News & Views You Can Use
Sep 3, 2003
City Pages
Budget Surgery
Hospital Cuts Misguided
Athens Regional Medical Center is making major cuts in personnel and programs as a result of a financial crisis precipitated by federal and state cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. To many employees – those cut and those not - the process has felt unfair. Whether or not it has been unfair, the hospital administration has handled reorganization badly. The CEO and a select few of his vice presidents made the decisions about who and what to cut. Much of the process has been secretive and rumors were rampant before any final decisions were made. There was no appeal process. All decisions were final. The decisions themselves have stunned many at the hospital and the community at large. For those employees who are losing their jobs, there has been little gratitude expressed for their years of service. It's been a cold, hard process. Morale is down, tempers are up, and people are scared as they anticipate another round of cuts.
It's probably too late for the present cuts, but the administration might consider these suggestions before the next round of reorganization.
1. Begin at home. Show that you're willing to make sacrifices. Begin by announcing a pay cut for the administrative team and then look at other cuts. There is no better way to improve morale and decrease resentment than for John Drew to announce that he and his nine vice presidents will take pay cuts. A token cut, like 5 percent, will not do. If the financial crisis is as bad as the current cuts indicate, then the cuts should be meaningful. Drew could take a 50 percent cut and still make a substantial salary. Depending on salary and position, the VPs could take between 10 percent and 35 percent. Salaries, of course, are just a start. They could announce other expenses and perks that they were willing to sacrifice in order to preserve jobs and programs. They could even take the cuts with the expectation of compensation once the economy improved.
2. Let the department directors make the decisions about cuts. Ask each director to decide on three scenarios: a 2.5 percent, 5 percent, and 7 percent cut in their departmental budget. Directors know their departments. They have a better idea what's necessary and what's not. They are more likely to find ways to cut expenses without cutting employees. By brainstorming with their employees, they are more likely to come up with creative solutions. Most importantly, now it will feel like the employees have a voice in the process. It will feel less unfair. If the proposed cuts don't work, then the administrators can come in and make the decisions. But they should begin by showing trust in their department directors and employees to make decisions that will maintain quality care and the financial viability of the hospital.
3. Offer incentives to improve collections. Directors have been measured on their revenue and their charges, and not on their collection of the revenue. If there is any process in the hospital that needs improvement, it is the collection process. Collections are mainly the job of the business office, but everyone needs to take responsibility for the process. Departments that are able to improve their collections could be rewarded with bonuses or extra days off.
ARMC has been a great place to work. It's a place that has been good to its employees and to its patients. It's a shame that it no longer feels that way. The administrators need to take their eyes off their budget problems and take a moment to address their employee problems. They might be surprised by what they find.
Tom
Tom is not the real name of the writer.
Iraq Is A Mess
A Real Coalition Is Needed
You may have thought that the war against Iraq was justified, and despite the lack of evidence of weapons of mass destruction you may still think it was justified in the beginning, but there is no justification for the way that this administration is handling the situation now. First, and there is no denying it, compared to the old Iraq things are way the hell worse now. If you add up the total number of people in Iraq whose lives are now hell as compared to before, this is a fact. It is a bona fide mess, and it is getting worse each day, not better.
Meanwhile, we are refusing military and financial help from any country that wants any control over post-war Iraq. We should be so lucky! We are trying to bring control to a society of millions of people that only yesterday were living under a military dictatorship, and we're doing it from scratch, with no garbage men, postal workers, electricity, gas, water, police, hospitals or oil. We need all of the help we can get and then a whole lot more. We should not refuse any ounce of aid from any possible source. We can't do this by ourselves and we don't want to. We've done enough. If there was any good to do in terms of dismantling the Iraqi military, it has been done. We are living in "the peace" and we have had enough of it.
We said before the war that those nations who didn't join in with us in this effort would not share in the "spoils of war," i.e. the lucrative re-building projects funded by the huge oil revenues. Well those fruits aren't being born. The real spoils of this war are chaos and bloodshed and the rumblings of frightening forces of fundamentalist revolution coalescing beneath the surface. We cannot afford to wait until we are inextricably drawn into a real religious war. We can no longer afford to ignore the presence of willing nations to help us control such a dire situation. We can only hope that with their help, we might see a new and stable Iraqi government rebuild Iraq.
