Summers wages "WAR ON THE POOR" with Propaganda Machine

[Brian Essi]

There is no doubt about it that Summers is waging an all out WAR ON THE POOR of Lakewood and our surrounding communities.

He is using Kevin Butler, Jenn Pae and a host of other political surrogates in a propaganda campaign to do so.

For example, last Thursday, on the same day the Board of Elections struck down Summers' bogus charter amendment language designed to prevent the voice of the people from being heard, Summers' law director issued political propaganda through the City's official website.

Butler made false and misleading statements that the City had no legal or other rights in relation to the Clinic and LHA and that the City had no options but to capitulate to the King's wishes.

Butler's propaganda had only one goal:

To justify Summers' Plan to close the public charity Lakewood Hospital as the City's major safety net for the poor and divert money and property to private profiteers all at the expense of the most vulnerable among us.

Lakewood Hospital and the Lakewood Hospital Foundation have provided over $120 million dollars of healthcare charity services to the poor since 1996 without one penny of taxpayer dollars and Summers wants to end that.

Summers is using trickery and deceit to rob from the poor and give to the rich.

The fundamental lie in Butler/Summers' propaganda is this:

They claim that LHA and CCF, both public charities, owe nothing to the City of Lakewood and people of Lakewood, including the poor.

The argument is obtuse and perverted for the following simple reasons:

1. The Charter and Lease of LHA expressly require it to operate a hospital for the citizens of Lakewood regardless of their ability to pay.

2. Summers is the leader of LHA--and the LHA Board is comprised of trustees largely appointed by the Mayor and City Council--10 in all.

3. The City of Lakewood's rights to those appointments emanate from the legal document known as the Definitive Agreement that the Clinic and LHA are both parties to as well. Butler claims the opposite--completely contrary to the written words in the contracts and charter--he pretends that Summers and the City have no role or say in what happens at the hospital.

4. In addition to the City's contractual rights, the facts and circumstances are such that the Clinic is making decisions with respect to the City's property and money against the City's interests not only in violation of the express terms of the Definitive Agreement but also in violation of statutory and case law and by operations of law. Given his "leadership" role, Summers is an accomplice in this unlawful behavior. However, Summers/Butler ignore the facts and the law and apparently think they are above it.

The conclusions Summers & Butler come to for illicit ends turn logic and reason on their heads and defy common sense.

So we have come full circle to the place we began:

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” “Common Sense”, Thomas Paine, 1776.

This tyranny against our most vulnerable citizens cannot and will not stand.

[Brian Essi]

Clinic Admission.JPG (44.75 KiB) Viewed 3353 times

Back in April, 2015, the Clinic made this public statement that was broadcast of local TV stations:

:...we have continued to honor and follow the contract to operate the hospital for the City of Lakewood."

So despite the Clinic admits it has a contract to operate the hospital for Lakewood, but Butler and Summers argue that the Clinic does not.

Whose side are these guys on?

[Lori Allen _]

Brian,
Although Summers is supposed to be the leader of our city, he is not the only person to be blamed for this hospital issue. CCF, LHA, LHF, and all council members choose to either jump on board or remain silent. This is like Jim's tale of the passenger riding in the stolen car. Any one involved could have spoken up, gone to the authorities, etc. I would say that they could go to the media, but, as we all should know by now, the mayor and CCF appear to have friends in low places. In no way does council deserve to be dismissed or held unaccountable for their actions. IMO

[Jim Kenny]

Brian: You are gifted with a great mind and persuasive writing abilities. These gifts, however, do not entitle you to ignore facts or abuse the intellect of our neighbors. Your latest missive ignores many facts, such as:

1) CCF’s donations and ongoing support of North Coast Health’s mission as its Medical Director is CCF’s Dr. Charles Garvin , and CCF pays his salary: [url]http://northcoasthealth.org/management/garven/[/url]

2) North Coast Health’s Secretary Jay Carson’s recent comments to City Council to inform them how the health care needs of Lakewood’s most vulnerable are generously being served: [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q6GKiaCzg8&feature=youtu.be [/url]

3) In the last five years (possibly longer) Lakewood residents, irrespective of their means or vulnerability, have represented roughly 10% of the annual inpatient population served at Lakewood Hospital

4) The fact that the most vulnerable in society rely on the ER for primary care, which LHA, our Mayor and CCF are the only three entities that collectively have a $32 million proposal to recapitalize this vital service that the most vulnerable of our neighbors depend on for their healthcare.

These are facts that you've ignored, so I politely suggest you that you reconsider what qualifies as propaganda before you point fingers and defame public servants. Ironically, your most current missive qualifies as much when as it recklessly ignores facts that you have conceded in the past.

