The Observation Deck

Dear Tom Bullock, Rebecca M. Patton, Jennifer Pae, Colin McEwen,Pam Smith, Chair, Ron Petrie, Treasurer, Jeffrey K. Rohrs, Communications, Linda Beebe, Bob and Phyllis Dykes, Joel & Bonnie Egertson, William Gaydos, Kathy Haber, Tracy & Christine Jemison, Jim Kenny, Mary Osburn, Anne & Jack Palomaki, , Scott & Holly Reba, Jenny Barnett Rohrs, Dru Siley, Vicki & Dan Smigelski, Craig & Shannon Strachan, Missy & Darren Toms, Rick & Lori Uldricks, Terry & Candace Vincent, David Stein.

You have all put your names and reputations on Build Lakewood's propaganda so you are all responsible for the lives that may be lost as a result of the misinformation and outright lies contained in postcard (below) you sent to Lakewood residents as well as any future BL mailings.

People have already died at the hands of bad actors in league with you. If your propaganda is successful, it is a certainty that more lives will be lost as a result of your actions. Your individual inaction at this point will not relieve your responsibility for the lives affected.

Ignorance is not a defense. You each have a duty to your fellow citizens to understand and face the facts.

Make no mistake about it, BL mailings are being planned and orchestrated by Mayor Summers, CCF and LHA Trustees behind the scenes.

Below is an article concerning 2010 conduct by CCF that may give rise to criminal charges.

http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/2015/0 ... ion-by-ccf

The current ongoing efforts and campaign you are involved in with CCF has the same implications I wrote about in the article below.

For example, Rebecca Patton and others of you were present at the forum held on September 21st and heard the evidence presented by Dennis Kucinich. That evidence was contained in a legal motion to force LHA to produce withheld evidence. Ms. Patton had an opportunity to speak to that evidence and her role as an LHA trustee in resisting discovery of the further evidence. Instead, she took that opportunity to say that she did not believe that people of Lakewood were educated or informed enough to be trusted to vote on the hospital matter. She also said she did not like how people voted. Ms. Patton is campaigning against the right of the people for vote on the issue while she simultaneously collude with other LHA trustees to withhold information from the voters and City Council. To make matters worse she participates in a campaign of misinformation designed to misinform and manipulate the public---all the while touting her perceived status and superiority due to her credentials that are not relevant to the issues at hand. Perhaps most remarkable is her own ignorance of her legal duties as an LHA Trustee--namely to run a hospital for the people of Lakewood. A nurse is supposed to provide care for people. So in a very real sense Ms. Patton is ignorantly or intentionally violating legal duties by even being a part of BL in support of the destruction of the hospital.

Ditto for Mr. Bullock who participated in an orchestrated propaganda effort with several of you on September 21.

I am writing this open letter to put every one of you on notice as to the seriousness of your involvement and support of Build Lakewood.

Despite their denials, there are those among you who have much to gain personally in the upcoming election, the closing of the hospital and the proposed foundation.

Any future mailings by Build Lakewood containing misinformation and false and misleading information may visit serious personal consequences on each of you.

If you are successful and later find out the truth of what I and others have been saying and writing about, unfortunately it will be too late.

If you are successful, the blood of your victims can never be washed from your hands.

Brian,
Do you really think they care?

They are blinded because of all the dollar signs clouding their vision. Same goes for the mayor, most of council, LHA, CCF,...everyone with a stake in the spoils of this war. Such a sad commentary on what motivates some people in this city.

To underline an interesting point.

Has anyone noticed that two "deadlines or else" have passed with no, or else, no end of the world.

It would appear, we have time to look at this, and how it happened.


.

I repeat this because it is important. If it is in the works, forgive my harping on it:
I hope SLH comes up with a point-by-point rebuttal for nearly everyone reached by the BL postcard.

Also, I'd like to see more attention paid to the RFP process because, in my view, "no one else was interested" is the biggest distortion they've disseminated and it is on record somewhere in the video of the January Beck Center presentation.

