Remembering Anne Frank in Challenging Times

It’s an odd time to see a very moving, thought-provoking play about antisemitism, the LCCT’s excellent production of The Diary of Anne Frank (Oct. 4-20 at 313 North Main). The original version won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize plus Tony and Drama Critics award as best play.

These times display both renewed antisemitism and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s human rights abuses against Arabs. The antisemitism comes from not only the usual right-wing “Nationalists,” such as Nick Fuentes, but also apolitical or leftist folks appalled both by Hamas’s October 7 massacre and by Israel’s predictable overreaction, which Hamas had hoped to trigger.

In such times, maintaining fairness, tolerance, and human decency is both harder and more urgent. We should not punish or discriminate against Muslims or Jews in this country based on what other countries and groups are doing elsewhere. All ethnic prejudice, against Jews, Christians or Muslims, Blacks or Hispanics, Irish or Italians, or gays or political opponents, is stupid, hurtful, and wrong. Hamas leaders and Netanyahu are bad actors with understandable reasons. Protesting either’s conduct shouldn’t cause harassment of Jews or Palestinians. But sometimes it does.

Soon after Trump invited Fuentes for supper, Trump ally Tucker Carlson gave a holocaust denying anti-Semite a two-hour platform. As a journalist I might talk with a Nazi apologist, but I’d ask tough questions and sure wouldn’t call him “the best and most honest popular historian in the U.S.” That Carlson thinks that, and J.D. Vance holds a campaign rally with Carlson, sure says something about whom Mr. Vance hopes to appeal to.

Less obviously dangerous are Mr. Trump’s recent statements that a Trump defeat will be “on the Jews,” or “the fault of the Jews.” He shouldn’t lump all Jews together. In a world where Trump’s words were followed by an invasion of the Capitol, and his lies about election chicanery led to threats and harassment of election workers, it should occur to him that some follower might attack Jews for costing Trump the election – even if, as I assume, Trump doesn’t intend that Jews be harmed or harassed. (Followers are threatening Springfield schools with shootings and bombs because Trump claims Springfield residents from Haiti eat people’s pets)

“The Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss.” As their “betrayal” cost Germany World War I? Until decades after Hitler, the Catholic Church still taught that the Jews were responsible for killing Jesus.

This ain’t important just for Jews. History teaches that if you let governments unlawfully mistreat segments of the population, those governments will use the same illegal means to persecute others, or just eliminate political opponents or persons of conscience who stand up for fairness and justice.

I applaud director Norman Lewis for spraying this excellent show on the “dormant noxious weed [antisemitism] needing only a drop of encouragement to burst into full bloom.”

Watching is tough, at times. As we leave the theater, I feel grateful for the experience, impressed by the production – and troubled by vicious ethnic abuse surrounding us. Folks should see it. This production is well-crafted and more than moving. ([For info and tickets: https://www.lcctnm.org/ .) Like any good play, it takes you out of your life into another world; but this world contains important information we all ought to have, maybe an inoculation against ethnic hatred. An election-season reminder of where that can lead, and that some political conduct is just not even decent.

                              – 30 –

 

 

[This column appeared Sunday, 6 October, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News

and on the newspaper's website and will shortly be up on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[It’s a good play, well done. And timely. (Five years ago, we got to meet in Las Cruces Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss, a childhood friend of Anne’s in Amsterdam, right before the events depicted in the play.) Let me stress that by point out the antisemitism of Trump’s allies and himself I do NOT mean to equate Mr. Trump with Adolph Hitler. Trump has no such sense of mission, little concern with government policy, and lacks Hitler’s drive, and, so far as I can tell, harbors no desire to destroy any ethnic group. He’s a garden-variety somewhat racist and antisemitic product of our times. (He was born in 1946, almost six months before I was, and in Queens rather than Brooklyn.)  Managers of his casino used to have to try to get black dealers off the floor when he visited; and his comment on Jews, that he liked his accountants to be Jewish, while antisemitic, isn’t vicious. He grew up liking money and with a deeper need than most of us to keep proving he’s okay. And now political convenience has aligned him with folks who are more actively antisemitic and racist.) So he’s no Hitler. But his lack of compassion for those who are different from him is concerning. And since he’s demonstrated that callousness with regard to Mexicans, immigrants, Muslims, U.S. veterans and prisoners-of-war, handicapped journalists, and quite a few others, maybe in that previous sentence I shouldn’t have limited the statement with the words “those who are different from him. Shit, he ain’t even compassionate toward his wives.]

