A lot of people wonder why the posts have dried up. It's not that there isn't anything to discuss or cuss, it's just that the discussion seems rather futile. It doesn't change.
The ER loses good staff, and they hire locums. Clinical or nursing loses staff, and locums replace them at twice or three times the cost.
The spread-out services continue to make it difficult for Essent's showplace to be truely functional.
The 401Ks go begging for a second year, but a new hospital is acquired.
When ever you ask someone that works here how things are, the first thing they do is look over their shoulder...that says a lot. (Try it sometime, you'll see what I mean.)
But, apparently the only thing we lose is customers. Paying customers, that is.
May
be it's the wave of the future, but this is a future that doesn't float my boat. I think it's about time that I plot a different course. There are enough locum jobs that don't involve Essent and provide a safe way to evaluate an employer--and an area.
There are a number of former staff that have made the move--I'll probably have mates to commiserate with. I just hate the idea of the bad guys winning...by default.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Funny Thing Happened....3/12
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Apparently the folks in Paris and Lamar County like half-a$$ed healthcare, or the ones that haven't fled elsewhere can't afford to get their healthcare needs taken care of elsewhere. I would like to think the latter is true, but I would be surprised if it was the former.
Having enjoyed the luxury of being out of that madness for several years now, I can look from a distance and see the mess Hud and Essent have made of things. Am I the only one who finds it strange that this hotshot corporation took a whole 5+ years to find another facility in a town that buys their bull? If due diligence was done, it was actually finding someone gullible enough to sell their corporate, professional and personal souls to the devil from Nashville.
All I can say is, there but for the grace of God go I.
Certainly I, along with countless others, empathize with your situation. In short – we UNDERSTAND.
We UNDERSTAND that our community hospital is now run by short-term fools with only dollar signs in their eyes.
We UNDERSTAND that many excellent employees have been replaced with rent-a-nurses with zero ties to the community.
We UNDERSTAND that it’s difficult to watch a once proud community hospital replaced by a dysfunctional quagmire from which there is sadly no return.
We UNDERSTAND that it’s trying to hear endless blatant lies bantered about like fact in a facility in which you used to trust and believe.
However, in the end UNDERSTAND that you are making the right choice.
UNDERSTAND the bulk of us have already made the difficult decision cut ties and get the hell out of Dodge.
UNDERSTAND that while most of us simply left, you had the fortitude and courage to continue to poke a fork into the belly of the beast.
UNDERSTAND that you helped spread the word to employees and patients on what was really happening under the new, shinny Essent Healthcare banner.
UNDERSTAND that we all appreciate it more than you may ever know.
Let me ask one simple question with a very telling answer. Have you ever spoken to a past employee of Essent Healthcare who wasn’t absolutely overjoyed to have left?
Now you understand.
Good luck, Frank.
You are so right!!! Things are not going to change - it isn't going to get better there. I encourage you to take the leap - leave that place!! I can tell you from personal experience - it is GREAT to be out of there!!!
9:54
Thanks, I hate to give up...you invest not only time and effort, but your gut with a hospital. It can't be 'just a job' in health care.
When your hospital...your community...goes south, you feel a large sense of loss.
I'm not sure anyone reads this blog any more, but I'll give my last 2 cents worth of commentary.
Truism: A business exists to benefit the owner, not the employee. It is what it is. The sad fact is, it seems Essent only cares about corporate earnings statements and not the people who support the business; customers and employees.
That being said, what has happened to this community is a terrible thing. Many previous posters have talked about every issue possible, offered their solutions to many, many problems only for them to fall on deaf ears. Most didn't have Harvard MBA's but had experience a degree couldn't provide.
Although Essent is reading these comments, they are much like the current administration in Washington and that is; "Full speed ahead, damn the torpedos."
It's too bad that they didn't listen to the troops on the ground. After all, it wasn't their money and prestige they were squandering, it was other peoples.
I don't know of one single person, me included, that has left that place without bitterness in their heart. It used to be such a nice place to call home. And, it was home to thousands of people in Paris and surrounding areas. Not any more.
I believe the hospital will survive, but it will take many years to regain the trust of the people in Paris and NE Texas.
RIP
heard the er is going to start making person pay a initial fee to be seen in the er starting feb 1st. wonder how long this will last?
Frank,
Sometimes you just have to get out of the mess and look at it from a distance so you can see it clearer. That, and wash all that negativity off of you.
I presently work at a for-profit facility whose corporate parent seems like a terrible bean-counter, but managed to save a hospital that was 90 days away from closing up shop. Things are turning around here, and more physicians are coming in to town. We employees are being listened to by management, and we didn't have our profit-sharing given to us all at once (which is like letting us eat our seed wheat- ask a farmer what that means). It is possible for a for-profit group to know how to do things right. Especially if it hasn't had Hud Connery's grimy claws anywhere in it.
5 years have passed since I left the area, and I too have enjoyed sticking it to the feather-brained mushwits in the front office. But after a while, even that becomes boring, and the mushwits start to ignore the poking and go back to intimidating the weaker creatures, somewhat like a cross between the pointy-headed boss from Dilbert and Josef Stalin. Were it not so tragic for the state of healthcare and the welfare of the employees, it would be hilarious to watch them in action.
Paris, I feel sorry for you. Good luck with this dog & pony show.
So since you're leaving...will we finally know who Frank is?
Jason?
Yes...the ER is going to start doing MSE, Medical Screening Exams, and if you are deemed "non-emergent" by a physician then you will be asked to pay up front. A fee for self-pay, your ER co-pay for the insured. Lots of ER's do this. This is a way to not function as a free clinic. The ER has done enough pro-bono work!
This weeds out the toothaches, earaches, the i've had a cough for 2 weeks and no i havent seen my doctor, and even the "Yes I have an appt with her peditrician this afternoon, but i thought i'd stop here and get seen quicker" type of patients.
It is NOT i repeat NOT refusal of care or treatment. Its asking to contribute to your healthcare. If I am hungry can I go into Krogers grab some lunchmeat and bread and walk out? Just because I'm hungry? This is the same principle that the ER is currently working under. There are resources in town for low income or self pay... AGAPE, and even West Paris Clinic...which is hospital owned!
If you do have a medical emergency then the ER will function as usual. Treat first.
Should I take the initiative and use my real name? For one thing, it could hurt some of my former co-workers...the "you were talking out of school" even though they didn't know what I was doing.
Second, it doesn't do well to have the reputation as a "trouble maker", even though it was the hospital that was in trouble.
As for the MSE, that should've happened years ago. Why should I be expected to work for nothing? Apparently some patients feel that way. If I wanted to work for free, I'd donate my time (I have and do.) I know its value.
But when people feel that they deserve your time and effort for free, they are indicating that you have no worth. Why is it that they were well enough to watch the entire Super Bowl, but can't wait for the doctor's office or a clinic to open the next morning.
When I find people that are trying, not just saying they're trying, I will help. But when they've made a conscious decision to buy a new car--but not pay me, I take exception. Or LCD TV. Or PS3. The hospital has to be the same way.
When someone is truly in need, that's one thing. When their life's work seems to be to get on disability for their back and yet are able to haul a 200# buck a mile back to deer camp.... My charitable nature is strained.
A person who falls off their shiney, new four wheeler, but can't pay a fee up front....sorry, and you are sorry.
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