Vote for Jim Price he’s the underdog, bow-wow!
Vote for Jim Price and your wildest dreams will come true!
Jim Price’s father worked at Highland as a Psychiatric Technician, Jim’s got public healthcare in his blood. A psych tech is real hands on in your face healthcare, it’s not some sissy ninny job that you can fake, half do or coast through. After a 30-year career as a psych tech daddy Price still has the energy to be Santa for the neighborhood kids. Alice Lai-Bitker, the incumbent county supervisor got her seat because she worked as Wilma Chan’s chief of staff. The Alameda County political machine made the decision not the voters.
Alice is “Chainsaw Charlie Plummer’s” gal. Actually I think the sheriff likes Gail Steele better, Gail’s positively passionate about prisons, but Alice is his type of chick too. Alice dresses nice and doesn’t make waves; in fact she hasn’t even made a ripple in years. She regularly gets the county supervisors Pet Rock award. The “big dog” county bureaucrats, Susan Muranishi, Dave Kears and Charlie Plummer, consider her the most easily influenced supervisor. She prefers to let them do her thinking.
So, I say cast a vote for change, leadership and the underdog, Jim Price. Hey, he could win and your wildest dreams could come true. Bow-wow!
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Monday, January 16, 2006
Go Oakland Tribune!
The Oakland Tribune printed an editorial calling for support for the medical center and political accountability. They pointed out that Cambio Healthcare Solutions left a huge mess on the CEO’s plate. They rightly pointed out that to solve problems Mr. Lassiter needs the full support of the county supervisors.
http://insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3405220
http://insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3405220
Thank You Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We need heroes and leaders and more importantly we need to live up to their hopes and dreams for us. The medical center has many people who fought with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to make this country a better place. Everyday those of us who work at the medical center benefit from their thoughtfulness, their compassion and their love. The African American, staff particularly the women, have a fierce commitment to caring and to the dream of a better country. It is their leadership and love that has taught me to be a better clinician, a better person and a better parent.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Head Games
Well, we’re in the news again. It’s a rehashing of old bad news about poor staffing at John George Psychiatric Pavilion, part of Cambio’s legacy of unsolved problems.
See, we have more seriously mentally ill patients than we are able to safely treat at John George. Dave Kears, Alameda County’s Healthcare Czar pays non-profits and the biggest for profit (not patients) mental health franchise, Telecare, to keep people sane and out of John George. When they fail they dump everyone back into the county hospital, the county supervisors then blame the medical center for not meeting their needs.
Sure, John George needs better management and more nurses, but it’s being overwhelmed because the county’s privatized mental health services are failing miserably.
We don’t have coordinated mental health services and private providers continue to fail in their mission and dump their problems into the medical center.
It is time for the county supervisors to step up to the plate and create a mental healthcare system that serves the mentally ill, as well as the corporations, which profit from their suffering.
To read the gory details click here:
http://insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3393136
See, we have more seriously mentally ill patients than we are able to safely treat at John George. Dave Kears, Alameda County’s Healthcare Czar pays non-profits and the biggest for profit (not patients) mental health franchise, Telecare, to keep people sane and out of John George. When they fail they dump everyone back into the county hospital, the county supervisors then blame the medical center for not meeting their needs.
Sure, John George needs better management and more nurses, but it’s being overwhelmed because the county’s privatized mental health services are failing miserably.
We don’t have coordinated mental health services and private providers continue to fail in their mission and dump their problems into the medical center.
It is time for the county supervisors to step up to the plate and create a mental healthcare system that serves the mentally ill, as well as the corporations, which profit from their suffering.
To read the gory details click here:
http://insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3393136
Sunday, January 08, 2006
The Year In Dirt (2005)
“Memories, like the corners of our mind, misty …”
-Some seventies song I hated
Like most medical center employees, I seldom have the time or energy for reflection but I’m told it helps, so here goes.
We started out 2005 with Cambio Healthcare Solutions at the helm of the ship (have you ever heard the expression, “ in a sinking ship with blind sailors.”) The turnaround team would fly in Tuesday through Thursday and not pay bills and attempt to cut or contract out services. They gave all the union psychiatrists at John George Pavilion two weeks notice; they had planned to contract out the mental health services to the Psychic Hotline. They implemented a 35-step process for approval of all purchase orders over fifty cents. Hospital vendors hounded department heads for unpaid bills and had begun to threaten to stop delivery on non-essential items like oxygen.
The county budget battles began early with Sheriff Plummer and the DA positioning themselves to gobble up any Measure “A” monies Plummer squeeze out of the medical center. In a well-orchestrated attempt to loot the medical center budget the sheriff, the county sups and their minions rolled out the plan. “Chainsaw” Charlie Plummer was nominated to be on the Hospital Authority Board, all of the county sups now vigorously deny having made the nomination but it happened with great fanfare and press coverage. Around the same time Grand Jury Foreman Keith Boyer, a retired Sheriff and congressman “ Pete” Stark’s son, baby Stark, released a scathing report on the medical center. The report read just like Sheriff Plummer’s many letters to the county sups about the medical center, light on facts and heavy on ideology. Coincidence or corruption, you be the judge?
Well, the unions and Vote Health couldn’t take this mess lying down. They pointed out that the appointment of the sheriff to the hospital authority was unwise, unethical and probably illegal. Politicians, especially county sups respond poorly to reason so Brad Cleveland, Kay Eisenhower and hospital employees created a flash mob. Hundreds of phone calls, faxes and emails later the sups saw the light and withdrew the nomination. Then the Hospital Authority Board in an impressive display of brains and balls wrote a response to the scathing grand jury report.
