Letters to the Editor, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018
Revoke tax exemption
It is my understanding that NCH Healthcare System may currently enjoy tax-exempt status as a charity for the benefit of the community. If proposed changes occur, it would no longer be operating for the benefit of this community. There also is a question whether it would be generating income for another entity.
I believe that under either such circumstance, the tax-exempt status should be revoked. It should then be subject to an annual tax based upon gross revenue.
Bernard A. Lublin, M.D., Naples
Climate change not funny
I have become more and more aware that there are still many people who are confusing climate change with climate warming, or the climate getting colder. For example, when it snowed in North Carolina, some laughed and scoffed, “So that’s climate warming?” “Ha, ha.”
This is far from a funny subject. The overall correct term is climate change. This can mean extremes on both ends of the thermometer; places that are normally colder in the winter are now seeing more warmer days year-round, like Naples.
Climate change is happening worldwide and storms are more frequent and more intense. There are drought and famine and ice fields melting, stranding polar bears. The list goes on and on. Some 97 percent of respected scientists worldwide agree that climate change is upon us and that it is the most serious threat to the very existence of our Earth as we know it.
It is nothing to tell jokes about. It is a phenomenon that we must take seriously and we must urge our leaders to do whatever can be done now.
Joan Millon, Naples
Medical association presentation request
I am a new resident of Moorings Park at Grey Oaks and recently attended a presentation by the senior leadership of NCH Healthcare system about the virtues and wisdom of their announced new admissions policy.
Since the issue is so controversial, I asked why representatives of the Collier County Medical Association, who voted unanimously against the proposal, were not invited to present their view on the matter. I was informed that there had been no request for such input.
Please consider this a request that presentations by the CCMA be made at both of our campuses.
Richard Glowacki, Naples
Install more mini-reefs
I loved your story Dec. 4 on Ocean Habitats’ mini-reefs helping to filter and cleanse our island waterways.
The founder of Ocean Habitats spoke to the Marco Island Yacht Club last year and we have become real supporters of this simple technology. My wife and I have one installed below our dock and are getting a second one this year. The yacht club has three below its docks. You can literally see the increase in marine life and clarity of the water in the area around the mini-reefs.
We have been encouraging members at the club to install mini-reefs if they have a dock and many of them have done so. Each mature reef cleans 30,000 gallons of water. What would our canals look like if every dock had a mini-reef or two below it?
Getting a mini-reef is one way to fight back against the forces harming our waterways. We encourage every Marco resident to get one.
Jeff Comeaux, Marco Island
Vice commodore, Marco Island Yacht Club
Hospitalists gave perfect care
I have been totally confused about the recent articles and letters in the Naples Daily News concerning NCH Healthcare System hospitals having hospitalist doctors take care of us patients instead of our regular physicians.
Two years ago, when a Type B flu caused pneumonia, and recently in July, I spent important days in our downtown hospital. My care was absolutely perfect. Therefore, I disagree with all that has been said and written.
My regular physician is Dr. Rajeev Rajani. He was informed of and received immediate results of my tests and was a part of any decisions made by the hospitalist. This same physician remained with me for the rest of my hospital stay. When I returned home, I met with Rajani, who was very satisfied and up to date on my hospital experience.
Now, this pilot program has been explained to me and the important reasons for it. I understand its purpose and completely agree. I can only be sorry to find the lies still appearing in the letters to the Naples Daily News.
I wish the whole hospital staff of NCH the very best.
Dorothy McMahon, Naples
Truth and justice will prevail
I know that those of you who can't, or refuse, to see the forest for the trees will ignore facts and cling to the sinking ship and its captain. Be my guest.
Well, well, well, the evidence is clear that the emperor has no clothes, is a compulsive liar, has no empathy for his fellow man, is not "patriotic," but holds allegiance only to himself and his bottom line and is corrupt to his core.
In time, the truth always comes out. President Donald Trump and the corrupt cabal he surrounds himself with think they are smarter than everybody else and that they can and will always get away with whatever serves their ends, be it legal or illegal. We will soon test that concept and I suspect that truth and justice will prevail, again.
Emily Maggio, Little Hickory Shores
Protect Dreamers
It’s difficult to find 8 in 10 people who agree on anything these days. That’s why it speaks volumes that 8 in 10 Republicans and 86 percent of all Americans support protecting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program beneficiaries.
