Sunday, December 14, 2008

30-50-80?....1/24

Well, I've heard the whispers...one person said 30 were being let go, another 50, and just now: 80. The hospital is rife with rumors...and all based on the point of view.

It's sort of like the economy: When it's your neighbor that's out of a job, it's a recession. When it's you without the job, it's a depression.

Somehow I don't think that I would get much of an answer if I called and asked for an exclusive. However, you'd think that instead of running a winter fluff piece, the Snooze would ask Essent for the real scoop. No one with eyes has any doubts that we've had slick conditions and freezing rain. Finding out what is in store for community health would seem to be more appropriate.

Possibly asking Dux as he returns from Valhalla...?

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nashoba Valley Medical Center has to cut 1 million dollars from the budget. Layoffs have already started.

Anonymous said...

Frank.
I heard today that 80 people were canned from PRMC. Supposedly they found out when they opened their check envelopes.

I also heard it wasn't new hires that were let go, but those with an "attitude."

What's their definition of an attitude? Smoking in the restroom? Reading the blog? Another good question for the Snooze....frank

Anonymous said...

The next piece of hard news the Snooze does about the hospital will be the FIRST piece- the J-school dropouts out on the East Loop don't believe in investigative journalism, unless it's ferreting out a secret barbecue recipe.

Essent's definition of attitude must be "someone who doesn't kiss our a$$ without question".

Anonymous said...

Sharon Hospital has been "eliminatining positions since Feburary.

Anonymous said...

Merrimack Valley Hospital has been
eliminatining positions since July 2008.

Anonymous said...

What about department managers having to take a 10% pay decrease. Also, everything is supposedly moving north within two weeks.

Anonymous said...

why dosent Mr Ducks, Connie M., Rita C, Ken M, Jason P, and all the other ducklings follow suit with the Big 3 from Detroit and accept the $1.00/ year pay that would probally save hospital several Millions,

fac_p said...

If you saw the article in the Snooze, Dux says the move in on schedule--but they can't move the rehab for a year....

Where are they going to put these acute beds?

So, clinical and support are free to move, just not the patients?

Do they ever listen to themselves?

Anonymous said...

So duck says the hospital is in the black, but e$$ent itself reports thet are in the red on AHD.com . Cmon duck boy get you lies straight or at least try to make you lies easier to believe and harder to disprove. Dumbass

Anonymous said...

If things are so good, why the layoffs, and salary cuts?????

Why does the feeling abound that the hospital is hanging by its fingernails????

Why did Nashville on high call the boys together to give them one last shot?????

Anonymous said...

as prmc continues on its course of self destruction, paris and area citizens are left with a disturbing lack of access to adequate health care services. frank and others -- what are our options here? have there ever been offers from, say, baylor, presbyterian, or ETMC to purchase our hospital? what in the world will we do for medical treatment here locally when essent totally fails....as it surely will?

Anonymous said...

Will someone explain to me how sending Dubuis and rehab South and moving all of South's services North is going to change anything? They will still have to staff for two campuses!! Changing locales hardly makes sense. But then when did they ever??
Heard an interesting rumor...seems someone (Duckers?) stated during a business meeting about the layoffs that the 44 employees being laidoff were "necessary terrorists". Necessary in that they were needed for their skills/services but "terrorists" in their attitudes towards the hospital and administration. For someone so sensitive to criticism from the blog Essent sure doesn't mind dishing out a little slander towards its own employees. It would be funny if the 44 tried a class action suit against the hospital!!!!

Anonymous said...

MVH layoffs went out last week. Could they have timed it any worse? Senior management at MVH does not care about their employees. They only care about themselves. Hopefully the incompetence Directors received pink slips not the hard workers.

Anonymous said...

Sharon Hospital just laid-off 9 workers. Including the radiology director, who was the best director in the entire hospital. Apparently, the director was one of those people who was extremely competent and professional in her role and who consistently pointed out areas of concerns, as well as areas that needed improvement to her superiors. The administration 'team' at Sharon is a complete joke, they have absolutely no idea how to manage or run a hospital efficiently.

Anonymous said...

If Sharon is carrying the whole company, and Sharon is having problems, where does that put the rest of Essent??????

Anonymous said...