I appreciate your passion for our city and, thus, must recognize that this is blinding your view of the truth. Please understand that I just don’t want it to blind our neighbors too.

[Brian Essi]

Jim, my comments are in red

Brian: You are gifted with a great mind and persuasive writing abilities. These gifts, however, do not entitle you to ignore facts or abuse the intellect of our neighbors. Your latest missive ignores many facts, such as:

1) CCF’s donations and ongoing support of North Coast Health’s mission as its Medical Director is CCF’s Dr. Charles Garvin , and CCF pays his salary: http://northcoasthealth.org/management/garven/

What's your point in relation to what I wrote above? How does this relate to Summers?

2) North Coast Health’s Secretary Jay Carson’s recent comments to City Council to inform them how the health care needs of Lakewood’s most vulnerable are generously being served: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q6GKiaCzg8&feature=youtu.be

Again, how does this relate to Summers? He and Jay Carson (and maybe you) want to permanently take millions of dollars of current annual charity away from the poor that comes from the hospital and you/they think that won't affect any of the poor that North Coast doesn't service? I like Jay's speech, but he is not talking about "hospital care"--he primarily is talking about preventative care and primary care. I don't agree with him on the "tough negotiation" thing--that's not realistic. Also Jay's piece completely ignores, among others, the fact that a lot of money and value has already been stolen and destroyed at the expense of the poor and the rest of us. So his speech is not the "holy grail" of solutions that BL hails it as. Hat's off to Jay for his long service to North Coast

3) In the last five years (possibly longer) Lakewood residents, irrespective of their means or vulnerability, have represented roughly 10% of the annual inpatient population served at Lakewood Hospital

Can your direct me to where you get the 10% figure? The millions of dollars of annual charity shown on LHA's audited financials is not limited to inpatient service dollars--its outpatient dollars for the poor too. So is your point that people outside Lakewood don't count? That charitable donors who gave to LHA or LHF from outside Lakewood don't count even though they may have been giving with the understanding of the Lakewood Hospital Service Area and not just geographic Lakewood?

4) The fact that the most vulnerable in society rely on the ER for primary care, which LHA, our Mayor and CCF are the only three entities that collectively have a $32 million proposal to recapitalize this vital service that the most vulnerable of our neighbors depend on for their healthcare.

Sorry, I don't understand this point at all.

These are facts that you've ignored, so I politely suggest you that you reconsider what qualifies as propaganda before you point fingers and defame public servants. Ironically, your most current missive qualifies as much when as it recklessly ignores facts that you have conceded in the past.

Exactly what facts are you talking about?

I appreciate your passion for our city and, thus, must recognize that this is blinding your view of the truth. Please understand that I just don’t want it to blind our neighbors too.

I like the phrase "blinding your view of the truth" i.e. you're calling me a liar--No worries, I just want clarity on what you are saying I have lied about. Like Brian, you wrote "Black", but I have a picture here of "white."

Jim, I do want you to continue on the Deck So I want to point out that there is a sea of facts out there. Suggesting that my post somehow left out some drops of water from the sea and, therefore, it is somehow untruthful requires you to state what is left out and how it relates to what I have put in that you are not contesting is truthful.

Of course, there's no requirement that you actually do that to continue on the Deck.

I don't see anything you've written so far that challenges what I originally wrote above as being factual.

[Jim Kenny]

Brian: Thanks for your encouragement. I'm looking forward to participating more on the Deck, as time allows.

I recognize you as human. And as such, you and all of us on the Deck are vulnerable to ignoring facts we don't like and, thus, elevating those we like as somehow more material. We, as a nation, wouldn't have an obesity problem if we weren’t vulnerable to not seeing the factual person standing in the mirror. It's this human trait or vulnerability that has been exploited throughout time, both consciously and subconsciously. Those blessed with strong cognitive abilities, I believe, are even more vulnerable to accepting and propagating their set of chosen truths; hence, the origins of the word propaganda

Please understand that I am suggesting that your chosen facts were presented without balance. Even if you choose not to see the balance or, worse yet, openly dismiss any of it as irrelevant when presented, others on this forum deserve the benefit of having this perspective as part of their consideration set.

As I told you when we first met, I am committed to offering a balance to any issue of concern that we as a community must understand collectively. My post was an attempt to honor what I've committed to you and others. The accusations of "liar" or "untruthful" are yours and not mine. I've never uttered those about you or any player in this debate. And I won't. It kills the dialogue that we need.

[Brian Essi]

Brian: Thanks for your encouragement. I'm looking forward to participating more on the Deck, as time allows.