With overwhelming support and a new Congress approaching, it’s time to pass a long-term legislative solution for Dreamers, especially following failed attempts by Congress to protect Dreamers earlier this year. A swift solution is critical, with the Supreme Court set to review the program in the coming months.
For almost a year and a half, our nation’s 800,000 DACA recipients have been kept in limbo, anxiously looking to Congress to pass a legislative solution allowing them to remain in the only country they’ve ever known and continue working, studying or serving in our nation’s military. And, not to mention, prevent ripping them away from their employers, friends, family and loved ones here in the U.S. and weakening Florida’s economy and communities.
Similarly, temporary protected status (TPS) holders, who have been protected since 1990 after fleeing their countries of origin, are facing the threat of deportation due to the termination of the program. If the nearly 300,000 individuals who work legally under TPS protections are removed, it could harm TPS holders, many of whom live in Florida, and our economy.
I’m hopeful that Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen.-elect Rick Scott will work in a bipartisan manner and fight to protect Dreamers and TPS holders. It’s high time to find a solution for both.
Rebecca Weaver, Tallahassee
Keep Eslick’s name on bridge
As someone who worked with Don Eslick in the early days of Estero, I know naming the bridge for him was a recognition of his service to the community. Lee County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass' request to change the name is a reflection of a total lack of understanding of Estero's past and future.
If not for Eslick's total commitment to this community, it would not be what it is today. He made it great. Pendergrass' attempt to change the name is crass, egotistical and below the bar. He didn't even inform the other commissioners that his intent was to rename the bridge, a slick and oily move.
Keep Don Eslick's name on the bridge. He earned it and deserves it.
Richard Quist, Estero
Trust in NCH eroding
For many, a further loss of public trust in the large government bureaucracy that controls the medical-industrial complex came during and after the introduction of Obamacare. Most memorably, we were told by then-President Barack Obama: “If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor.”
An eerily similar flawed plan is playing out locally as NCH Healthcare System plans to adopt an admissions policy that limits the rights of patients to choose who will direct their care when they are hospitalized and most in need.
Distressingly, your doctor won’t be there to manage your care when you’re hospitalized; rather, NCH will appoint one. And why not? The arrogant and misguided autocratic planners at NCH know what’s best for you and the community. Is that the definition of hubris?
How short-sighted is such a scheme and how far removed from the wishes and the input of the community? Dr. Allen Weiss, NCH president and CEO, and his administrators have forgotten that NCH is a public resource that they hold in trust for the community.
Hospitalists are part-time caregivers who treat diseases, not patients; or, as some have cynically said, the hospitalist model is a “medical factory with shift workers treating acute diseases and not the whole patient.”
Weiss touts the “astounding positive results” (not peer-reviewed) of NCH’s pilot program for hospitalists. Hospital officials may have the data, or think they have the data, to support their initiative, but the reality is they don’t have the community on board. Their integrity and bond of trust with the community is threadbare and it’s been further eroded as their proposal alarmingly sets the wider medical community in conflict with NCH.
James F. Lally, M.D., Naples
In support of hospitalists
Our community has been actively responding to health care delivery plans at NCH Healthcare system hospitals. As a physician, I recognize the objectives of NCH and its need to provide the best care to all of us.
Patients entering the hospital today have more serious and complicated health problems than in the past and most often require a team of specialists working together to provide their care. The hospitalist is also a specialist who is highly trained and board certified in medicine to provide and coordinate integrated care for these sick patients with other specialists. They are present in the hospital all day every day. They direct the care for many up-to-date hospitals north of us where, like at NCH, the care has proven to be better and requires fewer days in the hospital with significantly fewer complications.
Many in our community have chosen excellent office-based physicians to provide their care. These excellent physicians can, should and must collaborate with our hospital-based physician specialists, share the knowledge they have of us, including our medical records, and visit us in the hospital. I strongly believe NCH will contribute to this collaboration and communication.
To assume "only my doctor" is caring, dedicated and compassionate does a disservice to those who care for sick hospital patients every day.
I want my health care in the hospital to be provided by those competent physicians who are there every day and have the experience and knowledge to care for my complicated problems and who know and work with the other specialists in the hospital as a highly functioning team, as well as with the outpatient physicians. I support the decision of NCH and its leadership, in particular, Dr. Allen Weiss, president and CEO, for their concern for us and our community.
Stephen Weisberg, M.D., Naples