Insignificant but Important

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
Let's work together for a better tomorrow...

M Gandhi

Is OSF's CEO Worth 2.2 Million Dollars?

Sister Judith Ann Duvall
Chairperson of OSF St. Francis Healthcare System
(Photo by Peoria Journal Star)

Kevin Schoeplein, CEO of OSF Healthcare System in Peoria, received a salary of 2.2 million dollars in 2009. See this article.

Yet, OSF lets their own Haitian Hearts patients die in Haiti with no medical care. And Sister Judith Ann, pictured above, told me multiple times that OSF would never turn down a Haitian child for medical care. But they have.

Sister refers to OSF as a "sacred ministry." Unfortunately, this sacred ministry is a 5 billion dollar not-for-profit enterprise that has lost its core values.



John A. Carroll, MD
www.haitianhearts.org

OSF Mission Continues...

Long Waits in ER Dangerous for Patients

Dr. Ackroyd-Stolarz found that older people who stayed longer in the emergency department were more likely to have adverse events. In her retrospective cohort study, she included 982 patients 65 and older. The average age was 77.8 years, and 75 percent of them experienced a prolonged ED stay of six hours or more. Studying the records, she found that 140 had adverse events. Adjusting for total ED stay, she found that long stays in the emergency department were associated with a higher risk of adverse events. Those who suffered an adverse event stayed in the hospital twice as long as those who did not (20.2 days versus 9.8 days). Because the patients stayed in the hospital longer, they occupied acute care beds, an increasingly scarce commodity that exacerbated ED crowding.

Even when there are readily available beds, elderly people tend to stay longer in the emergency department because they come in with more complex illnesses and require a longer workup. But by far, the lack of inpatient beds is the most significant contributor as to why they are waiting, Dr. Ackroyd-Stolarz said. There is evidence that the elderly are more likely to be admitted to the hospital. They don't want to go to the emergency department unless they are really sick because they know they will wait, she said.

The higher risk for these patients often comes from a decreased physiologic reserve. They are often sicker with comorbid conditions, she said. In the future, we need to demonstrate that this association holds true in other hospitals.

Fixing the problem requires a system approach, said Dr. Ackroyd-Stolarz, not just focusing on the emergency department. People outside of emergency medicine will say, 'If we just fix how they do their business,' but it goes beyond the doors of the emergency department, she said, noting that hospitals need to investigate bed management and what occurs in the community, such as whether services are available to help avoid ED visits. If we provide more primary care services to nursing home residents, we may prevent that transfer to an emergency department in the middle of the night because there is no physician in the nursing home, she said.

Emergency Medicine News
July, 2009

Corrupt Corporations...Large Medical Centers Not Excluded

Company executives are paid to maximize profits, not to behave ethically. Evidence suggests that they behave as corruptly as they can, within whatever constraints are imposed by law and reputation. 


New York Times
July 11, 2012

Death in Haiti Deserves Thought

Photo by John Carroll

"Death in Haiti can be cruel, raw, and often devastatingly premature. There is often no explanation, no sympathy, and no peace, especially for the poor. Death's ubiquity, however, does not mean that it deserves any less attention or thought."

New England Journal of Medicine
July 5, 2012
Antonia P. Eyssallenne, M.D., Ph.D.

Doing the Right Thing

“You don’t want to be the outsider who betrays the institution; whistleblowers are always the weirdos,” Lessig said. “There are so many ways to rationalize doing the easy thing. And it’s really easy for us to overlook how our inaction to step up and do even the simplest thing leads to profoundly destructive consequences in our society.”

I asked Cory Booker, the Newark mayor, why he ignored his security team and made a snap decision to run into a burning house to save his neighbor. He said his parents taught him to feel indebted to all the people who had sacrificed for his family. And he recoiled in law school at the idea that there was not always a legal obligation to help the vulnerable.

“We have to fight the dangerous streams in culture, the consumerism and narcissism and me-ism that erode the borders of our moral culture,” he said. “We can’t put shallow celebrity before core decency. We have to have a deeper faith in the human spirit. As they say, he who has the heart to help has the right to complain.”

Maureen Dowd

The New York Times

American Sisters Under Direction of Holy See

See this article.

Rezko: Blago Knew

Read this article.