Sharon Hospital just laid-off 9 workers. Including the radiology director, who was the best director in the entire hospital. That's the difference between Sharon and MVH. Mr. Collins keeps the incompetent director (because they all report to him). He doesn't want mamagement the can consistently pointed out areas of concerns, as well as areas that needed improvement.

Anonymous said...

Well that sounds like PRMC. They requested Barbara Butler to resign and she was doing a great job. Can't keep anyone who does good work now can we?

Anonymous said...

The Snooze's last editorial telling the masses to support the local hospital is the usual J-school dropout garbage. Doesn't Mary Madewell have an original thought, or is she so deep in Essent's (hip pocket) she parrots everything they say?

It's easy for the local fishwrap to make swipes at those who question PRMC and Essent's practices- it's another thing entirely for them to do a little investigative journalism. The Snooze has niether the intelligence nor the stones to do it.

Anonymous said...

It is hilarious to me, as a former employee to hear all this! I feel so bad for those that lost their jobs and I know a couple of them personally!

Now, back when they were rushing around doing all that remodeling of the cafeteria on North to turn it into rehab, they were still touting the 'move' to North, however, where was the forethought about feeding all these patients and staff once the 'move' happened? Now, they are once again (is it every 4 months? LOL) in panic and hurry up and construct something that resembles something useful mode! Are they going to put the cafeteria on the 4th floor so you have to go downstairs to the kitchen to get your food, then let it get cold while you find your seat upstairs? LOL

I'm sorry, but just about everything this administration has done to the once GREAT TO WORK FOR Hospitals in Paris has dumbfounded me! I don't do admin, or major planing, but even I could have seen some of these things backfiring as they have, and probably will. I still have family in Paris and I hate to know and worry about the quality of care they get now! :(

Anonymous said...

This has been a great shock to me and to the surrounding community. The lay off of the Radiology Director at Sharon Hospital last week has been the biggest mistake of all. Where is it going to end? I've known her for 3 years now and whenever I had a question regarding my own facility I was able to call her and without hesitation she always came up with an answer or solutin to help. I stopped in one day to see her work and she did build a wonderful department along with renovations and new equipment. Her employees must be scared. I wonder what Mr. Therrien is thinking now. Maybe he should kick himself in the a&&. What a shame.

Anonymous said...

The recent layoff of the Radiology Director at Sharon Hospital was a HUGE mistake!!!! She was one of the few directors/employees that truly cared about the facility, its patients and most importantly its/her employees.

She built a digital radiology department that afforded smooth workflow, efficiency and unparalleled quality and compliance. She would accept only the highest quality images from her staff and expected the same from the radiologists. She developed new services, built an amazing outpatient center and set the standard that others tried to aspire to.

The facility has not been the same since last Monday and it may never be again. There seems to be a black cloud hanging over the facility that is too heavy to lift. If we continue to let people like this go, how will we ever become strong enough to weather the economic storm?

Anonymous said...

Unpaid patient bills, lead to layoffs at Haverhill hospital

What does that say for the billing department of MVH. They can't get patients to pay their bills?? So if you don't want to pay your bill and don't mind inadequate care go to MVH.

Anonymous said...

Does MVH want us to believe that the layoffs were due to patients not paying their bills? FYI: Maybe it because no one goes there!!!! Maybe it not the hospital of choice.

Anonymous said...

OK so you have a Public Relationship Director go on record and states "Unpaid patient bills, cuts to state payments lead to layoffs at Haverhill hospital" and no one got layoff from the billing department. I can understand the state payment but patient not paying their bills.

Anonymous said...

I was am emergency room patient at MVH Hospital without insurance and I was ask for a deposit before seeing a nurse or doctor in the emergency room. I needed to go back for lab work on an outpatient bases and because I had no insurance I had to pay up front with a deduction on 30%. I didn't have the money so I couldn't have the test. There must be more to the layoff like "GHOST TOWN"

Anonymous said...

The newspaper said 5 employees received pink slips. Rumor has it that it was more than 5.

Anonymous said...

Lawrence Eagle Tribume article commenting on the layoffs at MVH.
HAVERHILL, Mass. — An increase in unpaid patient bills and cuts in state Medicaid payments has led to layoffs at Merrimack Valley Hospital and put an end to its valet parking service.