Cambio ever touting their successes spent their last months concocting a bogus budget; according to their beautifully typed presentations they had met their performance goals and cured the county hospital. The medical center even without Cambio’s lies, half-truths and excessive fees still has a much more stable future because of Measure “A” and toward the end of the year we got real executives. Wright Lassiter III has the poise and charisma of a Senator and Bill Manns doesn’t look old enough to drink but he’s super smart and he’s not work shy. He goes home from his twelve-hour days and fixes his own floors and gutters. He needs to stay off his roof in the rain; he really doesn’t want to end up in the emergency department with us cutting off his clothes.
-Some seventies song I hated
Like most medical center employees, I seldom have the time or energy for reflection but I’m told it helps, so here goes.
We started out 2005 with Cambio Healthcare Solutions at the helm of the ship (have you ever heard the expression, “ in a sinking ship with blind sailors.”) The turnaround team would fly in Tuesday through Thursday and not pay bills and attempt to cut or contract out services. They gave all the union psychiatrists at John George Pavilion two weeks notice; they had planned to contract out the mental health services to the Psychic Hotline. They implemented a 35-step process for approval of all purchase orders over fifty cents. Hospital vendors hounded department heads for unpaid bills and had begun to threaten to stop delivery on non-essential items like oxygen.
The county budget battles began early with Sheriff Plummer and the DA positioning themselves to gobble up any Measure “A” monies Plummer squeeze out of the medical center. In a well-orchestrated attempt to loot the medical center budget the sheriff, the county sups and their minions rolled out the plan. “Chainsaw” Charlie Plummer was nominated to be on the Hospital Authority Board, all of the county sups now vigorously deny having made the nomination but it happened with great fanfare and press coverage. Around the same time Grand Jury Foreman Keith Boyer, a retired Sheriff and congressman “ Pete” Stark’s son, baby Stark, released a scathing report on the medical center. The report read just like Sheriff Plummer’s many letters to the county sups about the medical center, light on facts and heavy on ideology. Coincidence or corruption, you be the judge?
Well, the unions and Vote Health couldn’t take this mess lying down. They pointed out that the appointment of the sheriff to the hospital authority was unwise, unethical and probably illegal. Politicians, especially county sups respond poorly to reason so Brad Cleveland, Kay Eisenhower and hospital employees created a flash mob. Hundreds of phone calls, faxes and emails later the sups saw the light and withdrew the nomination. Then the Hospital Authority Board in an impressive display of brains and balls wrote a response to the scathing grand jury report.
Cambio ever touting their successes spent their last months concocting a bogus budget; according to their beautifully typed presentations they had met their performance goals and cured the county hospital. The medical center even without Cambio’s lies, half-truths and excessive fees still has a much more stable future because of Measure “A” and toward the end of the year we got real executives. Wright Lassiter III has the poise and charisma of a Senator and Bill Manns doesn’t look old enough to drink but he’s super smart and he’s not work shy. He goes home from his twelve-hour days and fixes his own floors and gutters. He needs to stay off his roof in the rain; he really doesn’t want to end up in the emergency department with us cutting off his clothes.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Squirrels and Other Rodents
I have this Camellia I’ve pampered all year, it has dark green foliage and huge deep red flowers with yellow stamens. I have it in a pot in front of the living room window. I repotted it, fertilized it and loved it all year; it has huge buds, which promise to bloom in late winter early spring. The other day I looked out the living room window and the red of the petals had started to show. A squirrel ran down the Oak tree and up the camellia it pulled off a flower bud like it was picking an apple and sat on the edge of the terra cotta pot and took a huge bite. I started waving my hands and stomping my feet in the window. The squirrel turned his head slowly toward me and stuck up his middle finger.
So what about the medical center’s favorite fury friend, Dave Kears? Dave runs the Alameda County Healthcare Services Agency. So complex and confusing are the county’s budget battles and bureaucratic labyrinths that those charged with serving the county’s poor spend most of their time serving Dave Kears and fighting other organizations they should be working with, for cash and turf. Sure we have some great services but they all operate in a vacuum instead of cooperating to provide the best care. Closing the medical center and looting Measure “A” funds are top priorities for the secret squirrel: he needs more cash for brain-dead billboards, consultants and committees.
With winter here and the new executives distracted by operational issues and settling labor contracts, opportunity knocks. Kears can’t take money outright but he can attack the medical center’s credibility and bottom line. It’s a shell game; Alameda County Healthcare Services Agency makes consultants rich, gives fat contracts to political suck ups and leaves the poor, sick and confused. For years the agency has been trying and failing to get county residents enrolled in Healthy Families, a program which gives low-income families MediCal (state paid health insurance.) Tons of county residents qualify but don’t get the services because of the daunting and bureaucratic application process, and the complete and total ineptitude of Alameda County’s Health Care Service Agency.
So of course Healthy Families has flopped but Kears knows how to turn personal failure into opportunity! Kears has now mandated the cumbersome and overwhelming state application, the 1-E-Application for financial eligibility, be used at the medical center. This electronic application can then go directly to the state’s computer, decreasing the time needed to get MediCal. They haven’t worked out the technical details like software compatibility with the state, necessary middleware or how to convert all archived paper applications to the new electronic format, but in theory it’s a great idea. In practice in order for the medical center to get the MediCal a patient desperately needs and deserves, the medical center must get detailed information about the whole family. So Highland’s overworked, underpaid and under resourced eligibility clerks now have to get a translator to explain to the patient that they need their mother’s bank account records for the medical center to get them the coverage they need to get dialysis.
