🚀 go-pugleaf

Being a Tampa resident and a frequent news reader (and former newspaper
reporter and editor) I was really glad to get out of town to visit my old
homestead here in north-central Alabama. I was sick and tired of the herd
journalism and shark frenzy concerning UCH.

Did anyone make news about GHAA's Childhood Immunization program and
managed care groups implementing this program in the Bay area? Hell no.
This bad news was too good to pass up. Front page, every day. Made me turn
to the OJ stories.

This is symptomatic of the worst in journalism. I don't think it serves
too many purposes to rake the UCH system over the coals because it could
never be as bad as it appears in the press, and it was never as good as
the PR people there portrayed it.

Yes, the lapses in care that were "found out" were tragic. It created a
new victim class in Tampa. Death and Dismemberment at a Discount was the
running joke again. Still, people with UCH badges and name tags started
taking them off in the supermarkets even though by and large, the staff is
probably as good as most hospitals.

Seems to me, the investigators will fulfill their mission -- or rather
fulfill the prophecy that sends them in to investigate -- and identify
something terribly wrong. I wonder how often mistakes the dreadful two
weeks at UCH DON'T get into the press? Probably more often than folks
think. And that makes the herd sensationalism worser and worser.... :-)

Seems to me, blame HAS to be laid out like a carpet bomb or dissected like
a smart bomb planning raid.... else the press gods on Mt. Olympus will
harrange and harrange until all makes sense again. Well, I tire quickly on
the ol' soapbox!

Gads, was pollen always this bad in Alabama? Don't remember a year like
this one in a looonnng time!

In article <3mqdgk$sv5@ionews.io.org>, ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) wrote:

> Here is a press release from the American Nurses Association.
> I downloaded the press release from the U.S. Newswire BBS
> in Maryland at (410) 363-0834.
> I do not work for or belong to the association.
> 
> 
>  American Nurses Association Points to Investigators Findings that
> Cite Staffing Problems as Cause of Florida Hospital's Errors
> 
>  Contact: Joan Meehan, 202-651-7020 or Sara Foer, 202-651-7023,
>           both of the American Nurses Association
> 
>    WASHINGTON, April 11  -- Investigators' findings that
> staffing problems contributed to errors where one patient died
> and another lost a limb at a Florida hospital are not a surprise,
> but a tragic confirmation of nurses' fears about deteriorating
> safety and quality conditions in some hospitals, said the American
> Nurses Association (ANA).
>    "How many people have to suffer?  How many people have to die or
> be maimed needlessly before we address this crisis of declining
> safety and quality in our health care system?" said ANA President
> Virginia Trotter Betts, J.D., M.S.N., R.N.
.......deleted to 30 to save space   :-)
> 
> 
> -- 
> Nigel Allen          ndallen@io.org

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