The post-war Iraq situation has been compared by the Bush Administration to the re-building of Japan and Germany after World War II, but it is the exact opposite. After that war, the neighboring countries of both Germany and Japan unanimously applauded their defeat and gladly offered support in the aftermath. On the other hand, in the Middle East there is far more hatred for the United States outside of Iraq than within Iraq. We should have thought of that before we made this move. The terrorists and suicide bombers running amok in Iraq right now are made up of the same religious zealots that Saddam Hussein kept in check with an iron boot. The fact is that Saddam's worst enemies are now our problem. We didn't know what a hard job he had.
Chip Shirley
Chip Shirley is a local freelance writer.
We're Invaders
Of Course They Resist
Nearly 70 percent of Americans tell Newsweek that "the United States will be bogged down in [Iraq] for years without achieving its goals." Yet 61 percent tell the same poll that invading Iraq was the right thing to do. The reason for this weird disconnect: people think that we're in Iraq to spread democracy and rebuild the Middle East. They think we're The Good Guys. But the longer we keep patting ourselves on the back, the more we tell ourselves that the Iraqi resistance is a bunch of evil freedom-haters, the deeper we'll sink into this quagmire.
It's time to get real.
In war, the side that most accurately sizes up the situation ultimately prevails. In this war in Iraq, our leaders thought the fall of Baghdad meant the end of the conflict. "Mission accomplished," as the banner behind George W. Bush read on the aircraft carrier. But Saddam understood the truth: the war began with the occupation. Guerrilla warfare offered the only way for Iraq's tiny, poorly armed military to resist the U.S. The Baath Party planned to provoke U.S. occupation forces into mistreating the population.
It worked.
Random bombings and sniper hits have made the American occupiers jittery and paranoid. They've withdrawn into fortified cantonments where they've cut off contact with civilians. Their ignorance causes them to offend Iraqi cultural and religious sensibilities. Even better, from Saddam's perspective, U.S. troops push people around: shooting unarmed motorists, stealing their money and jewelry at roadblocks, breaking into houses in the middle of the night, manhandling wives and daughters, putting bags over men's heads and carrying them off to God knows where for who knows how long.
"U.S. troops put their boots on the back of men's heads as they lay face down, forcing their foreheads to the ground," the Associated Press' Scheherezade Faramarzi writes about the procedure used by U.S. troops during sweeps. "There is no greater humiliation... because Islam forbids putting the forehead on the ground except in prayer.' Amnesty International says the U.S. subjects Iraqi prisoners to "cruel, inhuman or degrading" conditions.
In Iraq, we are the bad guys.
What about the "terrorists" who bombed the U.N. headquarters and Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, who sabotage oil and water pipelines, who use rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and remote-controlled mines to kill our soldiers? Aren't these "killers" evil, "killing people who just want to help," as another AP writer puts it?
In short: no.
The ad hoc Iraqi resistance is comprised of indigenous fighters ranging from secular ex-Republican Guards to radical Islamist Shiites, as well as foreign Arab volunteers waging the same brand of come-one-come-all jihad that the mujahedeen fought against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan. While one can dismiss foreign jihadis as naïve adventurers, honest Americans should call native Iraqi resistance fighters by a more fitting name: Iraqi patriots.
I collect propaganda posters. One of my favorites, from World War II, depicts a strapping young SS officer holding a smiling local kid in his arms. "Trust the German soldier," the caption exhorts citizens of occupied France. But when liberation came in 1945, Frenchmen who had obeyed that poster were shot as collaborators. The men and women who resisted - the "terrorists" who shot German soldiers, cut phone lines and bombed trains - received medals and pensions. Invaders always say that they come as liberators, but it's almost never true. Whether you live in Paris or Baghdad or New York, you're expected to know that, and to act accordingly.
"We want deeds, not words," says Abu Mohammad, a retired teacher about our inability (unwillingness?) to restore basic services to the city of Baghdad. Here are our deeds: Talking about democracy as we cancel elections. Guarding the oil ministry building while museums are sacked. Exporting Iraqi oil to Turkey as Iraqis suffer fuel and power shortages. Iraq's natural resources are being raped. Its people are being murdered. Yet it's the patriotic Iraqi resistance, which is trying to stop these outrages by throwing out the perpetrators of an illegal war of aggression, that the Bush Administration dares call "terrorists."
