What’s going on at the Hospital?

I’ve received some requests to post about the ongoing struggles on the hospital district Board and possibly in the hospital and clinic themselves. I’ve avoided the issue for two reasons. One is that my wife is employed by the clinic. I don’t think she involves herself in any of the disputes as she works there for only a few hours per week. But I don’t want anything I say to come back on her in any case. And I don’t want to post anything I’m going to hear about when I get home tonight (probably too late to worry about that once I hit the blog “publish” button).

Secondly, I just don’t have the time to keep up. I just finished reading Mary Anderson’s Redwood Times article which is long and very detailed – but still not really telling me enough about what the hell the fighting is about. I understand that there’s a big article in the Independent as well. Maybe somebody can educate me. And somehow Mary Anderson herself managed to get caught up in the fray.

Third, I’m burned out on conflict. I don’t think there’s a single non-profit institution in Sohum without some drama going on, and they all seem to spill into each other (for instance, the article noted that the hospital lost over 8 grand during the last Reggae festival for uncompensated care of festival attendees). I’ve had a rather intense month of conflict in my own practice, and I’m not eager to jump into any more sqabbles.

However, the point of this blog is to provide a forum to sound off on issues, particularly of local concern, and I will post links to the articles as they become available. If anybody wants to write something thoughtful and comprehensive on the issue I’ll be more than happy to post it. As I’ve said I can’t be here 24/7 to monitor everything, but if I think a flaming post is out of bounds I will zap it – particularly if the post is anonymous.

October article.

September article.

Income and visits up.

That’s what I can find on the RT site.

Photo is of the lab area where my wife stabs you and takes your blood. It comes from the Healthcare District’s site.

Shut the CIA down!

Guess who’s calling for it.

Sohum blogs

I’ve rearranged my links to separate the Sohum blogs, most of which are recently created. Please let me know if I’m missing any.

I hope to rearrange the rest of them to alphabetical order as well. I think I’ve cleaned out the inactive blogs. I know I’m missing a few other non-Sohum local blogs, and I’ll get to that as well.

EPD officer arraignments postponed until February

From the Times-Standard:

The arraignment of former Police Chief David Douglas and Lt. Tony Zanotti on involuntary manslaughter charges was postponed today, one week after a source told the Times-Standard that a criminal grand jury convened in the death of Cheri Lyn Moore was handing up indictments against them.

Defense attorneys representing Zanotti and Douglas requested a continuance of the arraignment, and there were no objections from the prosecution nor the defendants. Judge John Feeney set a Feb. 21 court date. He said the indictments and transcripts from the grand jury proceedings would remain sealed until that time.

The second floor hallway of the Humboldt County Courthouse was awash in black as a crowd of uniformed officers, city officials and other Eureka Police Department personnel attended the proceedings in support of Douglas and Zanotti.

Both defendants attended the brief court hearing, after being escorted into the court room through a back entrance by a bailiff. They left quickly once the hearing was over.

Lots of intense comments have already been attached to the article. At least the flaming won’t dominate the blogs over the holidays.

Addendum: Thanks to Rose for the heads-up – Bill Bragg will be defending Officer Douglas (as if he isn’t busy enough with the Mateel suit).