Spokeswoman Mary O'Neil said five employees were laid off, while other employees saw their work hours reduced. O'Neil said the cutbacks were needed to compensate for a $250,000 reduction in state 9C Medicaid reimbursements and an increase in unpaid patient bills.

Like most hospitals in the country, O'Neil said, there has been a drop in patient volume at Merrimack Valley Hospital as compared with the prior year across all areas.

"We expect people not to pay those bills with the downturn in the economy," O'Neil said. "All of these factors led to this awful layoff."

Aside from the elimination of the valet parking service, O'Neil said patients should not notice any difference in services. She said the affected departments include rehabilitation services, volunteer services, facilities maintenance, medical records, the laboratory and the certified nursing assistants staff.

"This is us trying to get ahead of future budget problems, like everybody is doing right now," O'Neil said.

The hospital has 450 part- and full-time employees and 139 employees who work on a per-diem basis. The five who were laid off make up about 3 percent of the hospital's work force, O'Neil said.

The layoffs included a facilities maintenance worker, a worker who returned as a per-diem security guard, and a medical records worker who was hired by a doctor who has an office in the hospital's medical office building.

There was a reduction in the hours worked by some certified nursing assistants and a reduction in laboratory work hours.

To partly compensate for the loss of valet parking, the hospital has posted signs directing seniors to designated parking close to the entrance.

"Not everyone used the valet service, although for those that did I'm sure it will be missed," O'Neil said.

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Anonymous said...

I, along with an entire community, are shocked at the layoffs at Sharon hospital. Especially the director of the radiology department. She made that department what it is today. It was a serious mistake and they will pay for it. And then they put the HR director in charge of the radiology department? What? Someone who knows absolutely nothing about radiology, running it? Instead of laying off the people who actually help to keep the hospital in business, they should take a look at the radiologists that do the shoddy interpretations, causing referring physicians to send thier patients elsewhere. I think Essent needs to take a closer look at the employees and thier abilities, not so much the salaries. Gotta say, I sure am happy I don't work there anymore. Shame on you Charlie, bet you're wondering how long your paychecks will last.

Anonymous said...

As a radiology employee at Sharon Hospital, I’m left wondering does the HR Director know what MQSA stands for? What the lead equivalent is for aprons in the OR? What acceptable Alara levels are? What happens when an MRI quenches? If I had to guess….I’d say no, but I can assure you the radiology director, recently laid off, knew these things off the top of her head and how to properly manage each of them. Where does this leave us as employees? Where do we go to get answers to professional questions or regulator concerns?

Anonymous said...

As someone very close to one of the "necessary terrorists" laid off in December I have to say that Essent's main problem is ITSELF. Never has Essent made decisions with common sense, then they wonder when people are critical of the things they do.
I understand that during the physicians meeting the week before the PRMC layoffs, one doctor asked Ducks what he thought the community would think. His response was reportedly "who cares?" but in not so polite language.
Perhaps the very people laid off are the absolute right people to advise Essent in the intelligent way to salvage this mess.

Anonymous said...

Essent is going down the crapper. Good luck to the employees that are still there. I think all of you should run and find new jobs. It is only a matter of time before it all collapes. And dont think it will be ok because it wont. A day will come when you are still working and you wont get your paycheck. We all know it can happen and it will. Good luck to all and go to other facilities that have business.

Anonymous said...

The employees need to realize that Essent is going down. Some don't realize it because while you are working for Essent the adminstrator sugar coat everything.

Anonymous said...

Yes...Essent is going to collapse. Get off the Titanic before it sinks!

As a current employee of Sharon Hospital, I know I am looking for another job. The Administration team has no clue what they are doing, they continue to get rid of their best employees and keep the low performers. If Quint Studer (Studer-Group) saw some of the decisions that Charlie Therrien has made he scratch his head and say wtf are you thinking??

Good luck the rest of the employees. I know my co-workers feel the same way.

Anonymous said...

Because our nation is experiencing difficult economic times and 2008 was a very challenging year for all hospital operators—the company has determined to forego the discretionary employer matching contribution under the 401k plan for 2008 for all employees.

Sincerely,

C. Therrien and M. Browder

Anonymous said...

The below quote is the mission statement of MVH. "The Administration team has no clue what they are doing, they continue to get rid of their best employees and keep the low performers.