Thursday, December 21, 2006

Re-Gifted...(quotes)....1/5


Thought I'd decorate the tree, so to speak, with a few choice ones.

"We are attracted to Essent because its hospitals are financially sound(????) and provide essential, high quality(????) care to the residents of the communities they serve," said James L. Elrod Jr., managing director with Vestar's New York office."Essent's business model is consistent with our investing strategy. We are particularly excited about becoming partners with Hud Connery and his management team."
These are the folks that Hud and bud put on their little show for at the Med Staff meeting so long ago. They're also the ones that chipped in $80M for investment. That's why Hud made such a fuss about RRVR taking a fee from the hospital (false), and why he was adament on getting rid of them. Kind of a Hitleristic approach, might one say? One might. His version of the "big lie".

But, it served two purposes: Tarnish the reputation of RRVR, and allay the investor's fears...making them feel that profits would be up $1.2M (what they were supposedly paying the Radiologists to read films.)

So comes a lesson, of sorts. Just plugging in money to the wrong thing does not success guaranty:
We’ve made significant investments in Crossroads over the past five years, including the construction of three medical office buildings, renovations to the emergency room, and a new 3,000 square-foot outpatient physical therapy facility,” said Bill Heburn, executive vice president, operations, Essent Healthcare. “Despite these significant investments, Crossroads posted a positive operating income only one year out of the five we’ve owned it."

After that, Bill's future was made...or un-made.

Rule Number 1: Never make Hud look bad or laugh at him or contradict him in front of someone. Heads will roll.

One also might wonder about Hal Andrews, and how he disapeared so fast: Apparently he and Hud had rehearsed some song and dance for the Essent board about something. Well, Hal inadvertantly said something that embarrassed Hud in front of the board, (according to HUD , himself) and the next thing Hal knew, he was fired. (Rule #1)

So, Rule Number 2 for PRMC execs: You serve at the pleasure of Hud. It could be that Drew's statement in support of Tony Williams will be imortalized here as well....frank

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't believe all this fuss over a guy named after a fairy, er..ah..ferry. ;)

fac_p said...

I do want to thank all of you for your support. It looks like we'll hit close to 100k hits by the end of the year...not bad for 11 months in a population base of 25k.

Obviously we are playing to a bigger audience, with a bigger message: We're not going to take it!

As long as Hud and his crew run over the personnel and patients that depend on these hospitals, there will be a paris-site. There are too many instances of abuse to let things lay.

They would rather be operating in an isolated environment...far from prying eyes, but healthcare can't afford that, and neither can we.

Maybe we won't need to have another 100k hits this next year, but until the story goes away, the band plays on....frank

Anonymous said...

When Essent took over, they (Essent) had painted a picture of opportunity and rewards for those employees who chose to remain with the hospital. Indeed, Essent seemed synonymous with Ascent.

However,as the months rolled on, it soon became clear that Essent was rapidly becoming synonymous with Descent! We, the employees, get evaluated but not appreciated. No pay raises or at least not to all employees. Constant harassment from Cheryl-the peril-Perry with her stupid policies. A vast falling off of patient clientele and an even worse scenario of department management. There is no bright light at the end of this tunnel, boys and girls. Newly graduated students seem to be the choice to replace more experienced hospital personnel.

So, consequently, when you hear the question, "How may I help you?" In all likelihood it is a serious question, because the person asking it(employee)doesn't have a clue.

One can only guess at what is in store for '07. Probably a reduction in hospital staff due to the patient drop. How much further will we Descend?!

Huddie can't afford to let this one drop through the cracks like Crossroads did. His board (which unlike ours actually has some power), and the investors would pull the plug.

Census says that we are in a spiral down, and since Essent does short range tracking of progress, things might be a little hot in phone calls from Nashville. The same could be said about a few of the others, but not generally as publicly as we do.

There might be a light at the end of the tunnel, but I'd say it was a train....frank

Anonymous said...

Now if only Cheryl-the-peril would be sacked at least we could breathe a little easier. But then again....