I recognize you as human. And as such, you and all of us on the Deck are vulnerable to ignoring facts we don't like and, thus, elevating those we like as somehow more material. We, as a nation, wouldn't have an obesity problem if we weren’t vulnerable to not seeing the factual person standing in the mirror. It's this human trait or vulnerability that has been exploited throughout time, both consciously and subconsciously. Those blessed with strong cognitive abilities, I believe, are even more vulnerable to accepting and propagating their set of chosen truths; hence, the origins of the word propaganda

Please understand that I am suggesting that your chosen facts were presented without balance. Even if you choose not to see the balance or, worse yet, openly dismiss any of it as irrelevant when presented, others on this forum deserve the benefit of having this perspective as part of their consideration set.

As I told you when we first met, I am committed to offering a balance to any issue of concern that we as a community must understand collectively. My post was an attempt to honor what I've committed to you and others. The accusations of "liar" or "untruthful" are yours and not mine. I've never uttered those about you or any player in this debate. And I won't. It kills the dialogue that we need.

Jim,

You are an eloquent gentleman. Your previous post above was ostensibly about "facts" that I ignored and the one today is about philosophy and void of any facts. Its fine to focus on me and my alleged blindness, imbalance and argumentative style versus your claim of being somehow balanced in the abstract. But you are on one side of this issue and I on the other, so by definition we can't both be balanced and perhaps neither of us is--unless one is right and the other wrong.

Please remember that our relationship started with your article claiming the FHC was going to be a "hospital"--that debate ended with Build Lakewood taking the claim down. Even CCF's Dr. Jones testified before Council that there would be "no hospital services" at the proposed referral center.

Writing softly worded but yet backhanded accusations about my honesty is fine by me. You can even call me a liar if you wish and it will never kill the dialogue with me. I do respect that others see that differently.

Enough with philosophy---we are both residents of Lakewood faced with one of the most important issue of our time. So in my view, dealing with the facts and being clear what is fact and what is fiction is vital. No worries if you wish to shy away due to my style--I am not here on the Deck for popularity or even to make friends.

So to get to directly to a point that I suspect drew you back to the Deck--charity. For months now I have been beating my drum and spouting off about the loss of charity if the hospital closes--it is a main driver of my passion in this matter. I have launched many burning arrows into your camp--including this thread.

You returned to the deck armed with Jay Carson's fine speech--a perceived sword and shield for your camp. "We do care about charity--See!"

But there is a problem--North Coast Health Ministry as good as it is--it is not a hospital. It cannot replace the charity service that the hospital has for over 100 years.

So I ask you Jim: if one of your children dies as a result of not having a hospital nearby, how will you explain your vote?

Lakewood needs a hospital.

[Jim Kenny]

Brian: thanks for your response. I will get to the heart of your question. If one of my children is in a car wreck and in need of life saving attention, that means they are in need of Level III trauma. They can only receive that at MetroHealth. I have faith that a well-equipped ER can stabilize them and transfer them by Life Flight to the appropriate level of care. Our health care system is designed to do that.

What concerns me is the losing the opportunity to have a top-shelf ER to a vain attempt to save an obsolete, capital starved hospital. If we lose both, Lakewood's ER service will be at Fairview and time is critical in trauma.

I know this too well. I was involved in a severe, high-speed car accident in 1985 when I was a senior in high school. It was in Lorain, so my classmates and I were treated at obsolete, ill-equipped hospitals when we should have been transferred by Life Flight to a Level III trauma center like MetroHealth. Instead, I live with the ghosts of three dead classmates and the after effects of recovering from head trauma that are still apparent today.

Brian, I confront daily your question on immediate care for my sons and every son/daughter who enters my home. I sometimes wake in the middle of the night with this question and others, because I know the pain as a child and now understand it intimately as a parent. And in my heart of hearts, I'm at peace when I ask our neighbors to trust that the care of them and their loved ones will be best protected by a new ER that funnels them faster in the region's health care continuum than a highly leveraged bet that we can force fit Lakewood Hospital into the region's health care mix.

[Jim Kenny]

Brian: thanks for your response. I will get to the heart of your question. If one of my children is in a car wreck and in need of life saving attention, that means they are in need of Level III trauma. They can only receive that at MetroHealth. I have faith that a well-equipped ER can stabilize them and transfer them by Life Flight to the appropriate level of care. Our health care system is designed to do that.

What concerns me is the losing the opportunity to have a top-shelf ER to a vain attempt to save an obsolete, capital starved hospital. If we lose both, Lakewood's ER service will be at Fairview and time is critical in trauma.

I know this too well. I was involved in a severe, high-speed car accident in 1985 when I was a senior in high school. It was in Lorain, so my classmates and I were treated at obsolete, ill-equipped hospitals when we should have been transferred by Life Flight to a Level III trauma center like MetroHealth. Instead, I live with the ghosts of three dead classmates and the after effects of recovering from head trauma that are still apparent today.