On July 5 a bomb killed seven recruits for a U.S.-trained Iraqi police force in Ramadi. U.S. occupation administrator Paul Bremer deplored the murder of "innocent Iraqis." Cops who work for a foreign army of occupation are not innocent. They are collaborators. Traitors. They had it coming.
Under George W. Bush, truth and justice are no longer the American way. The U.S. occupation of Iraq is misguided, evil and doomed to failure. The sooner we accept this difficult truth, the sooner we decide to stop being the bad guys, the sooner we'll withdraw our troops. The bloodshed may continue after we leave - and we'll be partly to blame for that. But until we pull out, the carnage is all ours.
Sami Tuma's brother was shot to death when he drove past a U.S. military checkpoint. (The psychotic U.S. military policy in Iraq, despite countless killings of innocent civilians and at least five reporters to date, is not to warn victims before opening fire.) "It is simple," says Tuma. "If someone kills your son, wife or brother without any reason but only that they happen to be walking or driving in the street, what you will do? You retaliate."
It's what I'd do. It's probably what you'd do too.
Ted Rall
Columnist and cartoonist Ted Rall is the author of the graphic travelogue To Afghanistan and Back.
A Townie Tirade
Sometimes It's All Too Much
"The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming!" Raise your hand if you're a townie and have said this. Raise your hand if you hate townies. Equal number of hands raised on both sides, I see. Wow, look at all those dirty hands. What a terrific town, this Athens. People flock here for higher education and then fly away for independent, successful lives. Some don't fly away. They don't go anywhere. Townieship in this town, in all its pathetic splendor, doesn't require very much at all, you see, quite little, in fact. Just stick around a few years, enjoy your 28th birthday party thrown by your work pals at the TacoBandStand or SpewSky. By the time you reach your early 30s you'll have attained seniority in this craphole town. Yes, most all other Head Townies will have died from lack of insurance or moved out from minor epiphany. "But the art, man, this town's a melting pot of creative art, man." Believe whatever you want, you're obviously ignorant to be defending this art "mecca." And you're probably one of the few well-to-do citizens around here. How many thousands and thousands and thousands have wasted their lives here banking on winning the Pick 3 lotto? How many made it? Name me 10 that don't begin with "R," "W," or "B." Sure, there have been many, many great bands to come through this town, bands that had to break up, separate, and move out and on with their lives. Or, they just stay here, as they've invested so much here, and they by now may have a kid or are married, so leaving comes as easily to them as computer literacy does to an 80 year old. Sure, just stick around a little longer; take that high road, get some non-prescription glasses and some holey vintage clothes, have your global talks of putting an end to global warming and world hunger and tell her that the soul of a person means so much more than their looks, show her that deep mind of yours. Say it with sincerity. Yeah, give a snarl to a student walking by. This is YOUR town!!
Mike Simpson
Mike Simpson owes everything to the book How To Win Friends And Influence People.
Head Of Household
Provo Makes Allowance
This response came from Provo, Utah, regarding owner-occupancy exemptions. Issues they dealt with seem very similar to concerns here in Athens:
"There is an exemption for an owner-occupant defined as 'head of household.' There were concerns by single homeowners who could not afford a mortgage with fewer than two roommates and concerns about elderly or disabled homeowners who may need more than one person residing in the home for income or as care-givers. Allowing a single owner-occupant the opportunity to have two additional people in the home (a total of three people sharing the living space of the home) may help some people achieve home ownership or be able to retain their independence and remain in their own homes for a longer period of time. 'Owner occupant' and 'head of household' also have new or revised definitions." (Jan Yeckes, Asst Director Provo City Community Development, 351 W Center St, P O Box 1849 Provo UT 84603. Phone: 801-852-6402 Fax: 801-852-6417 provo.jyeckes@state.ut.us, www.provo.org/comdev/
Krysia Haig
Krysia Haig is compiling a city-by-city survey of rental requirements that will be up on the web soon. Stay tuned.
