• Reporting hospital infections • Call for awakening • Silent ones have an opinion too Reporting hospital infections As physicians and members of the Concerned Citizens for Kaua‘i’s Health Care Future we were disappointed to read that Hawaii’s government, whose
• Reporting hospital infections • Call
for awakening • Silent ones have an opinion
too
Reporting hospital infections
As physicians and members of the Concerned Citizens for Kaua‘i’s Health Care Future we were disappointed to read that Hawaii’s government, whose foremost priority should be the welfare of its people, has chosen to keep vital health care information from the public (see TGI Aug. 31).
The Department of Health, the Legislature and the governor have all acted to prevent public reporting of hospital infection rates as occurs now in the majority of states.
Reporting all medical outcomes (not just hospital infections) has been shown in the past decade to greatly improve the standard of healthcare. A case in point is the care improvement program that was initiated some years ago in the VA hospital system.
Using specific criteria for outcomes and complication rates all veteran hospitals were evaluated and compared.
As a result of each hospital knowing how they compared to others, care improved markedly throughout the VA system (see S.F. Kuri et al, Archives of Surgery, Jan 2002). This program has now been adopted by many private hospitals throughout the country.
We are greatly heartened by the care improvement program based on standards similar to those in the VA study that was initiated several years ago at Wilcox Memorial Hospital, by CEO Kathy Clark.
By meeting high standards patients can be assured that optimal measures are being met regarding infection control and other outcome criteria at this institution.
All of us who depend on our local hospitals for care should have infection rate information available to assure us that high standards of care are being provided.
We encourage all individuals to contact the Hawai‘i State Department of Health, your specific legislators and the Governor’s Office to propose a change in the laws that will allow transparency in reporting healthcare outcomes.
Since hospitals have records of infection rates, sharing this data with the public is an extremely effective method for the consumer to choose which institution to select for their care.
Judy Shabert, M.D., M.P.H, Douglas Wilmore, M.D., Kilauea
Call for awakening
I was appalled by the news describing the dedication of a new missile testing site on Kaua‘i and Inouye’s words, “We are not testing to kill, but to defend.”
Really? Missiles kill. What we focus on is what we get. This is making our beautiful island more of a target than ever.
Isn’t it time after 4,000 years of patriarchy and endless war that we change our focus from attack and defense, from fear, separation, power, control and greed?
This is the opportunity we now have with the collapse of old systems and mother Earth’s shift in energy to higher frequencies. The abundance of prophecies calling for purification and preparation for Heaven on Earth can give us a new vision. There are benevolent extra-terrestrials waiting for our welcome as they can assist us make this huge shift in consciousness from fear and separation to oneness. This is ascension time, a shift from third dimension to the fourth heart centered and fifth dimension of oneness consciousness.
It is written in numerous recent spiritual books that it is our belief in separation from each other, from our creator source (God), from our true self and from nature that has caused all our human misery. If we were created from love, then at the core of every being is love, even if unrecognized or hidden by the veils of fear and the ego we created to protect the body. As spiritual beings we are one. It is a time for heart awakening and living from the wisdom of the spiritual heart. We connect with the voice for love /God within, through resonance and intuition, superior to reason, we are finding out.
When we hold a new vision, we can create a new world. Everything is coming to light and the power and control of the super rich elite will be exposed and come to an end, if we join together at the level of the heart.
Petra Rose Sundheim, Kalaheo
Silent ones have an opinion too
To paraphrase the words of Ms. Alice Parker in her Aug. 31 letter, (Continue Constructive Criticism), permit me to say instead, that equally if not more so, that “many of us agree that the so called and accepting of the term constructive criticism/folks are actually “nit-pickers” of the status quo and modus operandi of the Kaua‘i government.”
The difference between the terms “nit-picker” and “constructive criticism” do battle in the arena of “opinions” — beliefs that rest on grounds insufficient to produce certainty.
Every opinion, critical in nature, nit picking or constructive, starts or ends with an opinion within the body of which a criticized “fault” is defined.
Sometimes the remedy to the fault is offered, but more often than not, no solution is included. In the case of the status quo and modus operandi referred to, the problem or fault often mentioned revolved around belittling the performance of elected and appointed officials.
A suggested solution — change the officials by election.
This, of course, is refused, persisting instead to changing the system of government which the Charter Review Commission denied.
A new plan has been devised: “Thus our plan B is to stay after those who are elected,” (Mr. Glenn Mickens, Aug. 23, Government Sentinel at your Service)
Differing opinions exist on all government/political issues and we must accept the fact that intellectual capacity and ability to form opinions are not the exclusive right only of those who choose to share their opinions publicly.
We must remember: The silent ones do have opinions and they do vote.
Alfred Laureta, Lihu‘e
