Jolly good for them. Some of us were not so lucky. While I can say that my life was certainly “changed” by my surgical experiences at Randolph, it was not for the better.
One of the patients featured in the ads is David Renfro, publisher of the Courier Tribune. If anything ever proved the Courier’s blatant in-your-face bias and conflicted interests where Bob Morrison and Randolph Hospital are concerned, this was it. The golf course touch was nice too, because everybody knows that’s where the deals & decisions are really made – amongst good friends willing to shamelessly cover one another’s tracks.
It was not acknowledged by the hospital, but if I am not mistaken, the young man featured in one of the ads is the son of Randolph Hospital VP, Sandra Allen. I am glad Sam had a good experience - and that his Mother and Father (who runs the Ash-Rand Rescue service) had a better experience trusting Randolph Hospital than my parents and I did.
Of course, my parents and I were not as "important" as they are.
As an aside, once upon a time, one of Randolph Hospital’s genius strategic planners approached the doctors in Asheboro about featuring their children in ads promoting the hospital. The doctors said no.
Since these half-page (very expensive) ads talk about surgical outcomes at Randolph, allow me to share mine. I have had two experiences with surgery there.
Around the age of five, I had a tonsillectomy at Randolph, as the crypts of my ex-tonsils never met a germ that they did not want to mate with. The surgery was done by a local FP who (as far as my parents knew) had a stellar reputation. Years later, while doing long-distance running in college, I found myself having breathing problems (a kind of suffocating feeling as if the upper airway was obstucted) . . . and I went to see another Asheboro FP (as the first one had died). The mere act of saying, “AHHHHHHH” got me triaged/referred fairly quickly to a Greensboro ENT. The ENT asked me if the doctor who did my tonsillectomy was still practicing. The answer was no . . . he was dead (in terms of an open&shut malpractice claim, this appears to have been a good thing for the dead doctor). Anyway, without going into all of the gory details, let’s just say that the tonsillectomy done at Randolph was found to have been badly botched, and I underwent what the Greensboro ENT described to my mortified parents as a “palatal reconstruction”. Being able to say “Coca-Cola” after the surgery was apparently a huge accomplishment – as one of my more vivid memories of the experience is of the surgeon leaning over me in the recovery room and yelling at me through my anesthetic haze to, “Say “Coca-Cola!!!”. I did, and all was well.
*Paragraph regarding medical school guinea pig experience deleted. I read it after making the original post and cracked up!!! Best not repeated in mixed/minor company.*
Flash forward, years into the future. Dr. Mary Johnson has finished her Pediatric residency and, after a year of “traveling doc” duties (including a glorious six-month stint in New Orleans), she decides to settle down in her hometown of Asheboro. She gets the practice established (providing back-up critical care coverage for literally everybody 24-7), and does extra coverage during other doctor's pregnancies, and only after two years dares to do something to take care of herself. For years, Dr. Mary has suffered from frequent sinus, throat and ear infections, as well as headaches and facial pain. So wanting it to STOP . . . she consults the new ENT at Randolph Hospital. After a round of radiology studies, the decision is made to proceed with sinus surgery.
Dr. Mary does not hesitate to have the surgery at Randolph – as she (1) trusts/likes her new surgeon and (2) wants to prove to the parents who have so often dissed the hospital that good care can be had there. When Dr. Mary elects to stay for overnight observation, she asks to be housed on the Pediatric ward. The nurses could not be more skilled or sweeter - but the night provides Dr. Mary with an inpatient's perspective on the staffing of the floor she admits her patients to - and it is not a good impression.
On one of her follow-up visits with the ENT in his office, Dr. Mary has a very unpleasant reaction to lidocaine in the examining chair (as a lot of it is shot up her raw and bloody nose). It is a classic, "I don't feel so good" moment . . . a heart-kerplunck/catch a glimpse of "the light"/fade to black kind of reaction (also known as a "death spell") that she spontaneously recovers from. For years, Dr. Mary prefers to believe it was an allergic reaction (a belief long ago debunked) instead of an overdose.
Initially, the surgery appears to be a success, and Dr. Mary moves on with life . . . which includes being fired by Randolph Hospital’s “controlled affiliate” a few weeks after completing her NHSC obligation, and just two weeks after she intervenes to save a child’s life and is obliged to report the badness to Peer Review (so much for “care you can trust”).
A few years later, troubled again by headaches and frequent infections, Dr. Mary follows up with the new ENT (who has since relocated to Thomasville). He gets a CT (that he suggests be done at Thomasville as a matter of "quality" - the cost of which her Randolph Hospital cobra insurance stiffs her on), and tells her all is well. [By the way, a copy of that CT is no longer available . . . in case you didn’t know, radiographic films are routinely destroyed within five years (without asking the patient). All you will be able to get is a written report. So if you ever want a copy of a study, get it when it’s made.]
Fast forward several more years. The lawsuits are over, but Dr. Mary is still on the road . . . because (again) she got stiffed by Randolph Hospital at settlement - the result of a little thing called perjury. No one on the hospital's BOD - or at the newspaper - or with DA's office will give her the time of day - because this is one story that "the boys" want to stay buried. No stress there (significant to what is eventually diagnosed*). Meanwhile, the chronic infections have returned with a vengeance – and headaches & facial pain are a recurring theme – moreover, her stomach is chronically on fire due to massive doses of Motrin. This time Dr. Mary makes an appointment with one of her old professors at NC Baptist Hospital. He tells her, after a round of questioning, that the pain she describes is “atypical” and orders an MRI to rule out reallybadthings. And, after he examines her with a scope, he tells her that the sinus surgery performed at Randolph is the source of at least part of the problem . . . it seems there is a "surgically-placed orifice" in her sinus cavity – literally a hole in her skull – that is in the wrong place, and the sinus cannot drain properly. Any remedy will require more surgery. The MRI subsequently rules out reallybadthings (like a tumor at the base of the skull), but the findings lend credence to the diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia*. . . a blood vessel inside Dr. Mary’s nogin is veryclose to the trigeminal nerve as it exits the skull, and (although it’s not for certain) this could be the source of the pain.
Now, in Dr. Mary’s case, all the previous surgical mucking around in her face – all the scar tissue - as well as an improperly draining sinus – could be contributing to (or triggering) the pain, so the first order of business (before Dr. Mary agrees to be slapped on an anti-seizure medication or consider brain surgery) is to fix the sinus problem. The surgery is tentatively scheduled to take place in September.
Guess where she won’t be having it.
Dr. Mary actually would have had the surgery last year, but the greedy suits at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina decided to try and stiff NC Baptist Hospital for appropriate reimbursements (by refusing to pay for services rendered there to policy holders) during her only reasonable window of opportunity in 2005.
Also, please note that Dr. Mary did not file a malpractice lawsuit in either case. The second time around, she thought about it. Real hard. But she didn't.
Okay, enough third person (it was fun). Apart from the fact I don't play golf or baseball (and I haven't put my ear to a conch shell in ages), you won't be seeing my surgical experience featured in any of Randolph Hospital's ads.
You also won't be reading about my well-documented allegations of "non-profit" impropriety (including and especially Bob Morrison's illegal & medically-monopolistic behavior) reported as news in David Renfro's paper.
Instead of being a journalist, Mr. Renfro would rather "star" in his biggest advertiser's ad.
It's good to be king.
It is good to be this king's friend.
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