Please Just Listen To Trump's own Words and Judge him by Them.

“I don’t think I’ve ever said this before. So we do these rallies. They’re massive rallies. Everybody loves, everybody stays till the end. By the way, you know, when she said that, well, your rallies people leave. Honestly, nobody does. And if I saw them leaving, I’d say, ladies and gentlemen make America great again and I’d get the hell out, ok? Because I don’t want people leaving. But I do have to say so I give these long sometimes very complex sentences and paragraphs but they all come together. I do it a lot. I do it with raising cane. That story. I do it with the story on the catapults on the aircraft carriers. I do it with a lot of different stories. When I mentioned Doctor Hannibal Lecter, I’m using that as an example of people that are coming in from Silence of the Lambs. I use it. They say it’s terrible. So they say so I’ll give this long complex area for instance that I talked about a lot of different territory . . . You know, for a town hall, there’s not a lot of people, but the fake news likes to say, the false news likes to say, oh, he was rambling. No, no, that’s not rambling. That’s genius. When you can connect the dots. Now, now, Sarah, if you couldn’t connect the dots, you got a problem. But every dot was connected and many stories were told in that paragraph.”

What does that mean?

Maybe it means, “I sometimes communicate in a long, intricate paragraph that seems rambling and disconnected but is actually quite clear, even eloquent.” If so, Donald Trump could say that, or give us a powerful example.

Trump tries to explain his frequent mentions of Hannibal Lecter. If he succeeded, please translate. Does that 247-word passage “connect all the dots,” such that you get what he’s trying to say?

If your spouse, kid, or boss complains of not being able to follow a communication, don’t you try to communicate the point more clearly? If that’s Trump’s effort to communicate more clearly, it’s a miserable failure. Mr. Trump asserts that he speaks coherently and holds wonderful rallies no one leaves before the end. He doesn’t show us his coherence.

Similarly, if co-workers criticized you, would answer, “I’m a genius?” If, as Trump was, you were making a public appearance in aid of getting a job you really wanted, would you assert “I’m a genius” – like a nine-year-old?

We’ve all known people who brag, at work or on social occasions, about their mental acuity and other virtues and accomplishments. Unless they do so with particular brilliance or humor, or you have no choice, do you seek ‘em out to hear more? Do you even tend to believe them? When someone repeatedly claims wit, wisdom, or beauty, my first guess is that the speaker has serious doubts that s/he measures up. Like a guy who keeps telling you how much all women love him, when you hadn’t really asked. Guys on street corners tell you how great they play ball, but Steph Curry can just say, “Yeah, I’ve been known to hoop a little.”

Reread the opening paragraph. Imagine you don’t know who said it. Is your first guess that this is a wise and articulate speaker or someone whose brains are shot from booze, drugs, or old age. Be honest.

                                    – 30 --

 

[This column appeared Sunday, 22 September, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News

and will presently appear on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[Not a lot more to say. There are folks who are inclined to vote for Mr. Trump, because voting Republican is a habit and/or they feel Democrats are too progressive. Unfortunately, aside from whether or not he’s a racist or a felon, or unfairly attacked at times, his own words make it hard to maintain the illusion that he’s even borderline competent to deal with the pressures and problems of the Presidency. All I ask of people of good will who have voted for Trump in the past or are considering voting for him is to read his own words as you would the words of someone applying for an important job with your company or as your high school kid’s words in a time measure, and be honest with yourself about how they stack up. ]

Monday the San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Jets 32-19, and Tuesday Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump more soundly.