Imposing this application on the medical center increases the time and complexity of each financial screen and because of the huge amount of information required, it decreases the success rate for the same reason. Kears is no dummy he conceded this might be difficult so he threw the medical center some “chump change” for a couple extra, temporary, non-union clerks. See Dave’s not looking for success, he doesn’t care about the county’s poor or sick; he cares about his beloved bureaucracy. Kears plans to shift blame for Alameda County’s failure to get families the state health coverage they deserve, onto the medical center.
So what about the medical center’s favorite fury friend, Dave Kears? Dave runs the Alameda County Healthcare Services Agency. So complex and confusing are the county’s budget battles and bureaucratic labyrinths that those charged with serving the county’s poor spend most of their time serving Dave Kears and fighting other organizations they should be working with, for cash and turf. Sure we have some great services but they all operate in a vacuum instead of cooperating to provide the best care. Closing the medical center and looting Measure “A” funds are top priorities for the secret squirrel: he needs more cash for brain-dead billboards, consultants and committees.
With winter here and the new executives distracted by operational issues and settling labor contracts, opportunity knocks. Kears can’t take money outright but he can attack the medical center’s credibility and bottom line. It’s a shell game; Alameda County Healthcare Services Agency makes consultants rich, gives fat contracts to political suck ups and leaves the poor, sick and confused. For years the agency has been trying and failing to get county residents enrolled in Healthy Families, a program which gives low-income families MediCal (state paid health insurance.) Tons of county residents qualify but don’t get the services because of the daunting and bureaucratic application process, and the complete and total ineptitude of Alameda County’s Health Care Service Agency.
So of course Healthy Families has flopped but Kears knows how to turn personal failure into opportunity! Kears has now mandated the cumbersome and overwhelming state application, the 1-E-Application for financial eligibility, be used at the medical center. This electronic application can then go directly to the state’s computer, decreasing the time needed to get MediCal. They haven’t worked out the technical details like software compatibility with the state, necessary middleware or how to convert all archived paper applications to the new electronic format, but in theory it’s a great idea. In practice in order for the medical center to get the MediCal a patient desperately needs and deserves, the medical center must get detailed information about the whole family. So Highland’s overworked, underpaid and under resourced eligibility clerks now have to get a translator to explain to the patient that they need their mother’s bank account records for the medical center to get them the coverage they need to get dialysis.
Imposing this application on the medical center increases the time and complexity of each financial screen and because of the huge amount of information required, it decreases the success rate for the same reason. Kears is no dummy he conceded this might be difficult so he threw the medical center some “chump change” for a couple extra, temporary, non-union clerks. See Dave’s not looking for success, he doesn’t care about the county’s poor or sick; he cares about his beloved bureaucracy. Kears plans to shift blame for Alameda County’s failure to get families the state health coverage they deserve, onto the medical center.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Celebrate
"My friend Daniel celebrates Hanukkah. I celebrate..... sea lions."
Emma Rose Nomura Fisher (4 years old)
Emma Rose Nomura Fisher (4 years old)
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Thanksgiving
‘Tis the season to withdraw from alcohol, overdose, breakdown, or my personal favorite overeat. Don’t laugh over eating, or dietary indiscretion as we call professionals call it, lands lots of people up in the hospital. It’s the fat and salt that tips you right over into heart failure.
Isn’t that a great emphismism, dietary indiscretion, it sounds like you slept with a Danish, when actually all you did is wake up late and finish off the left over turkey, dressing, and three pies. Americans have so much wealth and so little happiness. We have so much stuff and so little security; we all need a warm safe place to go where we can be cared for.
So the hospital has filled up with people, trying to get well, to get warm or to get the help they need to die with dignity and comfort. Fear of illness and the cost of illness has become a disease onto itself here in the U.S. So people come to the hospital so sick and so frightened, and so shocked and grateful for the care we give them. The holidays provides a huge opportunity to help to heal and to comfort, it also gives those of us lucky enough to work at the medical center an up close and personal view of how hard our country has become.
The medical center, in spite of staff shortages, broken equipment, consultants, turnarounds, somersaults and frontal attacks on revenue by the Sheriff and other sundry politicians, remains a warm place. We try to give patients what they need to get well and to care for each other and patients understand that we have very few resources with which to help them but that we will do all we can with what we have.
Isn’t that a great emphismism, dietary indiscretion, it sounds like you slept with a Danish, when actually all you did is wake up late and finish off the left over turkey, dressing, and three pies. Americans have so much wealth and so little happiness. We have so much stuff and so little security; we all need a warm safe place to go where we can be cared for.
So the hospital has filled up with people, trying to get well, to get warm or to get the help they need to die with dignity and comfort. Fear of illness and the cost of illness has become a disease onto itself here in the U.S. So people come to the hospital so sick and so frightened, and so shocked and grateful for the care we give them. The holidays provides a huge opportunity to help to heal and to comfort, it also gives those of us lucky enough to work at the medical center an up close and personal view of how hard our country has become.
