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February 3, 2004Citizens split over NMH careRep. Bart Stupak defends involvement at meetingByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY - A Monday town hall meeting on Northern Michigan Hospital showed the community's division over whether patient care at the hospital is as healthy as ever or in critical condition. The crowd of more than 300 at North Central Michigan College appeared about as evenly split as the community has seemed throughout a 14-month nurses strike at the hospital. Many affiliated with the hospital in the audience sported blue caps reading "NMH: Proud of It." Audience members took turns praising or criticizing U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak for his call to have NMH's health care practices investigated, and his subsequent release of negative findings by state and federal surveyors. Stupak, D-Menominee, defended his involvement, saying his office had received more than 50 complaints of poor patient care at NMH since the nurses strike commenced. The congressman also refuted claims that he is pro-union and therefore pro-striking nurses and anti-hospital management. "It's in the community's best interest that the nurses strike be resolved as soon as possible," he said. "But whether or not that occurs, it is in everybody's best interest to have safe, quality health care here in northern Michigan." The hospital was found to have "serious deficiencies" in its infection control practices, following a December survey by the state Department of Community Health and federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A review of all practices at NMH will soon commence, and the hospital could potentially lose millions in Medicare funding if problems are not addressed to the satisfaction of federal and state officials. Dr. Timothy Ismond defended the hospital's quality of care, and appeared to question the motivations behind recent negative findings. "We care deeply - more deeply than anyone here - about patient safety," he said. "Can we use science to decide if there are problems with our health care system, instead of politics?" Representatives of the federal and state agencies involved in the NMH review said its results came following the observations of three surveyors within the hospital, interviews with patients, doctors, staff and others, and reviews of hospital records. Robert Daly, manager of the hospitals branch of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Chicago, said 88 complaint investigations were made at hospitals in Michigan in the last fiscal year. Of those, eight had "condition-level deficiencies" such as those found at NMH - conditions serious enough that the federal agency expects the hospital to make specific corrections in order to remain in the Medicare program, he said. Once the survey of all of NMH's health care practices is complete, management will have 10 days in which to present a plan for addressing all cited deficiencies, Daly said. If the plan is approved, the hospital will then have 90 days in which to implement corrective action. The facility would then again be surveyed to see if hospital management has indeed addressed the cited deficiencies, he said. Audience member Kathy Bricker defended Stupak, saying he is "doing what an elected official is supposed to do" by calling for scrutiny of the hospital's quality of care. "NMH fails to take responsibility for their own actions by casting aspersions on others," she said.
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