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Sep. 22nd, 2007
Money! Send me money!
Sep. 22nd, 2007 10:49 amI'm going to try and buy a brain for Amy Klobuchar. I know they don't come cheap, but there must be something out there on the Intertubes thingies that will be an improvement over her current lack of brains.
Transferring Video
Sep. 22nd, 2007 11:42 amTaking the tapes and putting them on the computer for burning to DVD.
Sound is pretty boomy.
Someone midpacific put a chicken and taters in the oven. Goal is chicken soup in the evening. Lunch is chicken. Meanwhile, midpacific has gone off to bed.
Sound is pretty boomy.
Someone midpacific put a chicken and taters in the oven. Goal is chicken soup in the evening. Lunch is chicken. Meanwhile, midpacific has gone off to bed.
Just in case you ain't checked...
Sep. 22nd, 2007 12:15 pmIt's stunningly gorgeous outside today, and it's the end of summer. You may ask what I'm doing sitting inside. I'll hafta get back to you on that.
Shocked, I'm just shocked...
Sep. 22nd, 2007 06:49 pmMore Profit and Less Nursing at Many Homes
By CHARLES DUHIGG
By CHARLES DUHIGG
Habana Health Care Center, a 150-bed nursing home in Tampa, Fla., was struggling when a group of large private investment firms purchased it and 48 other nursing homes in 2002.
The facility’s managers quickly cut costs. Within months, the number of clinical registered nurses at the home was half what it had been a year earlier, records collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities and other services also fell, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 49 homes.
Residents fared less well. Over three years, 15 at Habana died from what their families contend was negligent care in lawsuits filed in state court. Regulators repeatedly warned the home that staff levels were below mandatory minimums. When regulators visited, they found malfunctioning fire doors, unhygienic kitchens and a resident using a leg brace that was broken.
“They’ve created a hellhole,” said Vivian Hewitt, who sued Habana in 2004 when her mother died after a large bedsore became infected by feces.
Habana is one of thousands of nursing homes across the nation that large Wall Street investment companies have bought or agreed to acquire in recent years.
Those investors include prominent private equity firms like Warburg Pincus and the Carlyle Group, better known for buying companies like Dunkin’ Donuts.
As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains.
Last night...
Sep. 22nd, 2007 07:01 pmAfter watching the performances at Patrick's Cabaret, we went to the Town Talk Diner. There was a line a mile long of spit-shined hombres trying to get into the Rodeo Bar. I've not seen so many big belt buckles since 1959, no western shirts and cowboy hats. I thought I'd stepped into Montana.