The medical center, in spite of staff shortages, broken equipment, consultants, turnarounds, somersaults and frontal attacks on revenue by the Sheriff and other sundry politicians, remains a warm place. We try to give patients what they need to get well and to care for each other and patients understand that we have very few resources with which to help them but that we will do all we can with what we have.
Lassiter Alert
That’s right, Wright’s out and about thanking staff for working so hard. He gets big points for noticing the hospital has filled up and backed up with really sick people. I appreciate the support, apparently he’s working days and nights while his dogs chew up his new California home. Wright Lassiter III comes from Texas where you can by a small town for what a two-bedroom house in Monclair costs you. Still, in the pit of my stomach I have a deep uneasy feeling about Mr. Lassiter. He’s nice, he’s smart he’s positive and hard working but he’s from Texas, which begs the inevitable and ominous question: is he a Dallas Cowboys fan? I can’t stand the Cowboys!
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Poets, Philosophers and Politicians
So the medical center can’t decide what to pay healthcare providers because they have yet to develop a “compensation philosophy”.
I have a liberal arts education. I read Kant, Locke, Descartes but I never heard of a compensation philosopher. The management bargaining team assures us that the executive committee considers “compensation philosophy” a top priority. I imagine them all sitting around a steamy bathhouse in white towels contemplating different philosophical positions.
Maybe our compensation philosopher has a thick beard and an old pipe and is sitting out under tree somewhere vigorously contemplating. It is unclear to me which department ACMC’s philosopher would report to. I would suggest HR, that’s the department that seems most conducive to uninterrupted thought.
Still, one ponders, if we need a philosopher, shouldn’t we have a poet. You can get a good poet at a great price in the Bay Area but I think the poet should have union protections. Well, I find it comforting to know that our executive leaders have taken up the big philosophical questions and I’m eager to learn what all this deep thinking produces.
I have a liberal arts education. I read Kant, Locke, Descartes but I never heard of a compensation philosopher. The management bargaining team assures us that the executive committee considers “compensation philosophy” a top priority. I imagine them all sitting around a steamy bathhouse in white towels contemplating different philosophical positions.
Maybe our compensation philosopher has a thick beard and an old pipe and is sitting out under tree somewhere vigorously contemplating. It is unclear to me which department ACMC’s philosopher would report to. I would suggest HR, that’s the department that seems most conducive to uninterrupted thought.
Still, one ponders, if we need a philosopher, shouldn’t we have a poet. You can get a good poet at a great price in the Bay Area but I think the poet should have union protections. Well, I find it comforting to know that our executive leaders have taken up the big philosophical questions and I’m eager to learn what all this deep thinking produces.
Ho Ho Ho
Here we go again. The medical center did get some good news, Kay Eisenhower the chair of Vote Health and Brad Cleveland (SEIU 616) both got appointed to the Measure “A” oversight committee. Supervisor Nate Miley in a fit of good judgment appointed Kay. This should slow any obvious looting and if there is any malfeasance, at least we’ll get to read about it in the Vote Health newsletter.
For anyone who doesn’t know about Vote Health they’re worth checking out, they’re a real grass roots community group. They give you big bangs for little bucks. We live in the era of polished plastic nonprofits, all fundraising all the time. Vote Health is an eclectic collection of healthcare policy super heroes. All advocacy all the time. Check them out http://www.votehealth.org/ or just send them a check.
So aside from that news about the committees, what’s happening back at the farm? Well, Wright Lassiter the 3rd, the new CEO, scored some big points with the little people for actually admitting that payroll is having some “difficulties” and saying he’d try to fix it.
For anyone who doesn’t know about Vote Health they’re worth checking out, they’re a real grass roots community group. They give you big bangs for little bucks. We live in the era of polished plastic nonprofits, all fundraising all the time. Vote Health is an eclectic collection of healthcare policy super heroes. All advocacy all the time. Check them out http://www.votehealth.org/ or just send them a check.
So aside from that news about the committees, what’s happening back at the farm? Well, Wright Lassiter the 3rd, the new CEO, scored some big points with the little people for actually admitting that payroll is having some “difficulties” and saying he’d try to fix it.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Schmooze and Booze
We have a new dynamic duo, CEO and COO. Mostly it’s been palace politics and finger food: nervous executives, administrators, middle mismanagement all sucking up while sucking down refreshments. I can’t do small talk, so at the appropriate time the Dirt and the hired help plan to invite our new leadership team to the Bedpans and Barbeque welcome party, real food, real people and real information. Cambio executives managed to spend over a year at the medical center completely unbothered by facts or the operational realities of the ACMC. They had lots of meeting with middle management about what was really going on.
By all accounts Wright Lassiter, the new CEO is well, nice. Shocking absolutely shocking! Those with enough suction around the medical center to have actually met or talked to our new leader (doctors, executives and politicians) all agree he’s “nice.” Some see this as strength others as a weakness. Personally I see kindness as a plus not a minus. Besides only people who really love the work last around Highland Hospital, ACMC’s a love it or leave it kind of job.
So, nice is nice. So along with the open invitation to the Bedpans and Barbeque welcome, the Dirt would like to offer the honorable Mr. Lassiter some humble but practical advice. Payroll you see has begun to melt down: missed checks, errors, compounding errors, manual checks and ACMC’s very own direct withdrawal (the medical center actually sucks money in and out of employees accounts). Historically the medical center refuses to acknowledge or address such problems until a lawsuit is actually filed, so this problem probably won’t come up in any committees.