Brian, I confront daily your question on immediate care for my sons and every son/daughter who enters my home. I sometimes wake in the middle of the night with this question and others, because I know the pain as a child and now understand it intimately as a parent. And in my heart of hearts, I'm at peace when I ask our neighbors to trust that the care of them and their loved ones will be best protected by a new ER that funnels them faster in the region's health care continuum than a highly leveraged bet that we can force fit Lakewood Hospital into the region's health care mix.

[Bridget Conant]

MetroHealth Medical Center is a Level 1 trauma center. It is the only one in this area.

Meanwhile, every other major Ohio city has more than one Level 1 trauma centers:

http://www.publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/ems_trauma_center_details.xls

[Jim Kenny]

Bridget: Thanks for clarifying my point and please forgive me for confusing the order of trauma levels. Nonetheless, you're helping me illustrate the point that any specialized surgeries now require a critical mass of interactions or surgeries to best serve a population or a region. Our Lakewood Hospital, which is land locked and not as centralized as Fairview, is not positioned to serve this role. Without the frequency of patients with specific conditions, we risk being served by generalists who are well intentioned, yet ill equipped to help those they are committed to serve. I encountered these same dedicated professionals with my head trauma who thought because they were at a hospital they could serve me. They didn't. Nor could they help my friends who didn't last the night after entering the ER, because they weren't sent where they could best be served. A well-equipped ER and one that understood its role in the region's health care delivery system could have saved them. I can't now save my friends. I can save future patients; thus, I'm dedicated to doing as much as Lakewood is my people.

[Bridget Conant]

I didn't "make your point" at all. I was merely saying you had the wrong trauma level so no one would wonder.

The problem with your argument is that serious trauma - gunshot, auto accident- they are going to Metro just as they ALWAYS have. The problem is when you look at stroke and cardiac care, the leading causes of sudden death. What you will have with the "health center" is exactly what they have in Twinsburg. A leading Clinic doctor told me last week that stroke and cardiac patients taken to Twinsburg are moved to the Main Campus ER, wasting valuable time. The same will happen here. Why? Because not all such cases are immediately discernible as the serious emergencies that they are. Perhaps the elderly patient isn't quite "with it." Is it a minor problem or a stroke? The woman with chest pain - anxiety or a heart attack. Even EMS isn't omniscient - they'll take those cases to the "new" Lakewood where they will be unable to offer the care they need and they'll be transferred, wasting precious time - as the Cleveland Clinic states "seconds count in an emergency."

You absolutely are fooling yourself if you don't believe that this proposed health center (I refuse to call it an ER because it's clearly NOT,) will directly cause an increase in mortality for residents needing this type of emergency care.

[Lori Allen _]

Bridget,

I could not agree with you more. Apparently there are a lot of people who actually believe they will be getting an "ER" along with the Family Medicine Residency Training Program. It will be a six to nine bed urgi-care center. Colds, flu, etc. Most of the Hospital has been re-done over the past several years with the exception of the older area where apparently LHA wanted to just paint over everything instead of REALLY fixing it. Bottom line, bogus deal for the citizens of Lakewood and in my opinion probably not legal.

[Jim Kenny]

Bridget: Thanks for clarifying yourself. Please don't ignore my point, and that is any hospital requires a critical level of interactions to reach quality levels to require payment by today's standards. Lakewood Hospital doesn't operate at this level today and chances for doing so are less likely in the future. I, too, wish the facts were different. They aren't, so how do we best provide for our neighbors? Subsidizing a dying hospital won't do it, especially when hospital beds aren't as critical and our region has more than 4 beds for every 1k residents and the national average is 2 beds for every 1k. We need to consolidate. When that happens, services need to be centrally located. Fairview is more central in the region than Lakewood. Please don't fight the facts, as this confuses and hurts the community. And I believe your heart isn't searching these outcomes. Thanks.

[Bridget Conant]

Look at what you wrote - you claim we have too many beds in our region but CC is adding inpatient beds in Avon! If we already have too many, why are we "moving" beds instead of getting rid of beds?

How do you figure we are "consolidating" by opening a brand new hospital with an ER in Avon. Is Avon "centrally located?"

None of what you said is rational.

Here's the truth - none of your points are true. They are all BS concocted by people who want to leave Lakewood because their "business plan" is better served by moving to communities with higher socioeconomic demographics. Lakewood does NOT have to give up its hospital to suit the CLINIC. Metro DID make an earnest proposal that would have kept a full service hospital here but we all know that's NOT part of the Clinic plan. All the arguments about healthcare changing, and looking to the future, and too many beds, etc, etc THAT is what is misleading and confusing people and it's being done deliberately to justify the Clinic's plan.