Skilled and well-prepared, the ‘Niners scored on eight consecutive drives, although too often they settled for 3-point field goals, not touchdowns. With football’s best running back injured, a young, unknown 49er ran all over the field.

Harris was skilled and well-prepared, with facts, Donald Trump’s own past words, and a few special plays. She won soundly on content and in the optics. She got under his skin, helping him forget his best plays and rant about his greatness instead. He resembled a football player so frustrated by a broken tackle that he just loses his temper and earns a 15-yard personal-foul penalty.

Harris, too, sometimes settled for field goals, and she evaded some questions. Her answer on tariffs could have pointed out that his more extensive tariff plans to “punish China” would punish U.S. consumers. When he completely refused to answer a simple question, she could have used her rebuttal minute well by saying, “You asked Mr. Trump whether he regretted anything he did on January 6 [or, Why he sabotaged the bipartisan border bill?], and he refused to answer, so let me yield him my minute, so he can answer your question.”

But she prosecuted him ably. On split-screen, her facial expressions and body language commented eloquently on Trump’s stupid lies and disconnections.

Then wildly popular singer Taylor Swift, who’d rooted her boyfriend’s team to a Super Bowl victory over the ‘Niners, endorsed Harris, in a well-composed post saying Harris fought ably for causes Swift thought “needed a warrior” championing them. Swift stressed her research, urged others to do research, and provided a link to vote.gov – which 330,000 used within hours. (The post quickly had 10 million “likes.”) Celebrity endorsements shouldn’t matter so much; but this one could. She has 283 million Instagram “followers.”

When Biden withdrew, I said that Trump should duck a debate with Harris. Trump, leading, should let folks remember Biden’s poor debate performance and Trump’s superficial strength. Treat Harris like the interloper Trump now calls her. But an overconfident Trump wouldn’t have listened. He knows he can do anything better than anyone.

Tuesday night, I hoped for no further debate. Harris would likely win again; but why not let this fine evening be folks’ vision of Harris and Trump? The Chiefs didn’t offer the ‘Niners a rematch just for fun.

This debate revealed important realities: Donald Trump is a petulant old man with a few fixed ideas he yammers loudly and often, without compassion and lacking patience for honest engagement. Harris was younger, sharp-witted, disciplined enough to stay on-script, and seemed genuine. A less unsettled Trump could have landed some blows. He could have calmly noted her vice-presidency and ask why, if X and Y were such good ideas, she and Joe hadn’t done ‘em. Trump’s mental acuity has long been suspect. How many Republicans now wish they could do as the Democrats did? They can’t, partly ‘cause Trump ain’t walking away. Biden cared.

Harris replacing Biden equalized polling numbers, and gave her momentum. Recent signs suggested momentum was stalling. Folks watching clips from this debate and hearing Republicans bemoan Trump’s poor performance could refuel momentum.

Harris remains the underdog. But will some politically aggrieved folks who liked Trump’s anger see that Trump’s personal anger is irrelevant to their problems? Will Swifties swiftly rescue us?

                                                         – 30 –

The City Puts the Hospital on Notice

What’s it mean that Las Cruces has written Memorial Medical Center (“MMC”) demanding compliance with MMC’s contractual obligations – mostly reporting more fully and providing “Expanded Care,” which includes medical care for indigents?

There’s no established breach; but this is official notice that the City has good reason to believe breaches have occurred. Theoretically, if MMC ignored this, the city and county could take steps to evict MMC and its ultimate owner, the private equity firm Apollo Global.

This is a great first step we should neither take too lightly not applaud too loudly.

Much will depend on the reaction of Apollo/MMC and on the City’s intestinal fortitude.

It’s a fair question whether the private-equity firm will make significant improvements. If we were starting a hospital we’d not seek Apollo to run it. But Apollo owns it. Apollo won’t just return it to us, because it’s one of the chain’s most profitable hospitals. (Litigation to evict Apollo would be costly and rancorous.) But Apollo, through MMC’s new CEO, will respond, and will deal with its landlords. How reasonably? Guess we’ll find out.

