The chest pounding and brow beating goes on. The medical center employees accepted a contract and important people are still talking about lay-offs. Physicians are pushing forward to try to fix clinic scheduling and develop programs to manage chronic illnesses, but no one is reaching out to staff to move on and move forward. Come on guys, if you don’t want to “charm and disarm”, just shut up.
The one truly multidisciplinary program in the hospital got offed, the part-time program specialist for the department of diversity affairs got canned (Cambio probably needed the cash for executive salaries). Diversity is dead, but we still have the “pink book” to train us on cultural sensitivity (it has a long section on the Amish, but doesn’t cover African Americans.) Many employees find it amusing, but no one has ever described it as useful.
As another morale raiser, the Sheriffs escorted a patient through the hospital at peak visiting hours with a loaded shotgun. They forgot to tell nursing they’d be heavily armed and when a social worker asked what was going on, he was told it was, “none of his business.” Discharging a shotgun on a crowded nursing floor could easily result in a buttock full of buckshot for social workers, nurses, other patients, and their guests. Many employees feel the our new VP of marketing will have a hard time marketing “Bright Birthing Beginnings” at Highland, if we have Sheriffs wandering around with loaded shotguns, but hey, what do they know, they’re just the hired help.
What, what, what is to be done? My thoughts exactly as I headed to Two Star Liquor for a six pack of Bud (to wash down my McNuggets.) As I headed back to my car, I passed Full Moon Seafood House. At night diners look like fish in an aquarium and someone caught my eye. At a table for six sat: Nate Miley (county sup), Floyd Huen (authority board trustee), Jean Quan (Floyd’s wife and Oakland city council woman) and a couple of other political hacks that I couldn’t readily identify. Undoubtedly they were discussing the same dilemma as I: what, what, what is to be done? They looked far more miserable than I felt, I briefly considered crashing their party, but my McNuggett’s were getting cold and my Bud was getting warm. Besides, I have two lovely kids at home, and an evening with dyspeptic politicians isn’t my idea of fun. So I went home to discuss the situation with my family. My advice is not original; in the words of Tinkie-Winkie, Dipsie, La La and Poe (the Teletubbies) it’s a good time for a “Big Hug.”
Monday, November 22, 2004
Medical Center Employees Accept a Contract
Service Employees International Union Local 616 has created a high quality blog! If you want to see the terms of the contract accepted by union represented employees of the medical center or just want to check it out.
Click here:seiu616.org/blog/index.cfm
SEIU local 616 represents some medical center employees, county employees, homecare workers and daycare providers. They have become an articulate voice and advocacy organization for care-providers. The Director Fran Jefferson has also recruited some exceptionally talented staff: Brad Cleveland, Wayne Templeton, Carol Ingoe and Angela McWhinnie to name a few. They’re the little union that could. Hey, the Dirt’s day’s maybe numbered, I’m getting out-blogged
Click here:seiu616.org/blog/index.cfm
SEIU local 616 represents some medical center employees, county employees, homecare workers and daycare providers. They have become an articulate voice and advocacy organization for care-providers. The Director Fran Jefferson has also recruited some exceptionally talented staff: Brad Cleveland, Wayne Templeton, Carol Ingoe and Angela McWhinnie to name a few. They’re the little union that could. Hey, the Dirt’s day’s maybe numbered, I’m getting out-blogged
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Charge Back
The medical center must learn to compensate for its underprivileged status in the county bureaucracy. Dave Kears, much like George Bush, has pushed a privatization model on county health services. Non-profits, the medical center, and for profit healthcare providers all compete for limited county healthcare dollars; instead of cooperating to provide coordinated care. So if a mental health agency can drop off an alcoholic for a week or two at Highland and then let the medical center find them a place to live, it makes their bottom line look good.
Here’s a hypothetical you’re a private hospital administrator with a problem patient: she needs a nursing facility, she’s too young for Medicare, she has multiple sclerosis, she can’t walk, she’s incontinent, she has bedsores and psychiatric problems (which she refuses to treat.) She’s sitting in your thousand dollars a day hospital bed screaming and scaring your paying clients with non-stop profanities. In an effort to manage her screams and complaints her doctor has her on enough morphine to knock out a bull elephant and of late she’s taken to throwing food at the nursing staff and talking about suicide. Then she does you a big favor, she jumps out her first story window and sustains some scratches landing in the bushes below. In a stroke of administrative genius, it occurs to you, this is your opportunity. You dial 911 and when the ambulances arrive you tell them she is a trauma victim and have them take her to Highland. Patient dumping or appropriate triage, you be the judge?
Enough speculation, it suffices to say many clients with complex needs and problems miraculously end up in the medical center. This occurs in spite of private and public mental health services, adult protective services, the county conservator, Telecare, Regional Center and more. We have an enormous number of poorly coordinated county services and contractors. Somehow problem clients from all sorts of county funded services end up at the medical center in bad shape, at this point it falls on the medical center to fix not just their medical problems, but also their social and economic problems. The hospital has to get them well and get them a place to live. These patients sit in the hospital for weeks to months, until medical center’s social workers can find them a place to live with an appropriate level of care. These clients get put on administrative days (Medi-Cal won’t pay for their stays) so the medical center eats the costs.
