders that they would be happy to answer questions or concerns, Saunders added.
“We’re not trying to run the hospital. We’re not trying to tell the hospital what to do,” Saunders said. “We’re simply saying citizens want answers and would you be kind enough to answer their questions.”
Several of the community’s questions centered around staffing numbers and experience of nurses and physicians at the hospital, according to the letter. Other questions touched on how many physicians cover the Emergency Department at all times, the average Emergency Department wait time and if the hospital conducted satisfaction surveys, both for personnel and patients. A few questions touched on whether DRMC was a “community hospital.”
DRMC did host a meeting at the hospital where invited community leaders could address many issues, Chief Executive Officer Jerel Humphrey said. The hospital is committed to working with local leaders to maintain a “healthy and well-informed community through high quality care and transparency,” he added.
The hospital is looking at options of hosting more meetings with community leaders and the public, Humphrey said.
“We live here. We take care of our patients here,” Humphrey said about being a community hospital. “It’s here. It’s all local.”
Emergency rooms across the country struggle to with how to serve all patients. DRMC immediately assesses patients and life-threatening cases must come first, Humphrey said. Many patients inundating the Emergency Department seek an urgent-type care and are seen through the hospital’s Fast Track service, he said.
Humphrey admits this area’s federally designated underserved area has limited options for urgent-type care at 1 a.m.
“We continue to work on it,” Humphrey said. “That’s a national challenge.”
Some residents experienced positive results as walk-ins at the Emergency Department.
Gail Davis, a retired city employee, was seen ahead of a half-full waiting area in the DRMC Emergency Department when staff realized she was in severe pain and her blood pressure indicated she needed treatment. A month later when Davis exhibited the same symptoms, staff had her history on hand to treat her and she hasn’t had to go back since.
“They took me immediately,” Davis said. “They were friendly and accommodating.”
Carolyn Wray of Pelham, N.C., didn’t wait long either after staff noticed her body’s system was shutting down as she grew dizzy when she entered the Emergency Department in January.
“I liked the treatment I received,” Wray said. “It made me feel 100 percent better.”
City council member and Dr. Gary Miller of Cardiology Consultants of Danville said the hospital has improved from three years ago. He acknowledges the community still has animosity left over from the sale and change of management, but would like everyone to focus on the future.
“That time is past. We need to get back on the same page,” Miller said. “We need to get the community working together. DRMC is a community hospital.”
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Reader Reactions
I believe it would now be in the best interest of the citizens of Danville and the surrounding areas to form a protest group, sort of an angry mob type thing the left wing libs are tagging folks for, and initiate emergency protests to force Lifepoint to sell DRMC to Moses Cone Health Systems or Centra so that they can straighten it out and get it back to it’s former glory.
We can be named the “We’re Mad As Fire and We Aren’t Coming Here Anymore For Lousy Treatment” committee. We can appoint a sub-committee to organize an effigy effect display similar to how Tories and Tax Collectors were treated at the beginning of the American Revolution, all that hot tar and feathering, running out of town on a rail exercises, burning of hospital bills, maybe dumping administrative supplies over the side of a jon boat into the Dan, though I would really hate defiling the river like that. Any suggestions on how to include the likenesses of the group of “self importants” that sold DRMC and now have the money? Some leadership can be inserted here now. It simply has to change, and soon before an actual citizen gets hurt…,worse, than they already have been. The time for talk has passed, now it is time for action.
How could such a fine hospital, built with donations by the people of Danville be sold and and dip to such a shame and embarrasment and fearful place to go for health treatment?
My husband and I have been actively looking at property and considering moving our business to Danville….No longer..“State of Art Health Care” is important for the health conditions I have and for the people we employ…..Sad, but we have decided to take our business to North Carolina.
My cousin recently removed her Mother from her lifetime home in Danville and took her to Richmond. This decision was a result of their experiences they had at the hospital in Danville when she needed treatment.
Emergency wait time at our Sierra Vista Hospital in San Luis Obispo, CA is 5 minutes or less.
DRMC has cut staff levels so much that they can’t handle the patients they have. And go to the ER one Sat. or Sun. night and see how many people are there that truly have an emergency.
My husband was taken to the ER in 2005 unconscious. They didn’t know what was wrong with him but all his vitals were bad and they were admitting him to the ICU. That was around 5:30pm. I was told about 10pm they didn’t have an available bed in ICU until the next morning. Dr. Katlaba was there and said he would get him a room. I guess he doesn’t have much pull either because it was noon the next day before they moved him to ICU. I don’t think it was the fact they didn’t have a bed, I think it was they didn’t have the personnel to staff it. There were plenty of beds available. Lifepoint got rid of the good staff and replaced them with lower paid staff. And many of them don’t know what to do in a real emergency.
See my post under the article about the blood shortage at DRMC.
It is sad to say that we are truly stuck with what we have at DRMC until we find someone with a heart to take over.
My spouse is extremely ill. We frequent DRMC on a regular basis per my spouse’s request. Luckily due to the condition and ailments of my spouse, we generally do not have a long wait in the Waiting room but the treatment room is another story.
One good comment about our last visit to DRMC ER is that the younger blonde white male Dr. or attendee addressed every possible issue my spouse was experiencing at the given time and treated us a lot better than anyone else has in a long time while at the ER.
We visited Moorehead one evening when my spouse took ill and were seen instantly without ever having been there before.
They did not ask for money as treatment was being rendered. Money was never mentioned.
We did receive a bill a few weeks later from the Emergency Room Physician, for an entire $1.75. Yes, one dollar and seventy five cents. We reviewed the billing and itemized lists and their charges are a lot lower than DRMC.
My spouse could not have all of the necessary testing done at Moorehead but the staff was pleasant to deal with and it did not hurt our purse quite as bad to boot.
I have instructed family and friends that in the event something happens to me to fly me somewhere else. At least until something gives at Danville Regional Medical Center.
I wonder if the hospital determines who has insurance as the patient arrives and that determines the wait time. If patient has no insurance they are either no pay or slow pay
i have bcbs and they tried to collect my 1000 of the surgery a week before they even done it
This situation indeed is inexcusable. However, as stated in another comment, the public does not realize how many people frequent the emergency room for simple ailments such as a cold, sore throat and dental problems. Perhaps Lifepoint should consider placing a dentist on staff…that would alleviate probably fifteen a day of non-emergent care. Also, there are so many who come to the emergency room and use it as a primary care provider…to refill their blood pressure medicine, etc. Again, these are treatment slots that could be used for real emergencies. And of course, one doesn’t pay anything in the ED…simply have to say they have no money. Frequent visits to the ED is ongoing by some in Danville…it is as if it is a gathering spot for some…So, how does one determine care for one person and not for another????
Any one with an answer would probably be appreciated by Administration…I do know the doctors and nurses in the ED are overworked and understaffed….
A martian committing a crime!
A person who is not a citizen of this country who got here someway other than a legal way. Simple as that. If they were not here, our country would be awesome! I pray we get a leader with the courage to enforce the laws already on the books. That is what we need, the only change we need is someone who enforces ALL laws, not just pick and choose.
Ravencotage, What is an illegal alien?
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