The doctor and the hospital
By Patrick Kelley (Contact)
Originally published 01:17 p.m., April 28, 2008
Updated 01:17 p.m., April 28, 2008
Last week, an Emporia physician said some alarming things at a public meeting. Dr. Jim Barnett said the administration of Newman Regional Health was responsible for the loss of doctors in the community.
Barnett, who represents Emporia in the Kansas Senate, also raised questions about the quality of care at the hospital, alleging that an adversarial relationship has developed between doctors and the hospital administration.
Newman administrator Terry Lambert defended the quality of care the hospital provides and said that the hospital staff works hard and well. He said that communications and quality of care can always be improved and that the staff works continually to do that.
As it stands now, what are people to think? A respected doctor has questioned the running of the hospital — which for the public translates to questioning the safety of care at Lyon County’s only hospital. The chief of the hospital, who has shepherded it through years of growth and change, says that people have nothing to fear.
It is now a case of he said-he said, but it cannot be allowed to stay that way.
Left unaddressed, Barnett’s remarks will damage public confidence in the hospital, which is an essential resource for health care in the county. If Barnett is correct, steps must be taken to set the situation right. If he is wrong, people need to know that they can trust Newman to give them and their loved ones good care.
We would suggest that it would be helpful if other Emporia physicians would chime in quickly with their opinions of the quality of Newman Regional Health, both in its administration and the safety of the care it offers.
Doctors are often shy of the public spotlight, but the current public uncertainty about the quality of health care is bad for the medical community and the community at large. People are more likely to listen to their doctors than to any number of certification teams from outside.
If other doctors agree that there is a problem at Newman, the county and the hospital board have some work to do.
If the doctors think that Barnett’s statements are not well-founded, a statement to that effect would be tremendously reassuring to their patients.
The people of Lyon County need a second opinion.
Comments
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Posted by jayhawkers1 (anonymous) on April 28, 2008 at 2:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
First of all, yes Dr. Barnett's statements were made viciously. He even indicated that this was not only his opinion, which is a typical politicians act of evasion. He should have acted professionally, and if he had problems, tried to present them in an intelligent, not condescending, damaging manner. His loosely flung comments will affect the people of this community in a terrible way. How does he think that the doctors and nurses he works with everyday will view these accusations. It sure makes you question his ability as a doctor or a senator. Newman Regional has provided many good years of service to him and the community. They strive daily to improve patient care and help the doctors provide the best care they can to their patients. It is a continuing process with doctors, administration, nursing staff and support of all other departments to make this successful.
A disgruntled, doctor ?? senator (what am I today?) has been allowed to poison our community in a publicly printed forum with his untruthful nasty opinions. Doctor, step forward, and tell everyone what your real problem is.
Posted by gold66801 (anonymous) on April 28, 2008 at 3:17 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by Deepthoughts (anonymous) on April 28, 2008 at 5:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm not taking sides here because as many of you, I want to know more. I know the personal experiences myself and my family members have had at Newman and it's about a 50/50 shot as far as being satisfied or not. Honestly there have been great nurses and there have been nurses that in my opinion sucked (for lack of a better term). Same with doctors. Unfortunately, I think you would find that to be the case in just about any business though. Some people go above and beyond and some people are satisfied with doing the minimum amount of work possible. In a service business though - above and beyond needs to be a given, but unfortunately it is not.
My question is this and it is just something I want people to consider because it is one of the first things that popped into my head. Who stands to gain here? What did/would Dr. Barnett gain from making these accusations? What did/would Mr. Lambert gain by defending the hospital? Or perhaps the question is, who has more to lose? If other doctors come forward with complaints, would they be ostracized and/or perhaps lose business (patients)? Will Dr. Barnett gain business (patients) by making the comments he did? Either way - this may be the first time I've ever agreed with Mr. Kelley - but I think further communication between the hospital, staff and doctors must take place and common ground must be found for going forward and communicated to the public if Emporians are to feel as though they can trust the care they would receive upon a visit to NRH.
Posted by emporiateacher (anonymous) on April 28, 2008 at 9:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Before commenting, I must say that I have not read Dr. Barnett's article. I have had 2 babies at Newman and must say that the experience was more than I could have ever imagined. The nurses were awesome. They really paid attention to detail and treated me like a person not just another patient that they had to care for. The hospital provides a free and excellent lactation consultant. Many hospitals either don't offer this or offer it at a very high price. I will always choose to have my babies at Newman because of the excellent care that I have already experienced.
Posted by native_emporia (anonymous) on April 28, 2008 at 10:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I also have not read Dr. Barnett's comments, but I can state that I would not go to Newman's in an emergency situation. I also can say that it is a shame that Newman's felt the need to force the Emporia Surgical Hospital out of business. My family had major surgeries at both facilities and the quality of care at the surgical hospital put Newman's to shame. The fact that Newman's was so underhanded in the way they forced insurance companies not to add the surgical hospital as a preferred provider is a disgrace. My family has dealt with several major medical issues and each time Newman’s has failed to provide quality care.
I hope more physicians will step up and speak out along with Dr. Barnett. Maybe this will bring us the change in medical care this community deserves.
Posted by justthinkin (anonymous) on April 29, 2008 at 8:28 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by neighbor (anonymous) on April 29, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I have had good and bad experiences with Newman's and local Doctors. Most of the Nurses are great, but like any group, there are a few that are in the wrong line of work. Newmans and our Doctors have positive and negatives, but for the most part Emporia medical services are not much more than a very expensive band-aid station. Anything major happens to you, they ship you off AFTER they get their paperwork done and have sent you to each and every department they have for "tests" so they can dip into your insurance funds. When you get transferred, you get to go thru all that noise again, because they say they can't rely on Newman's reports to be accurate. I highly recommend going to Topeka or Lawrence for Ortho work. The "Sport's Doctors" here are a joke. They will openly chastise you for participating or allowing your kids to to play on sports teams. A couple of them should have stayed retired, they have personalities like a cross between a skunk and a badger.
Posted by savannah (anonymous) on April 29, 2008 at 2:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Quit bashing the doctors and get back to the subject at hand - Dr Barnetts letter.
Posted by gazette_reader (anonymous) on April 29, 2008 at 4:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'd really like to see doctors - anonymously, if need be - outline what they feel are the pros and cons about NRH.
Like many others, I can say I've had some really good and some really not-so-good experiences there. Of course, I can say that about other hospitals, too. But that's from the perspective of a patient. I am interested in what the doctors have to say, because I am concerned about the fact that don't have a lot of the kinds of doctors we frequently use - we have a shortage of OB/GYN doctors, allergy doctors, etc. Maybe, if we had a better understanding of how the doctors feel about being doctors in our community, we might be able to make some changes that will allow Emporia and Lyon County to draw new doctors to town.
Posted by armybrat (anonymous) on April 29, 2008 at 10:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
To gazette reader, Just look around the entire country. There are shortages of doctors everywhere except in the most desirable areas. I am certain attracting top notch doctors is much like attracting new businesses to a community and guess what? Emporia cant attract businesses, why doctors either?
Posted by native_emporia (anonymous) on April 30, 2008 at 5:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
justthinkin: I got the chance to read your comment before it was removed (which I am not sure what validated it's removal), you made a lot of good points.
Posted by glarson (Gwen Larson) on May 1, 2008 at 7:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Although we haven't reached the magic number of 50 comments, we're moving this discussion to a forum board. I'm doing this to keep folks from having to post twice.
The original story that sparked this editorial has closed its thread and moved to the forum, so now all the discussion can be at the same place:
http://www.emporiagazette.com/forums/ope...
Gwen Larson
Managing Editor