So county agencies, private hospitals, non-profits and for profit providers all dump their “problems” at Highland. Once these clients end up in Highland the medical center must find them a place to live. At the end of the year county contractors receive “fiscal rewards” for providing cost effective services and the medical center gets to booby prize for spending too much on the sick. So what is to be done, well Cambio Healthcare Consulting could use a tool frequently employed by our corporate cousins, the “charge back.” This is a sound business move and since county healthcare services are based on competition instead of cooperation, it’s a smart defensive tactic. If the CEO of the moment kept records of all the costs incurred by medical center clients who are supposed to be managed by other agencies they could “charge back” these costs to the county at the year’s end and demand their “fiscal reward. “
Here’s a hypothetical you’re a private hospital administrator with a problem patient: she needs a nursing facility, she’s too young for Medicare, she has multiple sclerosis, she can’t walk, she’s incontinent, she has bedsores and psychiatric problems (which she refuses to treat.) She’s sitting in your thousand dollars a day hospital bed screaming and scaring your paying clients with non-stop profanities. In an effort to manage her screams and complaints her doctor has her on enough morphine to knock out a bull elephant and of late she’s taken to throwing food at the nursing staff and talking about suicide. Then she does you a big favor, she jumps out her first story window and sustains some scratches landing in the bushes below. In a stroke of administrative genius, it occurs to you, this is your opportunity. You dial 911 and when the ambulances arrive you tell them she is a trauma victim and have them take her to Highland. Patient dumping or appropriate triage, you be the judge?
Enough speculation, it suffices to say many clients with complex needs and problems miraculously end up in the medical center. This occurs in spite of private and public mental health services, adult protective services, the county conservator, Telecare, Regional Center and more. We have an enormous number of poorly coordinated county services and contractors. Somehow problem clients from all sorts of county funded services end up at the medical center in bad shape, at this point it falls on the medical center to fix not just their medical problems, but also their social and economic problems. The hospital has to get them well and get them a place to live. These patients sit in the hospital for weeks to months, until medical center’s social workers can find them a place to live with an appropriate level of care. These clients get put on administrative days (Medi-Cal won’t pay for their stays) so the medical center eats the costs.
So county agencies, private hospitals, non-profits and for profit providers all dump their “problems” at Highland. Once these clients end up in Highland the medical center must find them a place to live. At the end of the year county contractors receive “fiscal rewards” for providing cost effective services and the medical center gets to booby prize for spending too much on the sick. So what is to be done, well Cambio Healthcare Consulting could use a tool frequently employed by our corporate cousins, the “charge back.” This is a sound business move and since county healthcare services are based on competition instead of cooperation, it’s a smart defensive tactic. If the CEO of the moment kept records of all the costs incurred by medical center clients who are supposed to be managed by other agencies they could “charge back” these costs to the county at the year’s end and demand their “fiscal reward. “
Monday, November 08, 2004
Mommy
“Mommy, you forgot to make the world a better place today”
James Gregor Nomura Fisher, 4 years old
Well, I guess its time to stop crying in my beer and get on with it. November second hit hard and hurt. At least Measure Z Oakland’s give potheads a break initiative passed. They had a big light it up party. Deep slow inhale… “Yeah... take this Ashcroft.” I don’t smoke pot, not because of moral objections; I just don’t care for it. In time times of hardship, loss, and crisis I hide in poetry, movies and books. Here's one of my favorites:
Children of Our Era
We are children of our era;
Our era is political.
All affairs, day and night,
Yours, ours, theirs,
are political affairs.
Like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin has a political cast,
your eyes a political aspect.
What you say has a resonance;
What you are silent about is telling.
Either way, it’s political.
Even when you head for the hills
You’re taking political steps
on political ground.
Excerpted from “Children of Our Era”
miracle fair
Selected Poems
of Wislawa Szymbrorska
So the poet is right. The world is what we make it. How can the Democratic Party capture the hearts and minds of the county, if we the faithful barely believe in them? Our party has controlled California for a long while and liberal democrats own the Bay Area. So, why do we have crumpling schools and hospitals and why are we spending our limited monies building new prisons and hiring more police? County Supervisors whine and complain, “it’s prop 13, it’s term limits or it’s the State.” We need to stop waiting for vision and leadership; it is time for the good people of Oakland to put down the pot and to make our local officials build the city and county we deserve.
James Gregor Nomura Fisher, 4 years old
Well, I guess its time to stop crying in my beer and get on with it. November second hit hard and hurt. At least Measure Z Oakland’s give potheads a break initiative passed. They had a big light it up party. Deep slow inhale… “Yeah... take this Ashcroft.” I don’t smoke pot, not because of moral objections; I just don’t care for it. In time times of hardship, loss, and crisis I hide in poetry, movies and books. Here's one of my favorites:
Children of Our Era
We are children of our era;
Our era is political.
All affairs, day and night,
Yours, ours, theirs,
are political affairs.
Like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin has a political cast,
your eyes a political aspect.
What you say has a resonance;
What you are silent about is telling.
Either way, it’s political.
Even when you head for the hills
You’re taking political steps
on political ground.
Excerpted from “Children of Our Era”
miracle fair
Selected Poems
of Wislawa Szymbrorska
So the poet is right. The world is what we make it. How can the Democratic Party capture the hearts and minds of the county, if we the faithful barely believe in them? Our party has controlled California for a long while and liberal democrats own the Bay Area. So, why do we have crumpling schools and hospitals and why are we spending our limited monies building new prisons and hiring more police? County Supervisors whine and complain, “it’s prop 13, it’s term limits or it’s the State.” We need to stop waiting for vision and leadership; it is time for the good people of Oakland to put down the pot and to make our local officials build the city and county we deserve.
