Carolinas Healthcare System and Media Relations

Politics require everyone to do a little dancing especially when the media is involved.  So at the March 2014 CHS Board of Commissioners media breakout session the "Business Journal" representative wanted to take a "selfie" with the "Charlotte Observer" representative. Then one of the CHS Corporate Communications staff kindly volunteers to take the picture of the two news reporters as a nice gesture.  My thoughts about this mini-photo shoot were "cute but inappropriate."

I left the  "Business Journal" and the "Charlotte Observer" representatives in the media conference room.  The meeting was completely over.  The executives had exited the room.  I really did not see the need to linger any longer.  Now, my curiosity gets the best of me.  Why did the other news reporters hang around?

Also,  between June 2006 and  August 2006, I was able to find quite a few announcements that Carolinas Healthcare System began managing the Union Hospital District.  This Union, SC area includes Wallace Thomson Hospital, Ellen Sagar Nursing Home, and Union County Emergency Services.   Again, this is Union County, South Carolina, not North Carolina. References include 6/1/2006 article by Amanda Ridley, Staff Writer for the Herald-Journal Spartanburg, SC and  August 2006 Facebook posting by the Union County EMS website.

I also found references where the CEO of the Union County District was appointed to President of  CMC-University Hospital in Charlotte, NC in June 2010. (Modern Healthcare 6/18/2010 article by Vince Gallaro)

Within months after this "executive transfer," CHS seemed to discontinue its management of the Union Hospital District.  The Administrator/Executive Director of Ellen Sagar Nursing Home was also relocated into the Charlotte, NC area. This Administrator eventually was assigned to the Huntersville Oaks nursing home. I could not find any detailed media coverage of why CHS ended management within a four year period where the previous management company Quorum Health Resources (QHR) managed the district for twenty years.  There was plenty of media coverage for the CHS start of management, but CHS made a quiet exit.  No media coverage that I could find except that the Union Hospital District went back to self management.

It is interesting how much some Carolinas Healthcare System news gets media coverage, and other news is never mentioned.  Maybe much of what is reported is generated from press releases?

Carolinas Healthcare System states "No Legal Right"

In my seven years of satisfactory and exemplary service at Carolinas Healthcare System,  I remember:

• Working full eight hour days on Thanksgiving Thursdays to provide residents/patients with recreational therapy (i.e. hair services.)
• Making residents look nice because their great-grandson was bringing an important young lady to meet her, and she wanted to look nice for the new potential bride.
• Having residents/patients touch my arm at completion of hair services just to say "thank you" because they had not been able to get their hair shampooed for weeks or even a month because of prior long hospital stays and surgeries that restricted their range of motion.
• Having to use my Carolinas Healthcare System's dementia training to coach Alzheimer's patients into allowing me to perform their hair services because their loved ones wanted their hair maintained.
• Listening for changes in the residents' breathing patterns or their overall mental and emotional health.
• Teaming with the nursing staff, the physical therapy staff, the occupational staff to coordinate hair appointments around therapies, doctor's appointments, eating times, and field trips.
• Teaming with the cleaning staff when patients got sick and the floor needed special clean-up procedures and disinfecting.
• Effectively communicating with social workers to ensure that they were providing family members with accurate hair service updates.
• Attending facility forums and staff meetings.

This nine bullet point list is just a small portion of my contributions to Carolinas Healthcare System in my seven years of service.

In my latter years of CHS service, I was discriminated against, retaliated against, refused job interviews by direct upline management, refused grievance resolution by human resources, and then offered a "Separation Agreement and Release" by a CHS Senior management official who had never even met me.

Carolinas Healthcare System is very impersonal.  They have become performance driven for their top level management only.  In my latter years with them, they consistently hired people into management positions without "healthcare industry experience."  I saw it with my own eyes.  These "new hires" were not even smart enough to limit their conversation surrounding their new positions in which they were not the best qualified candidate. But no one can complain without being subjected to a hostile work environment.

