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highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

Kelley…..the bi-partisan extreme politics of Democrats and Republicans with political and personal agendas is what got this whole country into the problem it's in. Watching CNN and Fox News has turned into a circus. If one party made the statement that the “sky was blue” the other party would have to comment how they were wrong and how it was “azure” and how the other's comment was unpatriotic and perverting the truth. We'd devote three days to the argument and it would come up in the next presidential election.

Three points to make here:

1) Extreme gun control is wrong. Sure the founding fathers never envisioned semi-automatic weapons but they didn't envision the Internet and masmedia, but that doesn't mean we take away the first amendment.
2) Extreme pro-gun owner rights is also wrong. Mandating all gun owners take safety and handling courses as well as registering of fire arms is not crazy. We make everyone register everything else in this country….alcahol, tobacco, cars, etc….sure it won't stop people from breaking the law who want to break the law but its a good starting point to enforcing the law. We have laws against killing people but just because a criminal is going to do it if they want to doesn't mean we throw the baby out with the bath water and get rid of the law.
3) If I was running for any office I wouldn't want anyone without a shred of common sense voting for me so I'm sure Don won't miss your vote either ….

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

1) Patrick that is just retarded! Lets just get rid of high school all together and just have an equivalent exam. Wait…that already have that, it's called a GED. It's for kids who can't make it through high school and meet the minimum requirements that the US and its States have established to get out of high school that are a JOKE compared to the rest of the world.
2) The lazy and complacent attitude of students is reflective of the Leadership. It's time for Schnellinger to go! He's a bad administrator and under his leadership MCHS is at the bottom of one of the worst States in America.
3) Parents of these geniuses who can't get out of bed and get to school are just as much to blame. Too many of our youth's parents in this region are lazy, uninvolved and ignorant to what their kids are doing.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

This is a retarded question. What does cooking outdoors in a contained area with profession equipement have anything to do with a fire ban? Better shut down all the restaurants aswell if you're going to use that logic. I'm even more amazed that 20% of the people voted “Yes”.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

Like I'm going to buy a subscriptioin to CDP so I can read the full story on-line. This is too funny. I can get a subscription to all kinds of stuff for less than what the CDP wants for a year.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

 Dave,

You make some good arguments, but spend just five or ten minutes talking to the people that leave TMH and you will find that its not the town, its not the location, its not the hours or the work load. Spend five minutes with anyone who has left voluntarily or been fired and you'll find out quickly who the problem is. Market share means nothing if you devalue the people who work for you or that you serve. Market share based on inpatient discharges is actually not a good indicator of hospital performance because hospital services are becoming more and more an outpatient business. Primary care doctros, outpatient surgeries, labs, and radiology make up a larger and larger portion of hospital business every year. The fact that TMH is keeping more patients that come into the ER instead of transfering them does not show that people are choosing TMH over the competition it just means TMH is keeping them when quite possibly they should be shipped out. Does that equate to better care or better patient safety? Only a more indepth study of patient outcomes would answer that question. But basing overall performance based on inpatient discharges isn't anything to get excited about. I find it hard to believe that TMH is winning people back when YVMC has their largest presence in Craig than they've ever had before. I constantly hear people (more so now than ever before) say they go to Steamboat for care. Yes they may use the ER here in times of emergencies, but that has more to do with the great staff in the ER and drive time than it does anything else. I am sure many of those ER visits turn into inpatient stays but that has more to do with logistics than patients choosing to use TMH for that type of care.

Simply put running a hospital is more than just good business decisions. When the person you've been seeing for for care for four or five years leaves because the hospital is being run poorly, every one of those patients know exactly why. When the person you are getting your Mamo-gram from for the last decade is let go for phelonious reasons and you have to go to some guy who's just there temporarily, you know the reason why, and when your OBGYN leaves because of poor leadership and dwindeling physician relationships, the patients know why. Providing good healthcare is much more than just making good business decisions on paper, its about caring, and compassion, and consistancy. The hospital disregards their doctors and medical staff because they feel they can and the only thing that can change that is a change in leadership.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

So roughly 160 people exercised their right to vote during this special district election? And the vast majority for the existing board members? Wow!!! From the way people commented online you would have though that there would be 1000 people coming out to vote against the encumbents……..Looks like not that many people were upset with the fire district building a new training station.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

 tlj2012,

I'm not disputing that the Craig Daily Mess is a horrible paper and doesn't do a single ounce of investigative reporting. I am sure that if Dr. Miller bought more adds in the paper his story wouldn't even have been on a back page somewhere. If you go back and read any of the articles you would see though that the paper did the minimal amount of research necessary to make a story. The fact of the matter is that Dr. Miller's office did get raided and files did get confiscated. Right now Medicare is investigating fraud all across the country. They are getting leads on potential fraud by simply running a doctor's billing history through a computer to find discrepencies in how they practice (e.g. are they prescribing too many narcotics? are they seeing the same person for the same thing too often? is the person they are billing for dead?) or the DEA runs their prescribing habbits through a computer to see if they are prescribing too many drugs to the same people over and over again. IF the authorities had absolutely nothing to base their decision on they wouldn't have raided his office. Now if Dr. Miller has done his due dilligence then he should not fear an investigation as he apparently is not since he said he has nothing to hide and is continuing to practice as usual. I also know that a witch hunt can creat mountains out of mole hills and if you are looking for even the smallest errors you will find them. But the simple fact of the matter is that Doctors are defrauding the US goverment and providing substandard care all over America. We also know that a very small percentage of physicians account for the vast majority of the malpractice and fraud going on.

From a personal stand point I have met Dr. Miller. I think he's an ok guy. I have know beef with him. As we go futher into the future though more and more physicians will haver their practice habbits called into question. Those choosing to practice off the grid (no hospital privileges, no electronic medical record, no particiapation in medicare and insuranace etc. ) may likely have their practice habbits called into question more often.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

 Kristy,

You are right…..you don't know. But what I see are those posting in his favor just opened up accounts in thelast few days and have only posted on his story, while the majority of those posting against him have posted, in many cases, for years on this website. Just seems odd. I'm not saying it is or isn't happening, I simply make a point that those who are voicing an opinion in favor of Dr. Miller have only been on this website a few days.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

I have no opinion one way or the other on this situation, but as a matter of observation I noticed that everyone who is voicing an opinion in favor of Dr. Miller has just recently signed up for a CDP account and have only posted in favor of Dr. Miller. Makes me wonder if its isn't just one or two people who have created multiple accounts to post in favor of Dr. Miller…..Just saying!

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

The Beckers group is a great organization. Inorder to be considered for any award from Beckers, such as the one the hospital was given, you have to send in an application for that specific award. All hospitals are sent application from numerous organizations like Beckers. Most hospitals (98% maybe) choose not to take the time to fill out the form.