Without Compromise
Geeeez, well negotiations have broken down between the unions and management at the medical center. It’s heavy posturing, Cambio sent forth flunkies with a “last best and final offer.” The real decision makers never actually enter the room with the union team (it’s beneath them to meet directly with the hired help.) So executive temps and sub sub consultants with no real decision-making power run back and forth. Come on guys, hurt feelings are half the problem; a little courtesy goes a long way. The employee's negotiating team said, “ nope," to “last, best and final.” So, Cambio has effectively forced another strike vote. Then there are the ever-helpful trustees, rumored to be saying they will put the lay-offs back on the table. Come on guys, people are quitting in droves, lay-offs are entirely unnecessary.
The Tribune
The medical center made the front page. The inner workings and dirty details of inspections. The grapevine says those pesky inspectors tore apart a private hospital this week, let's hope the Tribune will show the same zeal in exposing their dirty laundry. I think not, Sutter unlike Highland has big suction with the press.
To read the Tribunes latest click here:
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1865%257E2520137,00.html?search=filter
To read the Tribunes latest click here:
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1865%257E2520137,00.html?search=filter
Monday, November 01, 2004
Trick or Treat
Well, we’re close to a year and four CEOs into the Cambio Healthcare Consulting experience, at the medical center. Expect inspectors this week, these are the State guys, they give new meaning to the term nitpicking, they have been known to check between people’s toes. These guys are less fun than an elevator full of consultants.
Hopefully, this week we’ll get some good news. The Board of Trustees is having an emergency meeting to decide whether to give workers a tiny or small raise. Once a contract is signed a labor-management committee will be formed to review restructuring plans. This should allow employees to help fix processes and organizational problems. The CEO of the hour, Claude Watts, has also expressed a willingness to meet with workers directly, without management to get a more complete picture of how things work at the medical center. Is all of this good news a part of the new “stop-loss” program that Cambio is rolling out?
Hopefully, this week we’ll get some good news. The Board of Trustees is having an emergency meeting to decide whether to give workers a tiny or small raise. Once a contract is signed a labor-management committee will be formed to review restructuring plans. This should allow employees to help fix processes and organizational problems. The CEO of the hour, Claude Watts, has also expressed a willingness to meet with workers directly, without management to get a more complete picture of how things work at the medical center. Is all of this good news a part of the new “stop-loss” program that Cambio is rolling out?
Barbara Selfridge’s Crib Sheet for November 2, 2004
State Propositions
1A Keep Local Tax Revenue Local. YES. In this summer’s budget compromise, Schwartznegger kept his No New Taxes pledge by stealing tax revenues from future generations (who will have to repay our bonds instead of funding their own needs) and local governments (property and sales taxes, etc). Prop 65 would stop the $1.3 billion dollar annual shift unless 50% of voters approve it; Prop 1A (put on the ballot to stop Prop 65) allows Sacramento to take the money for only two years and after that only if 2/3s of the state legislature okays it. The Greens like 65 better, but they say vote yes for both.
59 Limits on Government Secrecy. YES.
60 Open Elections. YES. Don’t let rich GOPers wipe everyone else off the ballot.
60A Earmarking Revenue. NO. This isn’t much money $30 million/yr but are we so anti-government that we won’t let Sacramento debate how to spend it?
61 Bond for Children’s Hospitals. NO. The Greens say we need big fixes, like single-payer health coverage not costly band-aids like this one.
62 Close Elections NO NO NO As in Louisiana, only the two highest vote-getters (read best-funded most-Republican) would make it onto our ballots.
63 Tax the Rich for Mental Health Services YES Good tax strategy.
64 Put Corporate Law Breakers Above the Law NO Don’t lose your right to sue.
65 Reverse the Theft of Local Tax Revenues YES Better than Prop 1A.
66 Three VIOLENT Strikes YES YES YES Amend an unjust costly law.
67 Phone Tax for Hospitals NO The Greens say only 1% goes to 911 services 90% to hospitals and MDs, and they don’t like Sacramento grabbing county funds.
68 Let the Mafia Run Casinos NO A set-up to take down their Indian biz rivals.
69 Forced DNA Sampling NO, NO, NO Even innocents would lose their rights.
70 Expand Indian Casinos YES? There are lots of reasons to vote no: gambling, non-union labor, non-environmental protections. But yes is pro-Indian.
71 Bonds to Fund the BioTechs NO Stem cell research is good, but the Greens say this would be a $3 billion giveaway to private industry (plus the $3B interest).
72 Healthcare Coverage Even Without a Union YES YES YES Wal-Mart, Target and other large employers would prefer their workers use ERs and Medi-Cal.
About the Propositions
My Sacto insider explains them thus: it’s the legislatures job to debate what needs California will fund and how we will raise those funds. But the Republican minority stops new taxes and the outsourced/ tanking/petroleum-dependent economy stops new surpluses, so it’s gridlock city in the state capitol. And so special interest groups good and bad go for propositions, most of which say protect my needs (or my tax bases) from the budget negotiations, please! So if representational democracy is not the way to get our societal needs met, we fall back on propositions? And they become law, even if hardly any voters can read them? What if they’re worded badly? What if they don’t go far enough? That’s how you end up with the good people who want stem cell research being opposed by the good people from Our Bodies Ourselves.
