DeJongh's legacy: JFL shuttered

Gator's Mom,
There are more than a thousand decertified hospitals in the US. But we do not have the luxury of driving across town.

My understanding is that JFL is trying to stop the decertification using attorneys, while they do their "fix".
Finally, Sanes and the governor decided to give them a governing board.
Now they just need to give them the same budget they had when they were accredited.

Thousands of hospitals don't operate without CMS certification. Where did you come up with that statistic? CMS is different than Joint Commission.

However, thousands of hospitals are surveyed by CMS each year. Very few are determined to be in "immediate jeopardy" as a result of issues with patient care. Virtually none of these are decertified though. The very few that are decertified (best I have researched maybe a handful per year??) most survive by working hard to correct problems otherwise they close.

Recent survivors include hospitals in Baltimore, NC and San Diego.

JFL won't close. This is a significant warning about the need to improve patient care to the acceptable minimum standard set forth by CMS. That's all I care about.

How convenient and timely... The senate confirmed the two nominees to the hospital board... That is their idea of "fast tracking"...

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/senate-confirms-2-nominees-restoring-quorum-to-luis-board-1.1760444

...

DeJongh first did not send any nominees for 6 of 7 governing board slots for a year.
Then, after he nominated two that passed the Health Committee, Senator Sanes held them in his Rules committee for months. This is the same Sanes who has a bill to merge the hospitals, in other words, kill JFL, so they would feel desperate enough to become the Schneider satellite. Another plus is that getting JFL to become a Schneider satellite would guarantee no medical school for Stx. (Not that Schneider wants any part of that)

correlation is different from causation

The hospital and the Dr's club play politics and try to keep other Dr's out. What happened to the Hippocratic oath?

I am gathering that "GVI" means "government (or governor) of the Virgin Islands"? Just a point of information: The hospitals are semi-autonomous government agencies. They have much more leeway and self-direction than do the other departments. If there is blame, and there surely is, it must be on the hospital leadership as well as the territorial bureaucracy that causes the leaders to fail.

East Ender, even though the hospital is semi-autonomous the governor still has HUGE power.
1. Only the governor can nominate a 7 of the 9 members. Until last week, he had only 1 (one). The failure to have a governing board was CMS's first citation.
And then his board appointees are people whose management philosophies he approves, so he the governor indirectly directs the board and therefore the hospital, through them.
2. Only the governor can ratify/ sign the union negotiations. That largely involves nurses and some other employees.
3. The governor is responsible for their entire budget (with senate approval). The hospital cannot do squat about budget counts.
4. The governor is is responsible for paying the bills that his agencies owe the hospital. These are the following deJongh agencies that owe the hospital money, about $100 million.
A. VIPD. B. Corrections. C. Workman's Comp. D. Public Safety
Need I go on?

Tupac, please expound on your claim that the hospitals keep doctors out. It sounds like CMS is saying that they don't keep enough doctors out.

Gator's Mom, I don't understand correlation vs causation as it pertains to this discussion. Kindly enlighten me. Meanwhile, let me be clear. The hospital says that CMS's report is inaccurate, not because incidents did not happen, but because the report did not state that the hospital did respond to deficiencies with doctor and staff terminations, revamped policies, etc.

How on earth is the governor supposed to pay bills when he has organizations like the Health Insurance Board of Trustees who ignore the reality of a budget. Per the governor:

“The board has known since June 23 that $150.9 million was the most the government could pay for a one-year health insurance contract,” deJongh said. “The failure of the board to negotiate a contract that is within the government’s budget limitations and or a contingency plan for when the current contract expires at the end of the month has left insurance coverage for government employees, some retirees and their dependents hanging in the balance.”

And then there are legislators who want to bankrupt the territory. He may be powerful in your mind, but not when he comes up against the almighty "way we do things."

EE - Everyone ignores the reality of a budget, especially our senators.
They truth is none of them know exactly what that word means or how to live within one.

How on earth is the governor supposed to pay bills when he has organizations like the Health Insurance Board of Trustees who ignore the reality of a budget. Per the governor:

“The board has known since June 23 that $150.9 million was the most the government could pay for a one-year health insurance contract,” deJongh said. “The failure of the board to negotiate a contract that is within the government’s budget limitations and or a contingency plan for when the current contract expires at the end of the month has left insurance coverage for government employees, some retirees and their dependents hanging in the balance.”

And then there are legislators who want to bankrupt the territory. He may be powerful in your mind, but not when he comes up against the almighty "way we do things."

The bills that deJongh's agencies have with the hospitals are years old and almost $100 million. The discrepancy with the health insurance contract is $9 million. Okay, then why doesn't he pay what he owes the hospitals minus $9 million?

And as for the legislators who want to bankrupt the territory....
The governor through his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has the discretion to deny %100 of what the legislature appropriates by withholding allotments. Just a little local civics for you.

