On the heels of a lawsuit claiming that Wesley Medical Center and other hospitals owned by its parent company deliberately understaff nurses, the Kansas City Star reports that nurses at Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence are up in arms over inadequate staffing.
Both Wesley and Centerpoint are owned by the Tennessee-based HCA.
The Centerpoint nurses made their case in a petition to the hospital, which is part of the HCA Midwest Health System, the Star reported.
HCA just might be forced to reckon with these staffing charges. In the Wichita-based lawsuit — which was reinstated as a class-action lawsuit by a judge last month and kicked back to federal district court in Wichita — HCA is accused of developing a computer software program that dictates nurse staffing levels at its hospitals, including Wesley, resulting in low staffing levels. The lawsuit contends that translated to inadequate care for patients, which led to injuries and deaths.
For those who like reading court copy, here is the 10th Circuit’s full opinion on the HCA class-action lawsuit
If you happen to drive by Yingling Aviation at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, you may notice the 25 or so Columbia aircraft parked there.
Their owners are in Wichita for the first Cessna-organized fly-in of Columbia 350/400 aircraft. Cessna bought the assets of bankrupt Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corp. last year.
Yesterday’s turbulent weather kept some away. But those whoe made it are at Cessna today and will leave Saturday to tour Cessna’s Independence plant.
Major airlines are cutting back flights as oil prices soar. Continental Airlines was the latest in a string of airlines to announce layoffs, flight cuts and the retirement of older, fuel-guzzling airplanes. The result is likely higher fares and fewer choices, more waiting, less service.
That could be good for the sale of business jets. The more expensive, complicated and troublesome it is to fly the airlines, the more business jet travel becomes attractive and cost effective for corporations and others with the billfolds to buy them. Business jet deliveries have been at record highs. More than half of the sales are coming from international customers.
Glad to see you’re all still standing after yesterday’s storm of the century. Quite a doozy, wasn’t it?
Speaking of a doozy, here are your links for Friday.
- The Mobile Press-Register says the departure of the Air Force’s top two leaders should have little to no impact on the tanker program.
- Wichita travel agent Joe Bye of Cruise Holidays of Wichita says in a USA Today article that frustration with airlines is leading more people to drive to ports. “It’s sad that this is what flying has come to,” he says.
- The Washington Post has a good story on the impact hedge funds and big Wall Street banks are having on the price of oil.
- Oil, by the way, is going up, up, up today. And the markets are going down, down, down.
- Gas in Wichita is some of the cheapest in the nation, according to GasBuddy.com.
- MarketWatch says Wal-Mart has given signals that is interested in expanding into the electronics installation and repair services market.
- Evander Holyfield meet Ed McMahon. CNBC says the former heavyweight champ’s $10 million estate near Atlanta is under foreclosure. For some reason, I just don’t feel real bad for a guy who buys a home with 109 rooms — including 17 bathrooms, three kitchens and a bowling alley — and then can’t afford it, whatever the reasons.
It seems a little silly this morning to make another attempt at analyzing the latest plot twist in the here-today, gone-tomorrow, back-on-Friday story that is Wild West World.
In fact, I’m thinking of proposing a one-line ticker to run across the bottom of Kansas.com, rather like those weather bulletin trailers: “From the Eagleland Bankruptcy-plex …”
So in that spirit, here’s today’s bit of plagiarized wisdom on the theme park story that just won’t go away: “What we have here … is a failure to communicate.”
I’m not going to sit here and predict who the lucky (?) buyer of the park will be. But I will tell you that Jerry Murphy and his group are now out on a substantial limb, telling the Eagle Thursday that they’re going to make every effort to close their $2 million deal to buy and revive the park.
Am I certain that will happen? No. But it’s quite a limb, isn’t it?
You’re not going to find a member of the Business Today staff, the author included, who isn’t proud of the work we’ve done in almost two years with our startup publication.
But it means something extra special to get an attaboy from someone as significant in this city and his industry as Nestor Weigand, whose J.P. Weigand & Sons brokerage is the 800-pound gorilla of residential and commercial real estate in the Wichita area and Kansas.
This from a guy whose week has been spent in Amsterdam at a worldwide real estate gathering.
Thanks, Nestor, from all of us for the pick-me-up on a Friday morning.