1A Keep Local Tax Revenue Local. YES. In this summer’s budget compromise, Schwartznegger kept his No New Taxes pledge by stealing tax revenues from future generations (who will have to repay our bonds instead of funding their own needs) and local governments (property and sales taxes, etc). Prop 65 would stop the $1.3 billion dollar annual shift unless 50% of voters approve it; Prop 1A (put on the ballot to stop Prop 65) allows Sacramento to take the money for only two years and after that only if 2/3s of the state legislature okays it. The Greens like 65 better, but they say vote yes for both.
59 Limits on Government Secrecy. YES.
60 Open Elections. YES. Don’t let rich GOPers wipe everyone else off the ballot.
60A Earmarking Revenue. NO. This isn’t much money $30 million/yr but are we so anti-government that we won’t let Sacramento debate how to spend it?
61 Bond for Children’s Hospitals. NO. The Greens say we need big fixes, like single-payer health coverage not costly band-aids like this one.
62 Close Elections NO NO NO As in Louisiana, only the two highest vote-getters (read best-funded most-Republican) would make it onto our ballots.
63 Tax the Rich for Mental Health Services YES Good tax strategy.
64 Put Corporate Law Breakers Above the Law NO Don’t lose your right to sue.
65 Reverse the Theft of Local Tax Revenues YES Better than Prop 1A.
66 Three VIOLENT Strikes YES YES YES Amend an unjust costly law.
67 Phone Tax for Hospitals NO The Greens say only 1% goes to 911 services 90% to hospitals and MDs, and they don’t like Sacramento grabbing county funds.
68 Let the Mafia Run Casinos NO A set-up to take down their Indian biz rivals.
69 Forced DNA Sampling NO, NO, NO Even innocents would lose their rights.
70 Expand Indian Casinos YES? There are lots of reasons to vote no: gambling, non-union labor, non-environmental protections. But yes is pro-Indian.
71 Bonds to Fund the BioTechs NO Stem cell research is good, but the Greens say this would be a $3 billion giveaway to private industry (plus the $3B interest).
72 Healthcare Coverage Even Without a Union YES YES YES Wal-Mart, Target and other large employers would prefer their workers use ERs and Medi-Cal.
About the Propositions
My Sacto insider explains them thus: it’s the legislatures job to debate what needs California will fund and how we will raise those funds. But the Republican minority stops new taxes and the outsourced/ tanking/petroleum-dependent economy stops new surpluses, so it’s gridlock city in the state capitol. And so special interest groups good and bad go for propositions, most of which say protect my needs (or my tax bases) from the budget negotiations, please! So if representational democracy is not the way to get our societal needs met, we fall back on propositions? And they become law, even if hardly any voters can read them? What if they’re worded badly? What if they don’t go far enough? That’s how you end up with the good people who want stem cell research being opposed by the good people from Our Bodies Ourselves.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Another One Bites the Dust!
The medical center has no real communication system, sure we get the memos but people try not to read them. So when inquiring minds want to know, where do the go, the grapevine. The hospital has a pulse, it has moods and it has one of the most sophisticated systems of informal verbal communication on the planet. It’s sort of an oral history; it’s fast, funny and usually highly accurate.
So here’s what’s on the vine. The Permanent Interim CEO, Mike Burroughs, quit and that’s right, we get another Interim CEO. Let’s get real here, these aren’t “Interim CEOs” these are “Interval CEOs.” This makes four CEOs and counting since Cambio Healthcare Solutions took over in May. If it gets any worse, Cambio will be calling the executive registry and sending CEOs over to work shifts.
So here’s what’s on the vine. The Permanent Interim CEO, Mike Burroughs, quit and that’s right, we get another Interim CEO. Let’s get real here, these aren’t “Interim CEOs” these are “Interval CEOs.” This makes four CEOs and counting since Cambio Healthcare Solutions took over in May. If it gets any worse, Cambio will be calling the executive registry and sending CEOs over to work shifts.
Rebecca's latest
Well, the medical center made the news again. The medical center has a huge budget for spin doctors, so why can't they buy us some good news? To read Rebecca Vesely's latest piece click here:
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1726%257E2494700,00.html
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1726%257E2494700,00.html
Monday, October 25, 2004
A Rally Really?
Yes, folks we have to do it again. Tuesday, October 26 at noon. Hospital employees will once again go out in front of the medical center facilities and rally. This time to remind our leaders that you have to give workers a contract and fair pay or there will be no one left to take care of patients.
See you there.
See you there.
I Want A Refund
Well, the Cambio Healthcare Solutions consultants had an epiphany; they realized they have run off many of the caregivers they need to run the hospital. Half of the image technicians (people who work in x-ray, ultra sound and MRI) quit or threatened to quit in one week. Pharmacy, respiratory therapy and nursing have the same problem.
You can’t run a hospital with all of the critical service providers running out the door and what exactly have our leaders done to keep them here. Well, lets review, they told these highly trained employees they were overstaffed and threatened to lay them off. They also threatened to lay off all the support staff (nursing assistants, medical clerks, housekeepers, food services workers) all the people you need to make things run. What about wages, well these groups get paid 5% -20% less than people doing the same job in other hospitals.