But there’s no improvement without the City standing up. Yoli Diaz and I can kvetch ‘til the cows come home.

We should thank Yoli – and Gretchen.  Yoli took people with cancer to MMC and pushed for their admission. She criticized city, county, and hospital, and screamed ‘til she was blue in the face at meetings – and talked folks’ ears off outside meetings.

She’d have gotten nowhere without her accidental megaphone, Gretchen Morgenson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Gretchen was discussing her newest book [These Are the Plunderers] about Apollo and other private-equity groups plundering health care entities. Las Cruces ain’t a big media center, but it’s home to one of Gretchen’s closest friends, Charlotte Lipson, whom she likes visiting; and Gretchen had heard of MMC’s problems.

So Gretchen gets to visit with Yoli at length and this becomes a national story. State Attorney-General Raul Torrez jumps in to investigate. Thanks, Raul! Others of us urge the city and county to enforce their contractual rights. The City’s letter to MMC cites Morgenson’s report.

As I was thinking and Mayor Pro Tem Johana Bencomo said, we also needed two other pieces. A new city manager, Ikani Taumoepeau, and a City Attorney, Brad Douglas, who would stand up and agree that the City had rights here. Former City Manager Ifo Pili and former County Manager Fernando Macias sat on MMC’s board. Were they watchdogs who didn’t bark? Or were ignored? I never heard ‘em.

Now we wait. Global/MMC is legally obligated to provide full information and start to remedy the breach, if it is one. They owe the City (legally) and the community (ethically) a lot of information. Lease section 4.9 requires an annual report describing the hospital’s fulfillment of its legal obligations. The City has [finally] requested such a report by September 30, so I hope we see it in October. It’s important that the City stick to its guns and require MMC to perform – but be fair in giving MMC time to do so. I may have my doubts about Apollo Global; but those aren’t evidence.

As I left the City’s press conference, outside, a Juarez news outfit was interviewing Yoli in Spanish, under the bright New Mexico sun. A citizen who’s done what citizens should do: be a complete pain in the posterior until leaders listen.

                                      – 30 –

 

[This column appeared Sunday, 8 September, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News

and on the newspaper's website, and will presently be up on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[I’m not a pure bystander in this one. I’ve been writing about problems at MMC and the public landlords’ obligation to use their contractual powers to improve healthcare here by insisting on contractual compliance. ]

[I also urge City and County to investigate what their options would be if Apollo said “Take back your hospital, you’re too much of an annoyance” or Apollo largely stiffed the City on improvements and full reporting and the City got a court to say “Sayonara!” to Apollo. Neither is likely. As mentioned, this is one of Apollo’s more profitable hospitals, and Apollo is unlikely to hand it back. Litigation is expensive, time-consuming, distracting, and often rancorous, and should be only a last resort.

But we should know what our best options would be. First of all, we’d not want suddenly to be in that situation and start then to figure things out. Secondly, the more informed you are about such things, the better negotiator you are. I’m not suggesting city or county do anything untoward contractually, but merely that they should inform themselves on the “What ifs,” just in case.]

 

Getting to Write Thirteen Years of Sunday Columns -- Thanks, Ray!

This one’s for Ray Bernal and ‘cause it’s August.

I met Ray playing basketball at Meerscheidt, fifty years ago. He was a native Las Crucen and city official. I was a reporter. We became friends and stayed that way. He died recently.

When I returned to live here, Ray thought I should be writing a Sunday column. He introduced me to Jim Lawitz, then the Sun-News editor, who asked for a couple of writing samples and hired me. (I say “hired,” but the money was trivial, and was never the point.” My first column was dated 21 August 2011.

It’s been a hell of a ride! I figured to write folksy old-man columns, maybe goofy human-interest stuff. But old friends and enemies, recalling me as the young firebrand publishing what I thought was right, plus new friends presenting me with injustices and problems, torpedoed that idea.

Some columns have been controversial. Some even led friends to worry about our safety. Two successive county sheriffs got so enamored of the wrong people that they made deputies’ lives miserable. People bravely told me their stories, and we shined enough light into dark corners to help facilitate change.