Hospital Cuts Misguided
Athens Regional Medical Center is making major cuts in personnel and programs as a result of a financial crisis precipitated by federal and state cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. To many employees – those cut and those not - the process has felt unfair. Whether or not it has been unfair, the hospital administration has handled reorganization badly. The CEO and a select few of his vice presidents made the decisions about who and what to cut. Much of the process has been secretive and rumors were rampant before any final decisions were made. There was no appeal process. All decisions were final. The decisions themselves have stunned many at the hospital and the community at large. For those employees who are losing their jobs, there has been little gratitude expressed for their years of service. It's been a cold, hard process. Morale is down, tempers are up, and people are scared as they anticipate another round of cuts.
| |
It's probably too late for the present cuts, but the administration might consider these suggestions before the next round of reorganization.
1. Begin at home. Show that you're willing to make sacrifices. Begin by announcing a pay cut for the administrative team and then look at other cuts. There is no better way to improve morale and decrease resentment than for John Drew to announce that he and his nine vice presidents will take pay cuts. A token cut, like 5 percent, will not do. If the financial crisis is as bad as the current cuts indicate, then the cuts should be meaningful. Drew could take a 50 percent cut and still make a substantial salary. Depending on salary and position, the VPs could take between 10 percent and 35 percent. Salaries, of course, are just a start. They could announce other expenses and perks that they were willing to sacrifice in order to preserve jobs and programs. They could even take the cuts with the expectation of compensation once the economy improved.
2. Let the department directors make the decisions about cuts. Ask each director to decide on three scenarios: a 2.5 percent, 5 percent, and 7 percent cut in their departmental budget. Directors know their departments. They have a better idea what's necessary and what's not. They are more likely to find ways to cut expenses without cutting employees. By brainstorming with their employees, they are more likely to come up with creative solutions. Most importantly, now it will feel like the employees have a voice in the process. It will feel less unfair. If the proposed cuts don't work, then the administrators can come in and make the decisions. But they should begin by showing trust in their department directors and employees to make decisions that will maintain quality care and the financial viability of the hospital.
3. Offer incentives to improve collections. Directors have been measured on their revenue and their charges, and not on their collection of the revenue. If there is any process in the hospital that needs improvement, it is the collection process. Collections are mainly the job of the business office, but everyone needs to take responsibility for the process. Departments that are able to improve their collections could be rewarded with bonuses or extra days off.
ARMC has been a great place to work. It's a place that has been good to its employees and to its patients. It's a shame that it no longer feels that way. The administrators need to take their eyes off their budget problems and take a moment to address their employee problems. They might be surprised by what they find.
Tom
Tom is not the real name of the writer.
Iraq Is A Mess
A Real Coalition Is Needed
You may have thought that the war against Iraq was justified, and despite the lack of evidence of weapons of mass destruction you may still think it was justified in the beginning, but there is no justification for the way that this administration is handling the situation now. First, and there is no denying it, compared to the old Iraq things are way the hell worse now. If you add up the total number of people in Iraq whose lives are now hell as compared to before, this is a fact. It is a bona fide mess, and it is getting worse each day, not better.
Meanwhile, we are refusing military and financial help from any country that wants any control over post-war Iraq. We should be so lucky! We are trying to bring control to a society of millions of people that only yesterday were living under a military dictatorship, and we're doing it from scratch, with no garbage men, postal workers, electricity, gas, water, police, hospitals or oil. We need all of the help we can get and then a whole lot more. We should not refuse any ounce of aid from any possible source. We can't do this by ourselves and we don't want to. We've done enough. If there was any good to do in terms of dismantling the Iraqi military, it has been done. We are living in "the peace" and we have had enough of it.
We said before the war that those nations who didn't join in with us in this effort would not share in the "spoils of war," i.e. the lucrative re-building projects funded by the huge oil revenues. Well those fruits aren't being born. The real spoils of this war are chaos and bloodshed and the rumblings of frightening forces of fundamentalist revolution coalescing beneath the surface. We cannot afford to wait until we are inextricably drawn into a real religious war. We can no longer afford to ignore the presence of willing nations to help us control such a dire situation. We can only hope that with their help, we might see a new and stable Iraqi government rebuild Iraq.