Then there’s the public relations war, fought internally with piles of meaningless annoying memos and externally with “Bring it on Braley” saying the medical center just needs to cut the fat. They’ve got the medical center crawling with state inspectors and they started a war with the union represented workforce, apparently Cambio Healthcare Solutions had never heard of organized labor before they came to Alameda County.
So now that they realize they will have to pay workers or they will continue to quit, what now? Well guess what, now they say they don’t have any money. As Charlie Ridgell pointed out, “the medical center had money when they signed over millions to Cambio for consultants, they had money for PR and PG &E, they even had an extra million for more Sheriffs at John George, they had enough money for a walkout and a lockout (over a million dollars), but now that they have to pay the people who actually do the work they’re flat broke. This is entirely unacceptable.”
I’ve got a bright idea, consultant costs and expenses would pretty much cover the cost of a fair raise for hospital workers, how about if the board of supervisors just goes to Cambio and asks for a refund? I don’t know about Cambio, but most of us little people doing the work don’t think this relationship is working out, maybe its time to say, “Adios Cambio! “
You can’t run a hospital with all of the critical service providers running out the door and what exactly have our leaders done to keep them here. Well, lets review, they told these highly trained employees they were overstaffed and threatened to lay them off. They also threatened to lay off all the support staff (nursing assistants, medical clerks, housekeepers, food services workers) all the people you need to make things run. What about wages, well these groups get paid 5% -20% less than people doing the same job in other hospitals.
Then there’s the public relations war, fought internally with piles of meaningless annoying memos and externally with “Bring it on Braley” saying the medical center just needs to cut the fat. They’ve got the medical center crawling with state inspectors and they started a war with the union represented workforce, apparently Cambio Healthcare Solutions had never heard of organized labor before they came to Alameda County.
So now that they realize they will have to pay workers or they will continue to quit, what now? Well guess what, now they say they don’t have any money. As Charlie Ridgell pointed out, “the medical center had money when they signed over millions to Cambio for consultants, they had money for PR and PG &E, they even had an extra million for more Sheriffs at John George, they had enough money for a walkout and a lockout (over a million dollars), but now that they have to pay the people who actually do the work they’re flat broke. This is entirely unacceptable.”
I’ve got a bright idea, consultant costs and expenses would pretty much cover the cost of a fair raise for hospital workers, how about if the board of supervisors just goes to Cambio and asks for a refund? I don’t know about Cambio, but most of us little people doing the work don’t think this relationship is working out, maybe its time to say, “Adios Cambio! “
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Charlie’s Place
Why does the Alameda county board of supervisors dislike the medical center so much? Excellent question. Well, county supervisors have a huge budget (1,944,765,581 dollars) a bigger bureaucracy (8,658 budgeted positions) and hopelessly frustrated personal political careers. The supervisors don’t run the county the bureaucrats do: Chief Administrator Susan Muranishi, Director of Health Care Services Dave Kears and Sheriff Charlie Plummer. Every year Dave, Susan and Charlie divide up the tax dollars and throw a few crumbs to politician’s pet projects. So Gail Steele, Alice Lai-Bitker, Keith Carson, Nate Miley, and Scott Haggerty get to cut a few ribbons, do a few opening ceremonies, and fund a few non-profits. The county government has a responsibility to take care of the underserved, this means healthcare (for the uninsured and underinsured), behavioral health (the mentally ill), public assistance (welfare), public protection (courts and prisons) and general government in the unincorporated areas (this means municipal programs: schools libraries, sheriff’s and such.) They also do transportation, buses ect.
Here’s the rub, the poor, the sick, the incarcerated and the needy don’t vote much and they are not big donors to political campaigns either. So county supervisors spend most of their time sucking up to corporations, developers and non-profits that provide the services. Telecare, the biggest for profit mental health contractor in the county is a generous donator. Non-profits, lawyers, and consultants, now all of these people understand how county government works. They know how to support a campaign. Special interest groups and voter rich unincorporated areas also have lots of suction with the sups.
Every year Sheriff Charlie and Dave Kears duke it out over money and every year Charlie wins. Susan Muranishi’s primary contribution to the county is to create a budget and budget process so boring, complicated and convoluted that it would take a team of forensic accountants ten years to find an extra fifty cents. Meanwhile Dave or Susan can always find a little cash in the other shoe, should the need arise. So when political insiders need to get something done, they don’t go to a county supervisor, they go to Dave, Susan or Charlie.
Ok, enough of the civics lesson why don’t Dave and the Sups like the medical center. Well, Dave feels the county should be “purchaser not a provider” of healthcare services. It’s the greed is good philosophy. Besides bureaucrats prefer tidy little contracts with non-union organizations, keep the healthcare providers without a voice and employment protection.
Still what’s wrong with taking care of sick people? Well, here’s the real problem, you know those tidy contacts and neat little focused lean county programs: they don’t work. When someone doesn’t get enough general assistance to buy their medications and has a stroke, where do they go? The medical center. When Adult Protective Services fails to get a senior out of an unsafe home and they get hurt, where do they go? The medical center. When the Sheriff decides to compassionately release a felon who has cancer and can no longer walk, talk or take care of themselves, where do they go? The medical center. When a mental health case managed client has a psychotic episode and then withdraws, where do they go? The medical center. As Dave and Susan improve efficiency (cut services and ration care) more and more people fall through the cracks, the medical center catches them. The county supervisors and bureaucrats hate the medical center because it reminds them how miserably they have failed the people they are supposed to serve. They also hate the medical center’s staff who refuse to dump these clients back out on the streets without first addressing their needs, this costs.