It’s incredibly rewarding to hear a powerless person who’s been abused, or sees a wrong being done by our political representatives, investigate, listening to all sides, and write the fairest, truest column I can on something the public should know.

Meanwhile, I’ve tried to advocate on issues, but more to articulate a feeling: that men, including me, are too damned self-absorbed; that nature, poor folks, underlings, and ethnic minorities get unfairly short shrift; that discussing stuff collegially – speaking frankly but listening closely – often actually works. Also that none of us – surely not I! – knows the whole truth. And that, even in tough times, we’re all just folks, with more in common than we realize. 

 

Particularly during the first several years, some folks showered me with the vilest possible insults. Others liked the column. Strangers sometimes called me up or approached me in public to agree or disagree, or to thank me for putting into words stuff they were thinking. Sometimes what they said, or their tone, moves me deeply. If not for those heartfelt thanks, I’d have given up the column long ago.

A gentleman in the Farmers Market said he owed me a big debt of gratitude. How come? “Well, when my son was younger, he was turning really rightist. He lived with his mother’s family, who are more conservative. When we’d hear you on the radio, he’d say, ‘That guy is completely full of ____!’ He took your name in vain a lot. But then he’d research what you were talking about, and say later, ‘You know, that guy was actually right.’”

I ran into a man at a City Council meeting. He asked if I recognized him. I didn’t. He was a man who’d been wrongly accused, years earlier, of a particularly vile crime. After investigating, I’d concluded the charge was bogus, and wrote why. The police soon reached the same conclusion. Whole incident was tragic. No one ever fully recovers from such a situation. It gave me joy to find him working again, doing good again, and still with his loyal family.

So, thanks, Ray. Thanks for the platform, Sun-News. Thanks to friends and strangers who’ve read these columns and reflected on them. Thanks, Las Cruces!

I love this place.

                                                 – 30 --

 

[This column appeared Sunday, 1 September, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website, and will presently be up on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[Like anything you start, then continue, the columns have taken on a life of their own. There’s a passel of Sundays between August 2011 and this morning. Because the spoken versions air each week, I’ll have folks recognize my voice and approach me in the oddest of situations. I also receive heartfelt thanks from people who’ve clearly enjoyed some of the columns. That’s moving, humbling, and a great discouragement to giving them up!]

[Idly, just now, I searched the blog posts for “Controversy.” The first listed was a 2012 post on the City giving an award to a prade float that included the Confederate flag:

The Great Confederate Flag Float Controversy? What’s sad is that the Tea Party is too cowardly to be candid. What’s important is not to let this nonsense lure us into an overreaction that would intimidate free speech.

I know that flag. I saw it on cars driven by people who threatened me and chased me back out onto the dirt roads (where the colored stayed), when I was a civil rights worker in the South in 1965.

It was the flag of a "nation" created to defend slavery.

Next came a 2015 meditation on the books Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Looking Backward, then a comment this year on book-banning, a column on the 2014 Soil and Water Commission election, then a post-Dobbs outcry (headed “Supreme Court on a Rampage – Wake Me when we Get Back to the Inquisition” that starts:

It feels rotten to be a U.S. citizen.

I recall pre-Roe times. Although abortion’s normally a safe, simple procedure, I watched a female relative endure a life-threatening situation because abortions were illegal and hers couldn’t be done in a hospital. That sticks in your mind.

Last week’s supreme court decision is horrendous for many reasons. It will mean some people will die or be jailed for family-planning, it signifies, in itself and in the court’s unnecessarily broad language, a serious eclipse of personal freedoms.

These justices did this with glee, writing the decision the way someone walking off with your wallet might unnecessarily stick his finger in your eye as he left.