Is Carolinas Healthcare System a "great place to work?"  It depends on if you are a senior executive or if you were hired with preferential treatment.

For example, according to an interview between the Charlotte Observer newspaper and CHS, CHS states that only senior executives may use the CHS aircrafts for personal use.

This practice is discriminatory in my opinion, because when people are being admitted to CHS facilities for "care without compromise" - the senior executives are NOT typically the ones concerned with patient's immediate health.  In addition, I have not seen a CHS Senior executive do half the manual labor that I did while being employed at CHS.

I also remind you that Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority d/b/a Carolinas Healthcare System is a public, multi-billion dollar "non-profit" organization, and as a former CHS employee who was laid off, I have repeatedly asked CHS to be

• courteous
• compassionate about my emotional distress and mental anguish that I suffered from their recent management changes
• caring about my seven years of committment to their organization
• customer service driven as I was an internal CHS customer who has complained going on four years about CHS injustices.

Yet, CHS states that I have "NO LEGAL RIGHT TO any form of severance payment."

So to anyone considering working for Carolinas Healthcare System, there is no guarantee that you are going to get fair treatment, but you may at least get some employee perks like this "CHS retractable lawn chair."

 To the "front line" CHS employees that are hands-on with the patients, I salute you.  God will definitely reward you even if CHS does not.

Sidewalks make Pedestrian Traffic More safe!

Pictured above is Gilead Road overpass bridge over Interstate 77 in September 2013 in Huntersville, NC.  I have been told that NC State DOT owns this road. Did you notice that the excessive amount of foot traffic has created a path in the grass leading into vehicular traffic?

Update:  As of October 2013, the lines have been added  to this overpass bridge to redefine the shoulder area making it a safer bridge to walk across.  Yes!  A great improvement!

Another Charlotte, NC example:

Guess where this temporary pedestrian path dumps you out?  The streets along the parking lot at Northlake Mall.  September 2013 is when this picture was taken.  The sidewalk from the primary public bus stop is closed off to build what looks like a new parking lot for the H&M store, but in the meantime, transit riders have to dodge traffic to actually get into the mall.

November 2013 update:  parking lot and walkway finished at Northlake Mall.  

For those who recognize more and more people walking on the streets or in the grass where there is no pavement,  would you please assist me in identiftying the streets like the ones pictured above that need more sidewalks in order to keep pedestrians safe and drivers from having an accident?

Larger cities know that citizens use public transit.  Installing sidewalks as a standard along most roads makes life easier for those without personal vehicles.

However,  in Charlotte, our bus routes are limited, and there are still many people who are walking through the grass and in the street trying to get to food and groceries.

Let's not forget that walking is good exercise! Most pedestrians are at least wearing light colored clothing so that the headlights at night will reflect on them alerting drivers that there is someone walking.

I for one am still concerned that someone driving and talking on a cell phone at the same time is going to accidently hit someone during the night or daytime hours.

I am going to start the list of streets that need more sidewalks in the metro Charlotte, NC area.  Please feel free to add additional streets in the comment section or contact me directly to add your input.

Streets to add more sidewalks to:
1) West Harris Boulevard between Mallard Creek Road and Davis Lake shopping center
2) Harris Road/Eastfield between Popular Tent Road and Prosperity Church Road.
3) Statesville Road between Rich Hatchett Road and Gilead Road
4) Gilead Road and the Interstate 77 overpass/bridge
5) Independence Boulevard between Eastway/Wendover overpass and the Walmart store (needs a crossing over Independence Blvd)

Thanks in advance to city officials who will work to make Charlotte's quality of life safer and healthier by looking out for pedestrians.

Update: 6/11/2014

Pictured is the front page of Charlotte Observer newspaper on Sunday, June 8, 2014.  The concern for pedestrians in South End Charlotte warranted the front page cover while I have seen people run across Independence Boulevard, jumping over cement barricades within seconds of fast approaching cars.  I am certain the death toil of pedestrians on Independence Boulevard is far higher than congested SouthEnd.