So when the supervisors close the medical center where will people go? Well, for years the county prison system has enjoyed fat funding, infra-structural upgrades and political support. If the sick and needy become a nuisance or a political liability the police can just pick them up and take them to Charlie’s place, Santa Rita Prison.
Here’s the rub, the poor, the sick, the incarcerated and the needy don’t vote much and they are not big donors to political campaigns either. So county supervisors spend most of their time sucking up to corporations, developers and non-profits that provide the services. Telecare, the biggest for profit mental health contractor in the county is a generous donator. Non-profits, lawyers, and consultants, now all of these people understand how county government works. They know how to support a campaign. Special interest groups and voter rich unincorporated areas also have lots of suction with the sups.
Every year Sheriff Charlie and Dave Kears duke it out over money and every year Charlie wins. Susan Muranishi’s primary contribution to the county is to create a budget and budget process so boring, complicated and convoluted that it would take a team of forensic accountants ten years to find an extra fifty cents. Meanwhile Dave or Susan can always find a little cash in the other shoe, should the need arise. So when political insiders need to get something done, they don’t go to a county supervisor, they go to Dave, Susan or Charlie.
Ok, enough of the civics lesson why don’t Dave and the Sups like the medical center. Well, Dave feels the county should be “purchaser not a provider” of healthcare services. It’s the greed is good philosophy. Besides bureaucrats prefer tidy little contracts with non-union organizations, keep the healthcare providers without a voice and employment protection.
Still what’s wrong with taking care of sick people? Well, here’s the real problem, you know those tidy contacts and neat little focused lean county programs: they don’t work. When someone doesn’t get enough general assistance to buy their medications and has a stroke, where do they go? The medical center. When Adult Protective Services fails to get a senior out of an unsafe home and they get hurt, where do they go? The medical center. When the Sheriff decides to compassionately release a felon who has cancer and can no longer walk, talk or take care of themselves, where do they go? The medical center. When a mental health case managed client has a psychotic episode and then withdraws, where do they go? The medical center. As Dave and Susan improve efficiency (cut services and ration care) more and more people fall through the cracks, the medical center catches them. The county supervisors and bureaucrats hate the medical center because it reminds them how miserably they have failed the people they are supposed to serve. They also hate the medical center’s staff who refuse to dump these clients back out on the streets without first addressing their needs, this costs.
So when the supervisors close the medical center where will people go? Well, for years the county prison system has enjoyed fat funding, infra-structural upgrades and political support. If the sick and needy become a nuisance or a political liability the police can just pick them up and take them to Charlie’s place, Santa Rita Prison.
Monday, October 11, 2004
Imagine if there weren't a county Medical Center
Well, today's Oakland Tribune opinion piece said it all.
To read "Imagine if there weren't a county Medical Center":
Click here
To read "Imagine if there weren't a county Medical Center":
Click here
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Managing Up
Well, Cambio Health Solutions changed their mind. They decided they had better not layoff 180 staff and maybe they should have a word with some of the employees or at least check in with the Service Employees International Union before completely reorganizing the medical center. Gee, it took them nine months and two work actions to arrive at the obvious. I hope these guys know how to do something besides layoffs.
Thank goodness for healthcare unions. Apparently they’re all that is left between patients and bad business decisions. Medical center employees have used their unions to manage up; they helped the Board of Supervisors to see the dangers of caregiver cuts. They have also pointed out that hospital workers feel demoralized and fatigued, and that getting a contract signed and removing the threat of layoffs is a necessary first step toward making the medical center work.
In spite of the rhetoric, the Cambio executives still have an aversion to speaking to working people. You need a suit or an MD to be heard at the hospital. Joyce Mc Glory, the Head of Human Resources, is the notable exception; she likes Highland and actually listens to employees. The Board of Trustees is still escorted by sheriffs, as are some Cambio executives. Come on guys, we’re overworked healthcare providers, no one’s going to hurt you. Shoot, if you got assaulted we’d just have to take you over to the emergency department and fix you up, and in case you haven’t noticed we have plenty of business already.
Look here’s the deal, this isn’t a good staff; this is a great staff. These are the people you want to take care of you, if something happens. We have an antique computer system, broken wheelchairs, no infrastructure and we make it work. The Cambio team spent a couple million on scab labor during work actions and probably fifty grand on a payroll goof, how about spending five hundred on donuts and coffee and trying to cheer up your worn out employees before more good people quit.
Thank goodness for healthcare unions. Apparently they’re all that is left between patients and bad business decisions. Medical center employees have used their unions to manage up; they helped the Board of Supervisors to see the dangers of caregiver cuts. They have also pointed out that hospital workers feel demoralized and fatigued, and that getting a contract signed and removing the threat of layoffs is a necessary first step toward making the medical center work.
In spite of the rhetoric, the Cambio executives still have an aversion to speaking to working people. You need a suit or an MD to be heard at the hospital. Joyce Mc Glory, the Head of Human Resources, is the notable exception; she likes Highland and actually listens to employees. The Board of Trustees is still escorted by sheriffs, as are some Cambio executives. Come on guys, we’re overworked healthcare providers, no one’s going to hurt you. Shoot, if you got assaulted we’d just have to take you over to the emergency department and fix you up, and in case you haven’t noticed we have plenty of business already.
