LCRMH. What is the answer?

Change is hard, but E. Ky. must examine what has failed and why.





Conversations yesterday concerning the recent report by Consumer Reports concerning the published safety records of Lake Cumberland Regional Medical Center finally began to get at the root of the problem.  Some good public initiatives were offered to bring pressure on the hospital to improve its record but in the absence of some financial or regulatory imperative public opinion has little effect.



The news of this report was published in the local paper but it seemed that it was only to put the hospital administration's defense forward.  The hospital said that the problem was not in the safety record but, rather, in the data that the hospital had provided to Medicare and Medicaid and that when those errors were corrected the local hospital had a safety record comparable to others of this size.  There was no attempt to verify those claims nor was there any mention of the reporters queries about the veracity of the CEO's statements.  In other words, a whitewash.



The referenced article in this post is not about the hospital but it is about the underlying cause of less than satisfactory performance. This hospital is part of a larger chain of for-profit hospitals and it is no surprise that the bottom line is paramount.  I don't want to argue either the business model or the safety record but the overall attitude by local communities toward businesses such as this.



As Mr. Caudill states the problem is us.  Not them, they are doing what they do but, rather, the local people who are leaders in the community and who hold the reins of power.  Many of the people who have built successful businesses in our local area have contributed to the growth of the Somerset-Pulaski County area but as that generation ages they become more stolid and more concerned with protection of their own assets and influence.  Attitudes such as that hold an area hostage to their preferences because they hold the reins to political power and finance.  Such is the case with LCRMC.  The Board of Trustees (it is inaccurate to say Board of Directors because that operates at the corporate level) of the local hospital is made up of people who are from that caste of people who have made theirs and want to maintain the status quo.  As Mr. Caudill states, it is only when those people begin to value the community's well being more than their own that they are willing and able to be effective for the prosperity of the community.  Locally, that caste is beginning to age out and an new generation is taking their place but many of the newcomers have been well indoctrinated by those whom they would replace.  That has to change and the pace of that change is too slow.



What is the solution?  The only tool that the unempowered have is organization.  It is only through organization that the individual becomes powerful enough to stand against entrenched interests.  Many of our citizens are poorly educated and poorly compensated and do not understand how power is exercised.  The solution to this problem and many others is to organize and educate.