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I got a heads up that there will be a debate between the candidates for the 120th District that is centered on the west side of Luzerne County.
The League of Women Voters have scheduled a debate for April 19th at 7:00 at Wyoming Seminary (Kingston).
I have spent the day trying to get confirmation from the candidates; Republicans Paul J.M. Stebbins Jr, Joe Chacke III and incumbent Democrat Phyllis Mundy. Republican candidate John Cordara doesn't have a website that I know of.
Joe Chacke hasn't got back to me yet, but that's understandable, it's Sunday. Paul Stebbins is in and looking foward to the opportunity to discuss the issues. As I said I don't know how to get a hold of Cordara. Phyllis Mundy had this reply:
I have a long-standing commitment for that evening with the GreaterWilkes-Barre Labor Council. However I look forward to a debate in the fall with the winner of the Republican Primary.
Tomorrows headline in the Times-Leader if I hadn't beat them to it:
Mundy Ducks Debate EXCLUSIVE
1 day ago
15 comments:
I spoke with the candidate whose campaign I manage yesterday (PJ Stebbins). He is poised and prepared and has already been on the campaign trail speaking to constituents - all of which said they look forward to new fresh faces and new politics instead of continued failures. Chacke hasn't done much of anything. Including missing fundraisers in his own area which Paul has attended. As for PMundy, she thinks she owns the race...I think she's in for an awakening.
I told Paul if we keep up our strategy, we at least get our name out and come in 2nd. But I have bigger plans and though it isn't my race, I don't like to lose.
Pauls policies and ideas are trendy and sensible. And Paul himself is a man of his word and his people. He has met with them and spoken with them...The others are just "running"
I live in Forty Fort on Sullivan Street. I wasn't home when he (Stebbins) stopped by but he left me a handwritten note on one of his pamphlets. That was nice of him to do. I was out yesterday though and saw one of my neighbors and they said he was a very friendly young man. Stebbins was able to show him programs that he hoped to install into our district. If that isn't prepared then I don't know what is. I did check out his website and it made sense. Something our area has lacked for some time.
I am extremely disappointed to see a fellow Republican, Paul J. Stebbins, acting as an apparent shill for the Politically Active Physicians Association (Fighting Docs), Pennsylvania Medical Society, and/or Pennsylvania Medical Society Alliance. It is apparent from his own page at http://www.stebbins2006.com/Healthcare_Reform.html that his sole interest is the financial interest of the medical constituencies and that he is probably their hand-picked candidate. Here is what he says, and here are my comments.
"Tort reform would limit non-economic damages to those suing. The common misconception is that non-economic caps are for the severest injuries. In reality, the injuries that effect [sic] a way a person lives do not fall under non-economic damages. Texas has had great success in health care with tort reform. New jobs have been created when the addition of fifteen companies that specialize in medical malpractice insurance came to TX. Texas' largest malpractice insurancce company cut cost to the physicians by 17% as a result."
I'm sure that if damage caps were placed on automobile accidents, insurance premiums for people who drive with burned-out headlights, bald tires, and worn-out brakes could be lowered as well. This is pretty much what the Pennsylvania Medical Society is doing. While its doctors may be "good drivers," their professional organization chooses to tolerate deficient or even nonexistent quality management systems that can easily harm their patients. Even a good driver is likely to have accidents and even kill people if he drives a car with bad brakes and bald tires, and a hospital that lacks an effective quality management system is exactly like an unsafe motor vehicle.
The following letter was sent to the PA Medical Society by certified mail (and it was delivered) but no reply was received, thus showing that the PA Medical Society's "ignorance" of quality management systems is entirely its own choice.
William A. Levinson
[address, phone, and E-mail given]
To: Dr. William Lander
PA Medical Society
777 East Park Drive
P.O. Box 8820
Harrisburg, PA 17105-8820
Certified mail: 7003 2260 0006 6437 7586
cc: Representative Phyllis Mundy
cc: Representative Tony Deluca
cc: Representative Nicholas Micozzie
(cc are letter only, no enclosures)
25 September 2005
Subject: Information on cost and malpractice reduction by quality management systems
Dear Dr. Lander,
Per our discussion at the House Insurance Committee meeting on September 21, I have enclosed the following articles on the benefits of quality management systems in terms of reducing malpractice costs and health care costs in general. I would be delighted to speak to your organization (with no charge for my time) about the role of state-of-the-art quality management systems in reducing malpractice rates and health care costs. [additional information follows]
=====================================
It is also ON RECORD that the Fighting Docs, who also seem to be backing Mr. Stebbins' candidacy, are knowingly and willfully ignoring the quality management issue, as proven by the following E-mail to which no reply was ever received. (@ changed to "at" to prevent harvesting by spam software)
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 12:46:13 -0500
From: "William A. Levinson" bill.levinson "at" ix.netcom.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: email "at" pamedicalcrisis.com
Subject: Off-the-shelf solution to the medical crisis
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Gentlemen,
The American Society for Quality, Automotive Industry Action Group
(AIAG), and a couple of other organizations have an off-the-shelf
solution to the medical crisis: the IWA-1 modification of the
internationally-recognized ISO 9000 quality system standard. Since about
85% of all malpractice cases result from deficiencies in the systems in
which doctors must work, requiring hospitals and similar organizations
to meet the ISO 9000 standard would pretty much fix the problem (while
cutting health care costs enormously).