Look here’s the deal, this isn’t a good staff; this is a great staff. These are the people you want to take care of you, if something happens. We have an antique computer system, broken wheelchairs, no infrastructure and we make it work. The Cambio team spent a couple million on scab labor during work actions and probably fifty grand on a payroll goof, how about spending five hundred on donuts and coffee and trying to cheer up your worn out employees before more good people quit.
In and Out of My Mind
I’m born and raised in Berkeley so reality for me is negotiable, but I lost myself a little. I found myself crying in the behavioral health clinic. I couldn’t focus; I sat there just leafing through the magazines not even looking at the pictures. Did you know they have Guns and Ammo magazines in the psychiatry waiting room? I’m no shrink, but I think it might be a better idea to put the gun magazines in the dermatology or podiatry departments. I never heard of the acne or hammertoe defense.
I must have been pretty messed up because Kaiser told me take a week off, I thought you had to be bleeding from a major artery to get a week off from Kaiser. They gave me one of those little information sheets. It said I had post-traumatic stress disorder. I read the sheets, I think this stuff might be contagious and I definitely think it’s going around the medical center. It’s not like a different reality, just all the worst parts of your usual reality over and over again. You get stuck bouncing if the walls of your own mind. It comes from too many bad things happening in rapid succession. Since the upcoming presidential election could be ugly, we should all fortify ourselves with good news, multivitamins and extra sleep.
I must have been pretty messed up because Kaiser told me take a week off, I thought you had to be bleeding from a major artery to get a week off from Kaiser. They gave me one of those little information sheets. It said I had post-traumatic stress disorder. I read the sheets, I think this stuff might be contagious and I definitely think it’s going around the medical center. It’s not like a different reality, just all the worst parts of your usual reality over and over again. You get stuck bouncing if the walls of your own mind. It comes from too many bad things happening in rapid succession. Since the upcoming presidential election could be ugly, we should all fortify ourselves with good news, multivitamins and extra sleep.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
What’s Up?
What will happen? Did the board of supervisors know the medical center is in deep doo doo with the state and the feds or did they find out about it Sunday when they read the Oakland Tribune? They get those “secret briefings” with Cambio Health Solutions. Let’s hope somebody has a plan, November 10th isn’t that far away. Where’s Temporary CEO Mike and the spin doctors when you need them, a few lines would do, how about, “hope for the best, pray with us, or this might be a good time to tune up your resume.”
I just don’t get it, the medical center is about to be closed down over staffing and safety issues and the board of supervisors is still fighting for layoffs. I’m confused and well frankly annoyed; I should be spending my precious free time trying to get a Democrat into the White House. Instead, I’m stuck here struggling to explain the obvious to a bunch of Democratic supervisors that I voted into office. Sometimes it’s hard and well quite honestly embarrassing being a Democrat in Alameda County.
Rumor is that Cambio and the board of trustees may have finally come to their senses and that some kind of proposal to postpone layoffs and focus on the more immediate problems maybe forthcoming. This thanks to the tireless work of medical center employees and SEIU locals 250, 616 and 535. So anyway, things will happen this week.
The board of trustees is meeting:
Wednesday September 29
Highland Hospital
Classroom A
Public Comment at 6:00 pm
I just don’t get it, the medical center is about to be closed down over staffing and safety issues and the board of supervisors is still fighting for layoffs. I’m confused and well frankly annoyed; I should be spending my precious free time trying to get a Democrat into the White House. Instead, I’m stuck here struggling to explain the obvious to a bunch of Democratic supervisors that I voted into office. Sometimes it’s hard and well quite honestly embarrassing being a Democrat in Alameda County.
Rumor is that Cambio and the board of trustees may have finally come to their senses and that some kind of proposal to postpone layoffs and focus on the more immediate problems maybe forthcoming. This thanks to the tireless work of medical center employees and SEIU locals 250, 616 and 535. So anyway, things will happen this week.
The board of trustees is meeting:
Wednesday September 29
Highland Hospital
Classroom A
Public Comment at 6:00 pm
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Medical Center Closing?
Well those fun loving Cambio Health Consultants and their spin doctor have done it again. There's so much dirt even the Tribune's digging into them.
To read Rebecca Vesely's piece, "Feds May Close Medical Center," in the Oakland Tribune click here:
www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2428356,00.html#
To read Rebecca Vesely's piece, "Feds May Close Medical Center," in the Oakland Tribune click here:
www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2428356,00.html#
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Good News At Last- Walkouts
I got a medical opinion at Highland about my consultant-induced situational depression. A physician I admire and respect told me quite candidly that it would take a lot of prescription medications and possibly recreational drugs to take the edge off the current situation.
The most popular conspiracy theory this week is that Cambio Health Solutions was brought in to close the medical center down, employees can’t believe they could make this many mistakes unintentionally. Personally, I’m a big believer in stupidity and incompetence. Besides if CEO Burroughs had a timeline to close the hospital he’d come to work more. According to his assistant Mr. Burroughs will be at an offsite conference this week. These Cambio Health Solutions guys are on the George Bush attendance plan. If you can mismanage a country working a couple of days a week, there’s no reason you can’t mismanage a hospital on the same schedule.