The post-war Iraq situation has been compared by the Bush Administration to the re-building of Japan and Germany after World War II, but it is the exact opposite. After that war, the neighboring countries of both Germany and Japan unanimously applauded their defeat and gladly offered support in the aftermath. On the other hand, in the Middle East there is far more hatred for the United States outside of Iraq than within Iraq. We should have thought of that before we made this move. The terrorists and suicide bombers running amok in Iraq right now are made up of the same religious zealots that Saddam Hussein kept in check with an iron boot. The fact is that Saddam's worst enemies are now our problem. We didn't know what a hard job he had.
Chip Shirley
Chip Shirley is a local freelance writer.
We're Invaders
Of Course They Resist
Nearly 70 percent of Americans tell Newsweek that "the United States will be bogged down in [Iraq] for years without achieving its goals." Yet 61 percent tell the same poll that invading Iraq was the right thing to do. The reason for this weird disconnect: people think that we're in Iraq to spread democracy and rebuild the Middle East. They think we're The Good Guys. But the longer we keep patting ourselves on the back, the more we tell ourselves that the Iraqi resistance is a bunch of evil freedom-haters, the deeper we'll sink into this quagmire.
It's time to get real.
In war, the side that most accurately sizes up the situation ultimately prevails. In this war in Iraq, our leaders thought the fall of Baghdad meant the end of the conflict. "Mission accomplished," as the banner behind George W. Bush read on the aircraft carrier. But Saddam understood the truth: the war began with the occupation. Guerrilla warfare offered the only way for Iraq's tiny, poorly armed military to resist the U.S. The Baath Party planned to provoke U.S. occupation forces into mistreating the population.
It worked.
Random bombings and sniper hits have made the American occupiers jittery and paranoid. They've withdrawn into fortified cantonments where they've cut off contact with civilians. Their ignorance causes them to offend Iraqi cultural and religious sensibilities. Even better, from Saddam's perspective, U.S. troops push people around: shooting unarmed motorists, stealing their money and jewelry at roadblocks, breaking into houses in the middle of the night, manhandling wives and daughters, putting bags over men's heads and carrying them off to God knows where for who knows how long.
"U.S. troops put their boots on the back of men's heads as they lay face down, forcing their foreheads to the ground," the Associated Press' Scheherezade Faramarzi writes about the procedure used by U.S. troops during sweeps. "There is no greater humiliation... because Islam forbids putting the forehead on the ground except in prayer.' Amnesty International says the U.S. subjects Iraqi prisoners to "cruel, inhuman or degrading" conditions.
In Iraq, we are the bad guys.
What about the "terrorists" who bombed the U.N. headquarters and Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, who sabotage oil and water pipelines, who use rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and remote-controlled mines to kill our soldiers? Aren't these "killers" evil, "killing people who just want to help," as another AP writer puts it?
In short: no.
The ad hoc Iraqi resistance is comprised of indigenous fighters ranging from secular ex-Republican Guards to radical Islamist Shiites, as well as foreign Arab volunteers waging the same brand of come-one-come-all jihad that the mujahedeen fought against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan. While one can dismiss foreign jihadis as naïve adventurers, honest Americans should call native Iraqi resistance fighters by a more fitting name: Iraqi patriots.
I collect propaganda posters. One of my favorites, from World War II, depicts a strapping young SS officer holding a smiling local kid in his arms. "Trust the German soldier," the caption exhorts citizens of occupied France. But when liberation came in 1945, Frenchmen who had obeyed that poster were shot as collaborators. The men and women who resisted - the "terrorists" who shot German soldiers, cut phone lines and bombed trains - received medals and pensions. Invaders always say that they come as liberators, but it's almost never true. Whether you live in Paris or Baghdad or New York, you're expected to know that, and to act accordingly.
"We want deeds, not words," says Abu Mohammad, a retired teacher about our inability (unwillingness?) to restore basic services to the city of Baghdad. Here are our deeds: Talking about democracy as we cancel elections. Guarding the oil ministry building while museums are sacked. Exporting Iraqi oil to Turkey as Iraqis suffer fuel and power shortages. Iraq's natural resources are being raped. Its people are being murdered. Yet it's the patriotic Iraqi resistance, which is trying to stop these outrages by throwing out the perpetrators of an illegal war of aggression, that the Bush Administration dares call "terrorists."