[There’s no shortage of contorversies: but I can also search “Community” and “Gratitude” [“Desert”] and find more cheerful or reflective columns. Searching “harmony” yields 2019 reflections on Jesus and Patrul Rinpoche sparked by an encounter with two Catholics in the farmers market, thanks to the County Commission for voting to support Lynn Ellins’s 2013 decision that our constitution gave him no right to deny marriage to same-sex couples, and a couple on spring in the desert. It’s kind of like looking through a photo album – the sudden clear memory of a moment you’d forgotten, and then a bit of gratitude that, somehow, someone gave you a camera way back when, or offered you a weekly space to say what you thought.]

[Some of those columns I wrote rapidly, almost in feverishly; others followed many interviews, some secret, and careful hours of research; still others were spawned by a moment I loved, such as "Bicycling to the Gratitude Cafe" (2018) and its 2024 sequel Some I wrote after an hour or two of relecting on controversies I wasn’t ready to opine on, and wondering what kind of humongous ego is required to muster the assumption that I have anything to say that might interest or inform anyone else.]

 

Will the Many Current Investigations of Memorial Medical Center Spark Change?

Embattled Memorial Medical Center’s “retirement” of its CEO, John Harris, was a first step, but the hospital still has a long, tough road back to some semblance of public trust.

More than a half-dozen public entities are investigating MMC, which has tended toward an unfair balance of profit margin and patient care since private-equity firm Apollo Global bought MMC’s parent company, Lifepoint, in 2018.

Initially, Memorial was a Hill-Burton public hospital, city- and county-owned, in the small building across Lohman from the County Courthouse. I visited folks there 50+ years ago. Memorial moved up to Telshor. Still later, City and County sold it. Now it’s private-equity-owned. City and county still own the land; and the hospital made promises under the Lease and the Asset Purchase Agreement.

There’s a legal obligation to extend care to people who need it, even poor folks. As publicized largely by Yoli Diaz, MMC has turned away patients with advanced cancer but thin wallets. In a City Council meeting, MMC seemed to deny they’d done such a thing. Good luck, MMC!

State Attorney-General Raul Torrez has initiated a much-publicized investigation of that. Las Cruces and Doña Ana County are both looking into whether or not MMC has breached its contract. I’m betting at least one concludes fairly soon that a breach (or breaches) occurred. City and county also aren’t happy that MMC allegedly is blowing off stringent reporting requirements.

Meanwhile, Medicare and the State are asking whether MMC has defrauding the public.

I wrote in January of two troubling situations. MMC declined to answer my questions, then wrote a response that didn’t deny anything I’d written, but accused me of “a false narrative.”

First, some doctors believe MMC’s cardiac folks are doing unnecessary procedures, when less costly and less invasive procedures would suffice.  I've heard anecdotal evidence; but these are complex issues. A public entity should get the facts on how many trans-esophageal echocardiograms, watchman procedures, and aortic valve replacements MMC does, whether those have increased, and, if so, fairly inquire why. (Have stress tests decreased?) I’m surely not qualified to reach a conclusion; yet experienced doctors have questions, but fear alienating MMC-Apollo.

Second, a disproportionate number of kids admitted to the hospital reportedly go to the pediatric intensive-care unit. There’s a normal range of percentages of hospitalized kids who need intensive care. Unless we’ve some weird local epidemic, MMC’s percentage of PICU admissions should be close to that norm. I’m told it isn’t. Has MMC’s pediatric ICU set protocols under which doctors have no choice but to classify more kids as needing intensive-care? Assuming that MMC charges ICU rates for kids classed as ICU patients, MMC could be taking in more than it should. Medicare folks likely wonder. Someone with subpoena power should determine this.

New Mexico’s Superintendent of Insurance is also investigating MMC, in tandem with state legislators considering passing legislation to curb private-equity abuses of hospitals. Even the U.S. Senate is investigating Apollo Global, as I discussed in my 28 January column.

I hope Apollo and MMC up their game, and adopt a more caring balance between profit and patients. However, if City and County find contractual breaches, they should put the owners on notice, formally – and be researching what our options are if MMC doesn’t cure the breach(es). Asserting public rights might encourage MMC’s owners to improve more quickly.

Let’s hope a new CEO improves both openness and care.