Dan, it turns out there were TWO RFP's.
All these months we (SLH) were complaining to City Council that "the" RFP requested a full-inpatient-hospital, that Metro responded with a FULL hospital proposal and CCF responded with a NO-hospital proposal, and that the CCF "proposal" should have been thrown out IMMEDIATELY. And LHA ignored the good, complete Metro proposal. (Nobody, not Mayor, nor Council, nor LHA, ever mentioned they had issued two RFP's.)
Only months later, through the lawsuit, did we discover the truth. Lisa Fry of Subsidium admitted that there were TWO RFP's - Metro responded to ONE - and CCF responded to the OTHER.
It looks like, LHA sent out an RFP requesting a full-service inpatient hospital, probably hoping nobody would bite. When Metro responded (May 2014) with a proper, 34-page proposal (with attachments and financials) to run the inpatient hospital, under ANY legal arrangements we might wish to negotiate (even stepping into CCF's shoes in the lease) - LHA must have thought, "Oh, crap!"
And they issued another RFP in the form of a memorandum letter (I haven't seen it, not sure if it was exactly a full RFP) asking just for the short-form pretend hospital. Then CCF responded to THAT one. And of course, that is the one that LHA wanted. So it is obvious that the Mayor and LHA did NOT want to keep our hospital open. They have deceived us, intentionally, at EVERY step of the way.
It is important to recognize that LHA's mission is to RUN the hospital (and not to run it into the ground). They are all fiduciarily irresponsible.
The very fact that we are even HAVING this discussion, is a GROSS . . . PUBLIC . . . ADMISSION . . . of the . . . COLOSSAL . . . FAILURE . . . of the City to supervise its tenant (LHA) and of LHA to supervise ITS tenant, CCF.
They ALL should be ashamed of themselves.

Could someone please outline the scenarios around people who have already died because of hospital mismanagement? This has been mentioned several times without any specific details.

Believe it or not, there are still lots of people who are on the fence about what is going on with Lakewood Hospital. I know the Observer deck is filled with pro-SLH and I know that if we visit Facebook and the BL page, there are lots of people pro-BL.

However, there are many statements on both sides that seem to be thrown around without any facts backing them up. Again, I am NOT picking on any one side but seriously trying to understand what is fact and what is opinion.

This reminds me of the great scene in the recent movie "Inside Out" where the emotions inside of the protagonist's head accidentally spill boxes labeled "facts" and "opinions" and they are jumbled up in a mess. One of the characters then says:

"Oh facts and opinions, who can tell them apart?"

Matthew Lee,

It goes well beyond hospital "mismanagement". This is the deliberate stripping of programs and personnel with the end Goal being financial losses.

So if as a result of the stripping, supplies were not on hand and someone died; or a life saving procedure was terminated and someone died; or Main Campus and Fairview were full and someone died waiting to be transferred when Lakewood could not help them because programs and personnel were not available--- is that the kind of "outline of scenarios" that would satisfy you?

No, that wouldn't satisfy me. I personally think there are a lot of reasons to keep the hospital. To scare with "blood on people's hands", IMHO, is not one of them.

I have read in other posts, not this one, that "people have already died". Who are these people? How did they die? One cannot just post "people have already died" without any details and expect all people to just accept it.

If we are only talking hypothetical, then let's call it hypothetical and we can discuss it. Apologies if I have hijacked your thread but through it was a good place to raise the question. If it is not, I am fine taking it to another thread.

Thanks!

Matthew makes a good point.

Brian,

I know that we keep getting Team Summers and Build Lakewood trolls jumping on here stating, "I haven't made up my mind. Please help educate me." We all know who they are.

For what it's worth, Matt Lee is no troll.

I believe that Matt Lee is sincere when he comes on here seeking information.

We need to remind ourselves that not everyone has sifted through the facts to the degree of you and so many other good folk.

Matt

Matthew Lee wrote:No, that wouldn't satisfy me. I personally think there are a lot of reasons to keep the hospital. To scare with "blood on people's hands", IMHO, is not one of them.

I have read in other posts, not this one, that "people have already died". Who are these people? How did they die? One cannot just post "people have already died" without any details and expect all people to just accept it.

If we are only talking hypothetical, then let's call it hypothetical and we can discuss it. Apologies if I have hijacked your thread but through it was a good place to raise the question. If it is not, I am fine taking it to another thread.

Thanks!