Here is a copy of the PowerPoint presentation I gave to Blue Cross a
week and a half ago (with some changes to make it generic). It shows why
health care providers should register to the ISO 9000 quality standard,
or be compelled to do so by third-party payers like insurers, Medicare,
and Medicaid. The file size is about 2 megabytes.
The Automotive Industry Action Group and American Society for Quality
are backing this approach very strongly and support from the PA Medical
Society (and AMA) would be helpful. Would your group be interested in
getting behind this?
============================================
The answer is apparently "no" because no reply was ever received. It is eminently clear to me that the Pennsylvania Medical Society and especially the Fighting Docs want to relieve their constituents of the disease's symptoms-- high malpractice insurance costs-- while doing nothing to address the underlying illness: deficient or nonexistent quality management systems in health care.
Furthermore, there is substantial evidence that Mr. Stebbins is the Fighting Docs' candidate. Again from Mr. Stebbins' own Web page:
"Rep. Mundy will say that HB 743 will help Pa.'s medical crisis. In reality the 20% reduction was questioned when indisputable evidence could not be shown where the twenty percent would come from. Her bill called for the introduction of ISO 9000 systems. The same systems used in Automotive plants. People are not widgets. The big question at the hearings was ... How Much? This system was said to start at 500,000.00"
I remember seeing that "people are not widgets" line before, and Mr. Stebbins' statement above seems to have been guided by Donna Baver Rovito, Legislation Committee, Pennsylvania Medical Society Alliance, who is in fact quoted on the Fighting Docs' Web site.
http://journals.aol.com/rovspa/LiabilityUpdate/entries/392
by Donna Baver Rovito, Editor, "Liability Update"
Author, "Pennsylvania's Disappearing Doctors"
Hospital patients as widgets?
"When pressed by Committee Chairman Rep. Nick Micozzie (R-Delaware County) for a cost, Michael Adamovich, President of Mark VII Consulting of St. Louis, Missouri, responded with a cost of $500,000 or more, depending on the size of the healthcare provider and its operational areas in need of fixing."
Now if I follow the name "Rovito" and "Pennsylvania's Disappearing Doctors" in Google, it leads me to the following:
http://www.fightingdocs.com/disappearingDocs.htm
"Those We've Lost As a Result of Pennsylvania's Medical Liability Crisis"
by Donna Baver Rovito
Legislation Committee
Pennsylvania Medical Society Alliance
The similarity between Mr. Stebbins' Web page and Ms. Rovito's blog does not prove that Mr. Stebbins is working with the Pennsylvania Medical Society Alliance, Fighting Docs, etc. but the similarities suggest that this is indeed the case. It is also eminently clear that Mr. Stebbins is totally ignorant of the role of quality management in health care, as shown by "People are not widgets." It is true that people are not widgets but the ISO 9000 quality system, whose use in health care is endorsed by both the American Society for Quality and the Automotive Industry Action Group, can prevent most (80-85%) medical errors. As an example, and this is just from what I saw in the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, ISO 9000 would probably have saved the life of Torajee Bobbett. As it was, something like $11 million was awarded for this patient's death; in other words, enough money to bring 22 hospitals up to ISO 9000 standards if the $500,000 per hospital figure is accurate.
Anyone who wants to discuss this issue with me is free to do so (bill.levinson "at" ix.netcom.com). In summary, though, Mr. Stebbins' candidacy is absolutely hopeless because it is eminently clear that he has absolutely no knowledge, other than the partisan material that the Fighting Docs, Pennsylvania Medical Society Alliance, or whomever are apparently feeding him, of the quality management profession or its relation to health care. Perhaps he should begin by educating himself: http://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/pressreleases/archives/2001/Ref802.html
"Guidelines for implementing ISO 9000 quality management systems in the health care sector were published by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) on 20 September 2001 as its first "International Workshop Agreement" (IWA). ...IWA 1 is based on an earlier draft jointly developed by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), which is a global industry association representing automotive companies, including the "Big Three" - Ford, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors. As a major employer, the automotive sector deals with thousands of health care providers and spends substantial amounts on health care programmes. The generalized implementation of ISO 9000 quality management systems by health care establishments is seen as a means of rationalizing client-supplier relationships and an opportunity to improve the quality of health care while reducing the costs."