Mr. Lassiter as a new hire is at considerable risk of not getting paid, since we definitely want him to stay around we’d like to offer some survival tips for new hires who want to get paid. Do not use direct deposit (it’s too dangerous), know your payroll clerk’s name and telephone number, when you receive your check run to the bank and deposit it (you never know when the medical center is going to run out of money) and always check your leave balances and deductions.
Welcome to the medical center Mr. Lassiter we’re so happy to have you.
By all accounts Wright Lassiter, the new CEO is well, nice. Shocking absolutely shocking! Those with enough suction around the medical center to have actually met or talked to our new leader (doctors, executives and politicians) all agree he’s “nice.” Some see this as strength others as a weakness. Personally I see kindness as a plus not a minus. Besides only people who really love the work last around Highland Hospital, ACMC’s a love it or leave it kind of job.
So, nice is nice. So along with the open invitation to the Bedpans and Barbeque welcome, the Dirt would like to offer the honorable Mr. Lassiter some humble but practical advice. Payroll you see has begun to melt down: missed checks, errors, compounding errors, manual checks and ACMC’s very own direct withdrawal (the medical center actually sucks money in and out of employees accounts). Historically the medical center refuses to acknowledge or address such problems until a lawsuit is actually filed, so this problem probably won’t come up in any committees.
Mr. Lassiter as a new hire is at considerable risk of not getting paid, since we definitely want him to stay around we’d like to offer some survival tips for new hires who want to get paid. Do not use direct deposit (it’s too dangerous), know your payroll clerk’s name and telephone number, when you receive your check run to the bank and deposit it (you never know when the medical center is going to run out of money) and always check your leave balances and deductions.
Welcome to the medical center Mr. Lassiter we’re so happy to have you.
Vote Out Loud !
Call or come to the Oakland Alliance Headquarter
7992 Capwell Drive (to phone bank )
(510) 569-3655
Phone Bank Times
Friday Night, Saturday all day, Sunday all day after 11:00 and Monday all day
Precinct Walk
Oakland Teamsters
70 Hegenberger Rd Suite 150
All day everyday
If these times and places don’t work for you call 569-3655 and tell them what you can do and where and they’ll get you going
7992 Capwell Drive (to phone bank )
(510) 569-3655
Phone Bank Times
Friday Night, Saturday all day, Sunday all day after 11:00 and Monday all day
Precinct Walk
Oakland Teamsters
70 Hegenberger Rd Suite 150
All day everyday
If these times and places don’t work for you call 569-3655 and tell them what you can do and where and they’ll get you going
Friday, October 28, 2005
Vote!
Dear voting friends,
November 8th would be a good day to take off work and concentrate on getting out the vote--really! If the turnout for this all-referendum/no personalities election is as low as expected, every vote that does get cast counts double--does that make sense? It's what I've heard anyway: that a big turnout in San Francisco and Alameda counties could shut down the Schwarznegger machine. Other ways to get out the vote:
1) Email all your friends
2) Put a "Vote Nov 8" sign in your window (car or house--I used one of those glow-in-the-dark markers that they sell at Halloween supply stores for drawing spider webs)
3) Phone bank (call around for where to show up: I know the unions like SEIU and CLUW have organized different nights)
4) Pull a couple of neighbors with you when you go to vote
5) Vote absentee so you don't forget to vote yourself.
----Barbara, your vote-out-loud friend
Six NOs and Two YESes (in that order) -- Barbara Selfridge's crib sheet for Tues Nov 8, 2005
73--Kill Pregnant Teens in Dysfunctional Families--NO. Did you know that Right-to-Lifers pack schools' HIV education committees and preach abstinence, born-again virginity, and that saving just one girl from premarital sex is a victory? No to the unwanted births and back alley abortions they would wish on the unsaved.
74--Blame Teachers for Under-Funded Schools--NO. To have good schools, you have to have taxes, but rather than repeal the stupid stupid cap on property taxes, Schwartznegger et al want to make the teaching vocation even less viable.
75--Silence the Labor Movement--NO. Schwartznegger wants to stop the nurses, teachers and firefighters, etc, from insisting he enforce the laws that he'd just as soon break.
76--Less Money for Schools, More Power for Republican Governors--NO. Schwartznegger hates having to negotiate a budget with the majority-Democratic legislature the damn public keeps electing. And he hates having to abide by the school spending demands of that same populace.
77--Republican Power-Grab Through Redistricting--NO. A vote for this is a vote for Tom Delay and the pro-Republican redistricting he financed in Texas.
78--Phony Prescription Drug Reform--NO. This is the pharmaceutical giants insisting that all discounts programs be voluntary, nothing that could be enforced in a court of law. Because they hate "trial lawyers”!! Yeah, right.
79--Actual Prescription Drug Reform--YES. This is the plan that would MANDATE life-saving drug discounts.
80--Use the Public Utilities Commission to Prevent Future Enrons--YES. This is supported by TURN, the great pro-consumer anti-corporate-energy organization, and would undo some of the disastrous deregulation that undid California's energy grid five years ago.
November 8th would be a good day to take off work and concentrate on getting out the vote--really! If the turnout for this all-referendum/no personalities election is as low as expected, every vote that does get cast counts double--does that make sense? It's what I've heard anyway: that a big turnout in San Francisco and Alameda counties could shut down the Schwarznegger machine. Other ways to get out the vote:
1) Email all your friends
2) Put a "Vote Nov 8" sign in your window (car or house--I used one of those glow-in-the-dark markers that they sell at Halloween supply stores for drawing spider webs)
3) Phone bank (call around for where to show up: I know the unions like SEIU and CLUW have organized different nights)
4) Pull a couple of neighbors with you when you go to vote
5) Vote absentee so you don't forget to vote yourself.
