"Now Departing from Gate 1..."

More "Trauma" about DRMC...

Delta Medical is in a real mess. A large percentage of the nursing staff are travel nurses - very costly to the hospital with wages that exceed the home grown nursing staff - leading to resentment and an exodus of many local nurses. This is compounded by the fact that the travel nurses largely send their paychecks back to their home markets - so much for a turn over of their salaries to benefit the local city of Greenville.

Greenville continues to lose doctors: three pediatricians on the call rotation, two orthopedic doctors cover 20 out of 30 days per month, five doctors on the medical call rotation - historically there were twelve to fifteen on the medical call roster. This is creating a real strain on physician manpower. Don't be surprised if more doctors call it quits.

Delta Medical has continued to bill itself as a level II trauma center - go look up the requirements for trauma centers on the Mississippi Trauma System web site. To be a level III trauma center requires CONTINUOUS orthopedic coverage. Delta Medical center has not had continuous orthopedic call since Dr. Bill Ogden left. For almost a year and a half - one orthopedic surgeon provided 10 out of 30 days of call coverage - poor guy.

Now we have two orthopedic surgeons who provide 20 out of 30 days of call coverage - still not the continuous call coverage required for level III. That makes DRMC technically a level IV (FOUR) trauma center. I bet you the hospital is still getting paid at the level II (TWO) level. That sounds like fraud to me. To get paid as a level II and be only a level IV - great deal if you can get away with it.

I feel sorry for the poor local families who showed up at DRMC with a fracture needing orthopedic care and had to be sent to Jackson or Memphis. Of course, now we don't even have a neurosurgeon. But DRMC keeps collecting that level II trauma pay though.

Yes, DRMC's trauma level designation is definitely in question; however, if all of the ER Docs leave as has been predicted, it will be a moot point.

Sure the Docs are leaving. They were lured here with political buzz-words like "quality care" and "supportive administration". It doesn't take them long to realize that DRMC is a failed medical system and totally controlled by good-ole boy politicians and a bible-thumping hypocrite.

Ray Humpreys suffers from delusions of grandeur! He brags about his visions of a heart/cardiovascular unit when he can't even keep an orthopedist on staff or hire nurses. Face reality Ray, you ain't running Tulane Medical Center! What Greenville needs is a quality acute care medical facility with competent staff... no bells, no whistles, just basic care. Leave the big stuff to the big boys in Jackson and Memphis... that's where the patients are going anyway.

The Board of Supervisors needs to wake up and admit they made a huge mistake in hiring Ray Humphreys. It's time for a change in leadership. I doubt that we could do much worse. Greenville deserves better and we should hold our elected officials accountable to correct its sins of the past.

Forthright