On July 5 a bomb killed seven recruits for a U.S.-trained Iraqi police force in Ramadi. U.S. occupation administrator Paul Bremer deplored the murder of "innocent Iraqis." Cops who work for a foreign army of occupation are not innocent. They are collaborators. Traitors. They had it coming.
Under George W. Bush, truth and justice are no longer the American way. The U.S. occupation of Iraq is misguided, evil and doomed to failure. The sooner we accept this difficult truth, the sooner we decide to stop being the bad guys, the sooner we'll withdraw our troops. The bloodshed may continue after we leave - and we'll be partly to blame for that. But until we pull out, the carnage is all ours.
Sami Tuma's brother was shot to death when he drove past a U.S. military checkpoint. (The psychotic U.S. military policy in Iraq, despite countless killings of innocent civilians and at least five reporters to date, is not to warn victims before opening fire.) "It is simple," says Tuma. "If someone kills your son, wife or brother without any reason but only that they happen to be walking or driving in the street, what you will do? You retaliate."
It's what I'd do. It's probably what you'd do too.
Ted Rall
Columnist and cartoonist Ted Rall is the author of the graphic travelogue To Afghanistan and Back.
A Townie Tirade
Sometimes It's All Too Much
"The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming!" Raise your hand if you're a townie and have said this. Raise your hand if you hate townies. Equal number of hands raised on both sides, I see. Wow, look at all those dirty hands. What a terrific town, this Athens. People flock here for higher education and then fly away for independent, successful lives. Some don't fly away. They don't go anywhere. Townieship in this town, in all its pathetic splendor, doesn't require very much at all, you see, quite little, in fact. Just stick around a few years, enjoy your 28th birthday party thrown by your work pals at the TacoBandStand or SpewSky. By the time you reach your early 30s you'll have attained seniority in this craphole town. Yes, most all other Head Townies will have died from lack of insurance or moved out from minor epiphany. "But the art, man, this town's a melting pot of creative art, man." Believe whatever you want, you're obviously ignorant to be defending this art "mecca." And you're probably one of the few well-to-do citizens around here. How many thousands and thousands and thousands have wasted their lives here banking on winning the Pick 3 lotto? How many made it? Name me 10 that don't begin with "R," "W," or "B." Sure, there have been many, many great bands to come through this town, bands that had to break up, separate, and move out and on with their lives. Or, they just stay here, as they've invested so much here, and they by now may have a kid or are married, so leaving comes as easily to them as computer literacy does to an 80 year old. Sure, just stick around a little longer; take that high road, get some non-prescription glasses and some holey vintage clothes, have your global talks of putting an end to global warming and world hunger and tell her that the soul of a person means so much more than their looks, show her that deep mind of yours. Say it with sincerity. Yeah, give a snarl to a student walking by. This is YOUR town!!
Mike Simpson
Mike Simpson owes everything to the book How To Win Friends And Influence People.
Head Of Household
Provo Makes Allowance
This response came from Provo, Utah, regarding owner-occupancy exemptions. Issues they dealt with seem very similar to concerns here in Athens:
"There is an exemption for an owner-occupant defined as 'head of household.' There were concerns by single homeowners who could not afford a mortgage with fewer than two roommates and concerns about elderly or disabled homeowners who may need more than one person residing in the home for income or as care-givers. Allowing a single owner-occupant the opportunity to have two additional people in the home (a total of three people sharing the living space of the home) may help some people achieve home ownership or be able to retain their independence and remain in their own homes for a longer period of time. 'Owner occupant' and 'head of household' also have new or revised definitions." (Jan Yeckes, Asst Director Provo City Community Development, 351 W Center St, P O Box 1849 Provo UT 84603. Phone: 801-852-6402 Fax: 801-852-6417 provo.jyeckes@state.ut.us, www.provo.org/comdev/
Krysia Haig
Krysia Haig is compiling a city-by-city survey of rental requirements that will be up on the web soon. Stay tuned.
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