----Barbara, your vote-out-loud friend
Six NOs and Two YESes (in that order) -- Barbara Selfridge's crib sheet for Tues Nov 8, 2005
73--Kill Pregnant Teens in Dysfunctional Families--NO. Did you know that Right-to-Lifers pack schools' HIV education committees and preach abstinence, born-again virginity, and that saving just one girl from premarital sex is a victory? No to the unwanted births and back alley abortions they would wish on the unsaved.
74--Blame Teachers for Under-Funded Schools--NO. To have good schools, you have to have taxes, but rather than repeal the stupid stupid cap on property taxes, Schwartznegger et al want to make the teaching vocation even less viable.
75--Silence the Labor Movement--NO. Schwartznegger wants to stop the nurses, teachers and firefighters, etc, from insisting he enforce the laws that he'd just as soon break.
76--Less Money for Schools, More Power for Republican Governors--NO. Schwartznegger hates having to negotiate a budget with the majority-Democratic legislature the damn public keeps electing. And he hates having to abide by the school spending demands of that same populace.
77--Republican Power-Grab Through Redistricting--NO. A vote for this is a vote for Tom Delay and the pro-Republican redistricting he financed in Texas.
78--Phony Prescription Drug Reform--NO. This is the pharmaceutical giants insisting that all discounts programs be voluntary, nothing that could be enforced in a court of law. Because they hate "trial lawyers”!! Yeah, right.
79--Actual Prescription Drug Reform--YES. This is the plan that would MANDATE life-saving drug discounts.
80--Use the Public Utilities Commission to Prevent Future Enrons--YES. This is supported by TURN, the great pro-consumer anti-corporate-energy organization, and would undo some of the disastrous deregulation that undid California's energy grid five years ago.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
I’m Back
Now I tried very hard to retire. I have a full time job and more kids and pets than I can handle but those gosh darn healthcare consultants just couldn’t stop causing problems. Cambio healthcare consulting’s overpaid under-worked executives already have their plane tickets to return to the red states they came from, permanently. The medical center hired a new CEO, Wright Lassiter, things kept hobbling along, they way they do with vacant executives, but no… consultants can’t even leave gracefully. The aggressive infighting over turf, titles and the spoils of Measure “A” threatens to disrupt patient care and undermine the new CEO before he even arrives in California.
Since the medical center got occupied by consultants it has experienced out of control executive titles and salaries. We now have multiple vice presidents, none of whom were elected. Why the human resources department has four heads, a VP, a consultant/chief negotiator, and two private contractors to handle union negotiations and still they come to the negotiating table and can’t find their own memos. Other feverish executives desperate to say they have done something began implementing time clocks. This fiasco resulted in so many errors and so much confusion that SEIU had to take legal action just to get the executives to figure out what they had done.
The most alarming consultant driven mental breakdown is the secretive and paranoid behavior the Authority Board is starting to display around money and labor unions. The finance committee, misled by Supervisor Alice-Lai-Bitker’s appointee, has begun hiding numbers, refusing to share and acting fearful and mistrusting of medical center employees and concerned community members. They have become secretive, paranoid and hostile to anyone trying to get information, there is some speculation that the data just got lost.
The grapevine also says the Board also plans to undermine the new CEO by not allowing him to deal with labor unions or contract issues. This would justify keeping the four heads of human resources employed but would completely discredit the new CEO before he walked in the door. So I guess my early retirement is on hold for now.
Since the medical center got occupied by consultants it has experienced out of control executive titles and salaries. We now have multiple vice presidents, none of whom were elected. Why the human resources department has four heads, a VP, a consultant/chief negotiator, and two private contractors to handle union negotiations and still they come to the negotiating table and can’t find their own memos. Other feverish executives desperate to say they have done something began implementing time clocks. This fiasco resulted in so many errors and so much confusion that SEIU had to take legal action just to get the executives to figure out what they had done.
The most alarming consultant driven mental breakdown is the secretive and paranoid behavior the Authority Board is starting to display around money and labor unions. The finance committee, misled by Supervisor Alice-Lai-Bitker’s appointee, has begun hiding numbers, refusing to share and acting fearful and mistrusting of medical center employees and concerned community members. They have become secretive, paranoid and hostile to anyone trying to get information, there is some speculation that the data just got lost.
The grapevine also says the Board also plans to undermine the new CEO by not allowing him to deal with labor unions or contract issues. This would justify keeping the four heads of human resources employed but would completely discredit the new CEO before he walked in the door. So I guess my early retirement is on hold for now.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Go Team!
Sorry, I have been off my game. The Trustee's are on it though, they shot back at the grand jury for that bogus report on the medical center. Read all about it. Dr. Ted Rose gets the Dirt's balls and brains salute for leadership. Go team!
http://www.insidebayarea.com/searchresults/ci_2895388
http://www.insidebayarea.com/searchresults/ci_2895388
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Oakland 911
“911”
“Yes, please help me, a pit bull is eating my poodle.”
“Sir, you don’t really think this is a ‘police emergency’ do you?”
“Oh my God! He’s finished my poodle and is attacking the neighbor’s Labrador.”
“Sir, maybe you should call animal control or your neighborhood watch captain.”