Refresher
Dejong demanded a bulk amount of money in 2010, an election year p, to be used at his discretion. $500 million exactly. He said if they didn't give it to him, he would terminate a bunch of employees and blame them for it. They gave him instead $250 million. He hired more people from large voting families and fixed roads. He demanded the other $250 bulk million for unspecified uses and again the senate gave it to him under threat of indiscriminate terminations.

None of it was used to make good in any debt to the hospitals.
I agree the senate are big spenders.
But deJongh is an even bigger spender.
And he has the discretion to block the senate appropriations by withholding allotments.

Do not let your unwavering support of the Chief Executive blind you to the facts.

Will be happy to attach newspaper clippings if you are in the grip of selective amnesia.

latest development: http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2014/10/02/jfl-meet-cms-friday-baltimore

I hope CMS send them packing, cap in hand. The GVI needs a wake up call.

Decertification has been averted! Hats off!
Thank you Dr. Griffith for your wise decision to fight, investing Ina qualified CMS expert legal firm, and striving to improve despite struggles with staffing, and despite deJongh's previous refusal to provide a board for oversight.

You still have a lot of work to do. The question is, are the residents of STX with no other options for acute care, going to join you, or tear their only hospital down.
The other question is, will the governor fill the other 4 board vacancies so that we do not continue to teeter on the brink of medical anarchy? Will the senate finally listen where it concerns funding?

I hope CMS send them packing, cap in hand. The GVI needs a wake up call.

Thank God for not listening to you. The best wake up call for the GVI is not to close the hospital, it is for them to go to prison. Then they can wake up for their one hour of sunshine.

Decertification has been averted! Hats off!
Thank you Dr. Griffith for your wise decision to fight, investing Ina qualified CMS expert legal firm, and striving to improve despite struggles with staffing, and despite deJongh's previous refusal to provide a board for oversight.

An excellent article from the Source:

http://stthomassource.com/content/commentary/editorial/2014/10/07/hansen-griffith-blame-jfl-decertification

An excellent article from the Source:

http://stthomassource.com/content/commentary/editorial/2014/10/07/hansen-griffith-blame-jfl-decertification

Yes, excellent article!!!

Excellent, yes, and is a good example of why Chucky is a detriment to the territory. If I remember correctly, the hospital rehire the nurses, and Chucky took credit for it. She fought "for her people" to get their jobs back, so you know almost all the hospital employees are backing Chucky.

I hope CMS send them packing, cap in hand. The GVI needs a wake up call.

Thank God for not listening to you. The best wake up call for the GVI is not to close the hospital, it is for them to go to prison. Then they can wake up for their one hour of sunshine.

Hopefully, JFL management and staff and the GVI will have learned something from this exercise. But more likely they just kicked the can down the road until the next epic failure.

It is good,but it is an editorial, not an article. Just to be clear. 😉

It is good,but it is an editorial, not an article. Just to be clear. 😉

I've always found the Source staff very efficient and professional at writing fact-based "articles" which put things in perspective and without hyperbole.

Spot on analysis. This editorial should be a must read for every voter on St. Croix.

(Oh, I forgot 60% of our 11th graders cant read to grade level - so that eliminates the possibility of a future educated electorate. No wonder entertaining fish fry's win the day.)

Sounds more like this thread should be renamed: Hansen's Legacy: JFL Shuttered.
Great editorial and one every voter should read and attribute responsiblity to those Senators that blindly followed Hansen's lead. It boggles the mind, I must say!
Let's face it, the motto of the Virgin Islands should be "IGNORANCE IN LEADERSHIP."

An excellent article from the Source:

http://stthomassource.com/content/commentary/editorial/2014/10/07/hansen-griffith-blame-jfl-decertification

Yes, excellent article!!!

Not excellent.
Not an article. Only an option piece and a poor one at that.

By the way, you guys do realize that the Source is is not a real newspaper? That it is really a propaganda operation? A principal at the Source took an African junket with the First Lady on VI Lottery slush funds. You know, tax payer money.
Last paragraph: "the difficulty the governor faced in filling vacant positions is not unique". Where did they establish that a. he tried to fill the positions with viable people b. That he had difficulty filling it?
(Skepple is a pastor that encouraged his flock to vote for deJongh and owes the tax payers $150,000.00 in "retained" employee withholding. When this came to light he withdrew his nomination papers.)
Chucky's biggest fault with the hospital is voting for DeJongh's budget cuts.
The board members that left the hospital did so after they saw the hospital go on probation. They begged Griffith to come on board after Nelson had run it into the ground.
None of that was mentioned in the "article", which I refer to as an editorial.

It is an editorial.

Not excellent.
Not an article. Only an option piece and a poor one at that.

By the way, you guys do realize that the Source is is not a real newspaper? That it is really a propaganda operation? A principal at the Source took an African junket with the First Lady on VI Lottery slush funds. You know, tax payer money.

LOL groan. My wading boots aren't high enough to make it through the hyperbolic sludge.