Matthew,

No worries. I know from our previous online conversations, you don't just accept things in print. I don't post expecting anyone to just accept what I write.

Nevertheless, the scenarios I cite are not hypothetical, they are real. I can not get more detailed on the Deck for several reasons--here are just 2. First it is out of respect for the deceased and their grieving families. Second, the caregivers and witnesses involved could suffer retaliation by CCF. FYI, I did not seek this information, folks came to me with it. I've seen real tears and grief on the faces of the witnesses. I believe them.

Also, logic and facts dictate that death has occurred and there is more to come.

Chief Gilman estimated that there will be an average of an additional 23 minutes to get folks to where they need to be. That 23 minutes is not part of the "door to provider" times that only start when patients arrive at a given ER. Due to the fact that Summers/LHA and CCF prematurely announced the closure of the hospital and CCF accelerated the stripping of services, the "door to provider" times have been lengthened---these will become public at some time in the future and this information in highly guarded by CCF until public disclosure is required People aren't using Lakewood Hospital (CCF and Summers desired this effect) and the others nearby have been overflowing. This is very real and exposes one major life threatening lie that BL, Summers, Bullock, Patton et al are spreading in the fraudulent literature : "no resident will be without a bed if needed" Death has already occurred because a bed was not available at other nearby CCF hospitals and Lakewood lacked needed services.

I'm sorry if you are not satisfied, but that is a far as I'm willing to go on my end. You may do your own research e.g. search for Dr. Terry Kilroy's articles referred to in the post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13873&p=97399&hilit=killer#p97399

Dan Alaimo wrote:I repeat this because it is important. If it is in the works, forgive my harping on it:
I hope SLH comes up with a point-by-point rebuttal for nearly everyone reached by the BL postcard.

Also, I'd like to see more attention paid to the RFP process because, in my view, "no one else was interested" is the biggest distortion they've disseminated and it is on record somewhere in the video of the January Beck Center presentation.

Hi Dan,

I love your posts--you seem to hone in on the heart of what matters.

I can't speak for SLH, but I plan to publish the point by point rebuttal to the BL postcard.

Preview: Stan Austin's score card that "13 out of 13" of BL's claims are false or misleading is spot on!

I'm just back from travel so I hope to publish later today.....

Thanks, Brian,

As mentioned above, I am definitely not a troll. I know it is hard for some to believe, but this is not an open/shut case on either side. There are a lot out there, like me, who don't see this as a black and white issue.

If you don't want to share information, I can respect that. However, I hope you respect that I can then not accept this as truth. It becomes more "noise" in this debate and not something that is a fact.

Matt

Matthew

The additional wait times and likelihood of transfers or refusals are certainly not "noise," they are facts, outlined by the Fire Chief and others. You may not like Brian Essi's take on it, but it does not change those facts - that people WILL wait longer to get picked up, they may be redirected enroute, they may be transferred after being taken to an ER. Those are precious minutes in an emergency. As the Cleveland Clinic advertises, SECONDS COUNT IN AN EMERGENCY.

Are you willing to accept that risk for yourself or your family members? Especially when it doesn't have to be that way?

Bridget Conant wrote:Matthew

The additional wait times and likelihood of transfers or refusals are certainly not "noise," they are facts, outlined by the Fire Chief and others. You may not like Brian Essi's take on it, but it does not change those facts - that people WILL wait longer to get picked up, they may be redirected enroute, they may be transferred after being taken to an ER. Those are precious minutes in an emergency. As the Cleveland Clinic advertises, SECONDS COUNT IN AN EMERGENCY.

Are you willing to accept that risk for yourself or your family members? Especially when it doesn't have to be that way?

Bridget,

Respectfully, they are NOT facts. Unless someone can point out who has died and how it was the fault of anything in this discussion, it is not a fact.

Yes, I am willing to accept that risk. Should we have a hospital in every neighborhood? Every street? Every corner? There is risk in everything. Of course seconds count in an emergency. But at some point we all accept risks whether it is getting in a car, eating our food, flying in a plane or just waking up in the morning.

Again, if nobody wants to share any concrete information on who has died because of what is going on with Lakewood Hospital and the CCF, I cannot accept it as a fact.