“Please, just do something. What’s the animal control number?”
“Sir, this is 911, not 411. Click.”
“Hello, you’ve reached the City of Oakland’s animal control. We are unable to take your call at this time; if you need immediate assistance call the Oakland Police Department’s non-emergency number or you may leave a message after the sound of the beep. Beep. The voice mailbox you are trying to access is currently full. Click.”
“You have reached the Oakland Police Department’s non-emergency number all our operators are currently busy with other calls please stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order received. The current wait time is approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes.”
“Hello, you have reached the Oakland City Council.”
“There’s a marauding pit bull headed to a pre-school.”
“You know, we get so many calls about dogs and let me assure you that the councilperson strongly supports dogs and their owners. Let me suggest that you go to our website where you can see pictures of the councilperson and dogs and you can read about all that this district has done for dogs.”
“No! I need help, someone might get hurt.”
“Oh, I’m sorry we get so many calls about crime, there’s nothing we can do at this time. We did successfully pass Measures B and S and the new funding should be available in 2020.”
“No, my neighborhood is being terrorized by a marauding pit bull.”
“Well, I can advise you to join your neighborhood watch and get organized. If you can bring lots of people to meetings where the councilperson can talk about all they have done for your community, we might be able to help you more.”
“Please I just need one police officer.”
“Sir, this is a nuisance crime, if you give me your name and address I will send you a helpful brochure about policing yourself, home safety tips and 25 reasons to elect Jerry Brown as California Attorney General.”
“Yes, please help me, a pit bull is eating my poodle.”
“Sir, you don’t really think this is a ‘police emergency’ do you?”
“Oh my God! He’s finished my poodle and is attacking the neighbor’s Labrador.”
“Sir, maybe you should call animal control or your neighborhood watch captain.”
“Please, just do something. What’s the animal control number?”
“Sir, this is 911, not 411. Click.”
“Hello, you’ve reached the City of Oakland’s animal control. We are unable to take your call at this time; if you need immediate assistance call the Oakland Police Department’s non-emergency number or you may leave a message after the sound of the beep. Beep. The voice mailbox you are trying to access is currently full. Click.”
“You have reached the Oakland Police Department’s non-emergency number all our operators are currently busy with other calls please stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order received. The current wait time is approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes.”
“Hello, you have reached the Oakland City Council.”
“There’s a marauding pit bull headed to a pre-school.”
“You know, we get so many calls about dogs and let me assure you that the councilperson strongly supports dogs and their owners. Let me suggest that you go to our website where you can see pictures of the councilperson and dogs and you can read about all that this district has done for dogs.”
“No! I need help, someone might get hurt.”
“Oh, I’m sorry we get so many calls about crime, there’s nothing we can do at this time. We did successfully pass Measures B and S and the new funding should be available in 2020.”
“No, my neighborhood is being terrorized by a marauding pit bull.”
“Well, I can advise you to join your neighborhood watch and get organized. If you can bring lots of people to meetings where the councilperson can talk about all they have done for your community, we might be able to help you more.”
“Please I just need one police officer.”
“Sir, this is a nuisance crime, if you give me your name and address I will send you a helpful brochure about policing yourself, home safety tips and 25 reasons to elect Jerry Brown as California Attorney General.”
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Memo To Cambio Healthcare Solutions
Happy Holidays Homeless Shelter
Joe, “Hey Bob, you got mail from Highland.”
Bob, “Really, I didn’t think they sent mail to homeless shelters must be a bill. Open it for me.”
Joe, “Dude, it’s a bill for $190,000 dollars.”
Bob, “Wow, I hit the jackpot nobody’s ever thought I was worth that much.”
Joe, “You’re going to have to collect a lot of cans to pay that.”
Most healthcare consultants have problems with the fundamental premise of county hospitals, see the medical center’s mission statement says it will provide healthcare to the indigent and the uninsured. So let me introduce an important concept here, listen carefully and take notes fellas. Many of the medical center’s client’s are poor, by that I mean they have no money. Got it? Poor, no money. At the point that you’re sending out itemized bills to prisons, homeless shelters and freeway underpasses you got a problem.
Now that we have introduced the concept of poor, sick and homeless people being unlikely to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills, lets apply these concepts to hospital management. See the medical center has services that assist clients in getting functional enough to work or in getting disability benefits, they’re called rehabilitation services. I know it’s tiresome listening to hospital employees who keep saying you need to help the patients more. Still, the medical center has to get patients well enough to work or get them the disability benefits, it’s the only way to get paid.
The medical center has a whole rehabilitation center so people can get intensive therapy to return to their lives and assistance in getting disability benefits if they are permanently disabled. This keeps people out of the emergency room, gets them back at work or at least gets them some income and medical coverage so the medical center can get paid for the services they provide.
So, when you consultant dudes wrote this year’s budget you looked at rehabilitation services and chop, chop, chop! You looked at the data and correctly concluded that the uninsured get therapy. Then you cut the funding for about a third of the therapists because they mostly serve the poor. The problem is if you want medical center clients to get unpoor enough to pay these huge consultant generated bills you have to get them well enough to work. Denying cheap appropriate care just frustrates patients and drives them back to the emergency room.
I know this is lots of new information and you consultant types probably never met any poor people, but most poor people want to get well. They work hard, expect little and want to be healthy. Cutting the services that patients need to return to work and manage their illnesses and injuries is unlikely to improve the medical center’s overall fiscal health, but I’m sure it looked good in your report!