But I digress there is great news; we’re planning wildcat walkouts. That’s right union employees have begun planning multiple surprise work actions. Workers have basically given up on influencing hospital leaders. We’re going to picket the politicians. That’s right, picture a thousand healthcare workers picketing down at the county board of supervisor’s offices- dawn to dusk. They can’t just send their staff out to say they’re at important meetings- they’ll have to come out to eat or pee. It’s pressure and accountability my favorite approach to incompetent elected officials. Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker and Gail Steele here we come.
I’m personally quite excited since lately when you come to work at the medical center you may or may not get paid and since our leaders have yet to acknowledge their “security problem” you may or may not get hurt. So cheer up folks, fun is on the way, and remember you don’t have to work at the medical center to come down and picket!
The most popular conspiracy theory this week is that Cambio Health Solutions was brought in to close the medical center down, employees can’t believe they could make this many mistakes unintentionally. Personally, I’m a big believer in stupidity and incompetence. Besides if CEO Burroughs had a timeline to close the hospital he’d come to work more. According to his assistant Mr. Burroughs will be at an offsite conference this week. These Cambio Health Solutions guys are on the George Bush attendance plan. If you can mismanage a country working a couple of days a week, there’s no reason you can’t mismanage a hospital on the same schedule.
But I digress there is great news; we’re planning wildcat walkouts. That’s right union employees have begun planning multiple surprise work actions. Workers have basically given up on influencing hospital leaders. We’re going to picket the politicians. That’s right, picture a thousand healthcare workers picketing down at the county board of supervisor’s offices- dawn to dusk. They can’t just send their staff out to say they’re at important meetings- they’ll have to come out to eat or pee. It’s pressure and accountability my favorite approach to incompetent elected officials. Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker and Gail Steele here we come.
I’m personally quite excited since lately when you come to work at the medical center you may or may not get paid and since our leaders have yet to acknowledge their “security problem” you may or may not get hurt. So cheer up folks, fun is on the way, and remember you don’t have to work at the medical center to come down and picket!
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Let Your Fingers Do the Walking
I took my own advice had a cold one and cooled off. So let’s look at the situation objectively, what’s going on? Well, Cambio Health Solutions on the eve of what the press is calling a gang war, is still proposing to layoff a big piece of the emergency department staff. Nurses continue to quit citing safety, incompetent senior management, heavier patient care loads, and less support staff than other hospitals. The layoffs have been put off so long that many employees have begun to focus on the more immediate problems, like getting paid and avoiding friendly fire.
Our leaders continue unpaying workers, yep, you heard right, medical center employees with direct deposit get their paychecks sucked back and forth in and out of their accounts. Our leaders are pioneering a cutting edge direct withdrawal system. This results in headaches, bounced checks, delayed vacations and piles of overdraft fees. The problem is of such severity and magnitude that even management noticed it. They actually wrote about it, Cambio is busy fixing the “payroll goof.” Golly fellas, in California when you screw up a multimillion dollar payroll, we don’t call it a boo boo, we call it a mistake and since people’s money is being taken without their permission an apology might help.
Personal safety issues eclipsed the medical center’s ongoing problems with layoffs, short staffing, missing payroll and lack of leadership this week. Staff who witnessed the bullet riddled Lincoln crash into the hospital grounds and the dead, dying and shot up young people crawling out of the car, just keep talking about it. They tell you what they saw over and over again. When social work and the chaplain put together a debriefing, for traumatized workers they were scolded for holding an “unauthorized meeting.”
The numerous staff that called Claude Watts and Mike Burroughs about the lack of a preparedness and a security plan, have not gotten responses. Apparently Chief Operating Officer Watts and Chief Executive Officer Burroughs’s gang security plan was to leave early Friday and be out of town for the weekend. Until management puts forward a credible written security plan and shares it with those of us who might get hurt, the Dirt recommends that Highland patients and staff let their fingers do the walking and dial 911 at the first sign of trouble.
Our leaders continue unpaying workers, yep, you heard right, medical center employees with direct deposit get their paychecks sucked back and forth in and out of their accounts. Our leaders are pioneering a cutting edge direct withdrawal system. This results in headaches, bounced checks, delayed vacations and piles of overdraft fees. The problem is of such severity and magnitude that even management noticed it. They actually wrote about it, Cambio is busy fixing the “payroll goof.” Golly fellas, in California when you screw up a multimillion dollar payroll, we don’t call it a boo boo, we call it a mistake and since people’s money is being taken without their permission an apology might help.
Personal safety issues eclipsed the medical center’s ongoing problems with layoffs, short staffing, missing payroll and lack of leadership this week. Staff who witnessed the bullet riddled Lincoln crash into the hospital grounds and the dead, dying and shot up young people crawling out of the car, just keep talking about it. They tell you what they saw over and over again. When social work and the chaplain put together a debriefing, for traumatized workers they were scolded for holding an “unauthorized meeting.”
The numerous staff that called Claude Watts and Mike Burroughs about the lack of a preparedness and a security plan, have not gotten responses. Apparently Chief Operating Officer Watts and Chief Executive Officer Burroughs’s gang security plan was to leave early Friday and be out of town for the weekend. Until management puts forward a credible written security plan and shares it with those of us who might get hurt, the Dirt recommends that Highland patients and staff let their fingers do the walking and dial 911 at the first sign of trouble.
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