ER Overcrowding in Canada

Please see this article.

The Greatness of a Man

Great men in Cite Soleil--May, 2012 (Photo by John Carroll)

"...the greatness of a man is measured not in his lack of faults, but in the abundance of his strength."

Emerson

Catholic Dioceses Sue Obama Administration....Peoria Diocese not one of Them...

See this article in todays Peoria Journal Star.

My comment:

Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria sits on the Board of Fellows at the University of Notre Dame. He did NOT publicly state that he was against President Obama's visit to South Bend in 2009. Bishop Jenky did NOT sign the Cardinal Newman petition which contained the names of dozens of US Catholic bishops who disagreed with President Obama's appearance at UND. 

And for some reason the Catholic Diocese of Peoria is not part of this lawsuit against the Obama administration. The Diocese says they may have their own lawsuit. (Why would they tell the media this? Is it true?) 

However, Bishop Jenky could be a real hero to conservative Catholics (and others) today if he seized the moment.

After Bishop Jenky's criticism of President Obama's health care mandate, and now with the UND lawsuit against the President, Bishop Jenky should end the OSF HealthCare contraceptive policy which was created with the help of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. This policy allows OSF physicians to prescribe oral contraceptives for thousands OSF patients from OSF offices throughout the entire OSF HealthCare System. 

We can only hope and pray that Bishop Jenky has the courage to take on OSF right here in Peoria. It is his duty to lead with morally consistent words and actions. Confronting OSF with their power and money will be his toughest challenge.

Notre Dame Sues Obama Administration

See this breaking news.

Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria sits on the Board of Fellows at the University of Notre Dame. He did NOT publicly state that he was against President Obama coming to South Bend in 2009. And Bishop Jenky did NOT sign the Cardinal Newman petition which disagreed with the Presiden't appearance at UND.

However, Bishop Jenky could be a real hero to conservative Catholics (and others) now if he seized the moment.

After Bishop Jenky's criticism of President Obama's health care mandate, and now with the UND lawsuit against the President, Bishop Jenky should end the OSF HealthCare policy which allows OSF physicians to prescribe oral contraceptives for OSF patients from OSF offices.

We can only hope and pray that Bishop Jenky has the courage to take on OSF right here in Peoria. This will be his toughest challenge.

Haiti is Not Immortal

The situation is serious. The Nation is not immortal, it is dying. The country is short of breath, [...] he world attended, without illusions, to the sad spectacle of Haitian political impasses that succeed by partisan rivalries and sterile, of inquisition on issues foolish such as dual citizenship, while Haiti needs the cooperation of all his daughters and all his son, to see them answer to the appeal of the ancestors, so often sublimated, become a dead letter: 'Unity is strength!' Of the union we have nothing to do, we prefer the division and endless confrontations. [...] we have only for force that of sinking further our land and a population in the poverty, the abject poverty, the misery, the confusion.

It happens to me, I confess, to be ashamed of this pathetic betrayal of our achievements and our conquests of yesteryear. Betrayal of our noblest aspirations to freedom, equality and fraternity. Betrayal of our highest dreams to break all the chains.

I hurt in my heart of Haitian to be challenged by them, smile, pulling the line and only see in Haiti a country ruined, deliquescent, without compass, without State, without a future, a rotten trunk, a world of corruption and some don't hesitate to describes it, of incapable.


Michaelle Jean

Eric Whitaker, MD

Read this article.

A Clever Move by Bishop Jenky

See this forum article in the Peoria Journal Star.

OSF Buys Ottawa Regional Hospital

OSF buys Ottawa Regional Hospital.

See this article.

The article states that medical personnel will retain their cinical privileges.

I wonder what this means regarding Catholic ethical and religious values inside OSF's latest purchase?

Peoria's Catholic Lie Exposed

See this editorial from this morning by the Peoria Journal Star.

We can't blame President Obama for our contraceptive compromise here at OSF and The Catholic Diocese of Peoria.

Bishop Jenky in Peoria

See this Peoria Journal Star article.

Here is the podcast.

Sister Judith Ann

There was an article in the PJS a few weeks ago about OSF's Sister Judith Ann.

It has to be a parody of OSF.

To be honest, it was kind of sad.