Joe, “Hey Bob, you got mail from Highland.”
Bob, “Really, I didn’t think they sent mail to homeless shelters must be a bill. Open it for me.”
Joe, “Dude, it’s a bill for $190,000 dollars.”
Bob, “Wow, I hit the jackpot nobody’s ever thought I was worth that much.”
Joe, “You’re going to have to collect a lot of cans to pay that.”
Most healthcare consultants have problems with the fundamental premise of county hospitals, see the medical center’s mission statement says it will provide healthcare to the indigent and the uninsured. So let me introduce an important concept here, listen carefully and take notes fellas. Many of the medical center’s client’s are poor, by that I mean they have no money. Got it? Poor, no money. At the point that you’re sending out itemized bills to prisons, homeless shelters and freeway underpasses you got a problem.
Now that we have introduced the concept of poor, sick and homeless people being unlikely to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills, lets apply these concepts to hospital management. See the medical center has services that assist clients in getting functional enough to work or in getting disability benefits, they’re called rehabilitation services. I know it’s tiresome listening to hospital employees who keep saying you need to help the patients more. Still, the medical center has to get patients well enough to work or get them the disability benefits, it’s the only way to get paid.
The medical center has a whole rehabilitation center so people can get intensive therapy to return to their lives and assistance in getting disability benefits if they are permanently disabled. This keeps people out of the emergency room, gets them back at work or at least gets them some income and medical coverage so the medical center can get paid for the services they provide.
So, when you consultant dudes wrote this year’s budget you looked at rehabilitation services and chop, chop, chop! You looked at the data and correctly concluded that the uninsured get therapy. Then you cut the funding for about a third of the therapists because they mostly serve the poor. The problem is if you want medical center clients to get unpoor enough to pay these huge consultant generated bills you have to get them well enough to work. Denying cheap appropriate care just frustrates patients and drives them back to the emergency room.
I know this is lots of new information and you consultant types probably never met any poor people, but most poor people want to get well. They work hard, expect little and want to be healthy. Cutting the services that patients need to return to work and manage their illnesses and injuries is unlikely to improve the medical center’s overall fiscal health, but I’m sure it looked good in your report!
Monday, June 27, 2005
Money Money Money…
It’s big money and bad idea time again. County and medical center budget time. The good news is the medical center is in decent financial shape; the bad news is Cambio Healthcare Solutions wrote the budget. They froze the hiring of caregivers again, so we’ll be using overtime and travelers in the many short-staffed departments. They need to keep cash available so they can hire more friends into fat executive positions and for legal fees.
Cambio got the medical center into what looks like a very long, very expensive legal battle with the psychiatrists and their union. The private contractor who wants the contract, the shrinks, and many of our temporary executives will all be deposing each other, meeting and conferring and generally building up more bad feelings and legal fees. Meanwhile, back at John George Psychiatric Pavilion, patients continue to back up in the psychiatric emergency area to dangerous levels and we don’t have enough permanent or temporary staff to care for them. Way to go Cambio!
So, this budget undoubtedly hides more than it reveals and the more eyes on it and our trusty trustees the better.
So the big budget meeting’s Tuesday, June 28th in Classroom A, Highland Hospital. They won’t tell us the time yet, but I’m sure the Sheriff knows. Just give the Sheriff a call or show up around 5:30 and wait with the rest of us.
Cambio got the medical center into what looks like a very long, very expensive legal battle with the psychiatrists and their union. The private contractor who wants the contract, the shrinks, and many of our temporary executives will all be deposing each other, meeting and conferring and generally building up more bad feelings and legal fees. Meanwhile, back at John George Psychiatric Pavilion, patients continue to back up in the psychiatric emergency area to dangerous levels and we don’t have enough permanent or temporary staff to care for them. Way to go Cambio!
So, this budget undoubtedly hides more than it reveals and the more eyes on it and our trusty trustees the better.
So the big budget meeting’s Tuesday, June 28th in Classroom A, Highland Hospital. They won’t tell us the time yet, but I’m sure the Sheriff knows. Just give the Sheriff a call or show up around 5:30 and wait with the rest of us.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
The Jolly Jury and The Sweet Smell of Snark
Here we go again. The Grand Jury is putting out its final report on the medical center this week. Will they correct all the factual errors? Will they tone down the anti-union rhetoric? And will they give Sheriff Plummer the credit he deserves for doing most of the thinking for the jury?
No, I doubt it, you see most people don’t get to be grand jurors; these are rich people, political players. These are insiders in the Alameda County Democratic machine. They hire lots of non-union workers to take care of their kids, their kitchens and their cats, and then they complain about the poor quality of hired help. They support civil rights, workers rights and a service or two for the poor, but in tough economic times their inner Republican comes out. They want to close the hospitals, beef up the prisons and grease the right palms. So, expect more of the same, sloppy thinking, right wing ideological rant, and pointless prose.
No, I doubt it, you see most people don’t get to be grand jurors; these are rich people, political players. These are insiders in the Alameda County Democratic machine. They hire lots of non-union workers to take care of their kids, their kitchens and their cats, and then they complain about the poor quality of hired help. They support civil rights, workers rights and a service or two for the poor, but in tough economic times their inner Republican comes out. They want to close the hospitals, beef up the prisons and grease the right palms. So, expect more of the same, sloppy thinking, right wing ideological rant, and pointless prose.
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