I'm close to the Chacke campaign and he has not attended fund raisers as a way of staying neutral in the State Senate Race. Mr Chacke has the unofficial backing of the County Republican Party and several local businesses. Mr. Chacke spends a lot of his spare time running a town, a great experience he can call on in his role as state legislator. I have been with Mr. Chacke visiting several neighborhoods on the campaign. When asked if he actually has a Republican challenger, people ask who the hell are they. He usually responds by saying they are people exercising their American right. Mr. Chacke will not sink to the level of name calling as has been reported to his campaign by people Paul and the other guy have visited.
I am quite sure that candidates aren't name calling. I find it hard to believe that you LOSER REPUBLICANS think that you'll even win. You have a 52-year-old man screaming gay marriage is wrong, a 26 year-old newcomer with no experience (who apparently name calls?) and a 29-year-old councilman who has no chance because the people won't let him screw up our district like he screwed up his town. These are the best your LOSER GOP Party has? God Phyllis will kill them without even campaigning. Levinson showed how one of your candidates are endorsed by physicians. The papers showed how one of your candidates thinks safety is something that is needed. The other candidate shot himself in the foot when he opened his mouth. At least MY PARTY will endorse a candidate and not have "unofficial backing" What a joke. DEMS ARE FOR REAL, hell even another pay raise won't help any of the chumps you have running. As for the two lil'ones, tell them to get real experience and come and see us when they actually hit 30.
Who is the other guy? You stupid REPUBLICANS are all the same. Do you really want us to believe that people are name-calling? What the hell? Thats a terrible accusation. Well here is some real name-calling. Republicans suck and the guy above had it right. I always like to see who they throw up and man they really threw up this time. Chacke will say anything to make himself look like a victim. Cordara will say anything to make him look like a sword-wielding churchman and Stebins hasn't said anything but get that fool above all worked up. You three are jokes. You freaking cock-smokes. Mundy will dispatch of whatever loser you put in there.
Its a shame that a bunch of candidates apparently cant act civil to each other, I wonder if maybe I should pray an Independent joins the race. I for one doubt that a candidate is name-calling, doubt a candidate is that conservative to hate all homosexuals, and doubt that a candidate hates public safety so much, if this is the case then I must choose the lesser evil and I will choose that in May. Hmmmmm which one will hurt me more? Funny how politics is? I just wish that someone would actually tell me something good about the candidates. I have read there websites and know which one is more informative but he name calls? Imagine, someone running for public office who name calls. Wow what character assassination. Maybe I just won't vote.
I feel the need to come out and stand up and be heard. To tell the truth. I am a police officer on the west side and a member of the FOP. I attended many Forty Fort council meetings in support of my fellow officers. I think people need to have the record straight. joe chalke took over as president from police hater andy tuzinksy. There was absolutely no progress in contract negotiations until this change was made. What a lot of people need to realize is the whole thing was contract negotiations. They were never going to eliminate the department, it was all an attempt to gain leverage against the union. I don't think it's fair chalke is being labeled as against public safety. I'm sure a lot of people will wrongly do so, but i'm asking you don't. I didn't agree with what was occurring but he was the one who in the end got the contract done. i know alot of people are probably going to attack me, which is fine, but at least i made an attempt to tell the truth. whether you vote for the man or not, know the truth.
Thank You for your time.
Then why write as anonymous Mr. Officer lol. Hey I want people to know I'm a rocket scientist and a member of NASA and Joe Chacke helped save the Space Program and my friend is a member of MLB and Joe saved the sport from illegal performance enhancing drugs. Contract negotiations? I saw other towns had the contracts zipped up in days. They must not have any haters on their councils. The fact of the matter is he shot himself but its okay because I'm a Doctor and Joe Chacke saved my medical office from closing down, Did I mention my brother was a butcher and Joe Chacke saved the meat packing industry as well?
Gaine Leverage against the union. What business sense that is. Gain leverage against a crappy union that doesn't help anyone, not a union that deals with public safety. HAHA
FIGHTING DEMS!!!!!!
You guys are goofs! You make me laugh. Thanks for the laughs. I'll take it that Chacke is the front-runner and he has scared Mundy's supporters so much that they'll attack him in the primary hoping he won't win. Phyllis is scared?
Cordora rocks, the rest are chumps, Mundy is going down. John Cordora-State Rep. nice ring to it
I'm not sure Chacke is a front-runner. Neither candidate has done much. It will be interesting to see who wins. I'm pulling for one of the younger guys. Either or. It should be nice
I see that the person above who said that a candidate name-called must be refering to the conversation where the candidate talked to another city councilman when he said he was running against someone who almost got rid of the police department. Obviously he must not have known that the person he was talking to voted against the police also. I'm just curious why a small town like Forty Fort requires nine councilpersons. Seems like an awful lot for a town that Chacke described as "stagnant".
If you've ever attended a council meeting or spoke with the man, you'd realize he'd agree with you. 9 is too many. But it's up to the voters to take up a petition and present it to the court. I can't believe you're trying to blame Chacke for the number of council members that has been around since the early 1900s, about 70 years before he was born. I guess the scared will fight back with anything.
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