                                                   – 30 –

 

[This column was to appear Sunday, 25 August, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and will presently be up on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[This column is one of several on MMC. While the recent firing of MMC’s CEO appears to be (and MMC has suggested it was) a step in the right direction. MMC is still owned by Apollo Global. (Too, recent statements by MMC say the former CEO merely “retired.” ]

[ I’m hoping that Apollo’s MMC, pressured by investigations and public concern, will engage in more open dialogue and either respond to some of the many allegations against it and/or make welcome changes. That will only happen if new local management sees the need for it, and if city, county, state, and the public remain interested. Although MMC is no longer our only hospital, it’s important to our community. We need to see Apollo up its game OR evict Apollo if contracttual breaches warrant that. The usual course for a private-equity-owned hospital is ultimately grim. Can we / will we avoid that here?]

[Sorry the column wasn’t in the newsprint Sun-News people received today. The opinion page is made up for the whole area, sometimes without our editor’s involvement in the process, so that stuff happens.]

More Questionable Conduct by MMC

An old friend called, in distress. Memorial Medical Center had just fired Dr. John Andazola. Folks who work at MMC were deeply concerned about what that meant for MMC and the Southern New Mexico Family Medicine Residency Program.

In 2009, that program was in disarray. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education had it on probation. Since it was responsible for training resident-physicians, some of whom might stay here, it mattered to our health.

Andazola took it over. Apparently he specializes in quality control and in medical education. He got the program off probation and obtained 10-year certification. The program has had no citations. It has a high return/retention rate, meaning folks it teaches often stay here. At least 30 area physicians, including several emergency care doctors, received education from it. MMC fired him.

Worse, MMC replaced Andazola with a pencil pusher, its non-doctor CFO, Laurie Thomas. Since Andazola was both Program Director and Designated Institutional Officer (responsible for quality education and maintaining accreditation), Thomas becomes a key person in the future of area medicine. She may have little or no experience in providing graduate medical education. If the ACGME ultimately suspended the program, that’d stop residency education both here and in Alamogordo.

A possible way to preserve the residency program would be having La Clinica take it over. La Clinica is reportedly willing. But because Andazola built the program from a borderline money-loser to a highly profitable project for MMC, MMC might not agree.

Maintaining the residency program is also required by the Asset Purchase Agreement that turned the hospital private. The landlords, City of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County, are [finally!] investigating. Each has hired an outside attorney to do that.

Alert readers might ask, why would we fire a guy actually born in Memorial Hospital [the old one], graduate of Mayfield High, NMSU, and UNM Medical, who’s doctored here 15 successful years, is nationally recognized, and turned your moribund training program into something both helpful to the community and profitable?

My informants tell me he was kind of what I’d call the conscience of the hospital. He cared about patient care and professionalism, and accountability enough to speak truth to power. They say that in meetings he questioned hospital administration policies that unduly favored profit-margin at the expense of maximizing patient care and safety. Local physicians I spoke to thought highly of him – and worried about how Apollo’s ownership affects health care here.

It’s a nationally-known fact that safety and outcomes tend to be less successful in entities owned by private-equity firms. Apollo Global has owned Lifepoint, which owns MMC, since 2018. Andazola was so well-regarded that he was on the National Physician Advisory Board for the entire Lifepoint hospital system – until that was disbanded after Apollo bought the show.

Apollo isn’t publicly traded. What it does and how it does hides in a deep, dark inaccessible hole labeled “proprietary.” At MMC, committees supposedly responsible for safety and quality control can’t even gain access to needed information. That’s so weird that a visiting state official recently suggested the committees should hire an independent outside lawyer to fight for access to the information they need!

My next column will discuss the many current investigations of MMC, for problems that could include defrauding medicare, and the possibility of changing state law to gain some control of rogue institutions with private-equity investors.

So much public attention may help.

                                                      – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 18 August, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on both the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[This column is part of a long and detailed investigation of MMC. While the recent firing of MMC’s CEO appears to be (and MMC has suggested it was) a step in the right direction. MMC is still owned by Apollo Global. City, county, state, and the public need to keep a sharp eye on developments.]