AS I SEE IT
To Whom it May Concern:
It was with great sadness and surprise to hear of Dr. Jones’ dismissal from St. Mary’s Hospital on February 14, 2018. The message to all in the hospital was that he resigned his position to pursue other interests, but make no mistake, he loved his patients and loved medicine and would never make a snap judgment and leave like that. Dr. Jones has dedicated his life to the people and patients of St. Mary’s Hospital for 28.5 years and he will always be my colleague and friend. Dr. Jones had an unfortunate verbal attack on another staff member the night before he was dismissed. This was serious and very wrong and warranted sanctions for his behavior, but I believe that the decision by Essentia Health to ask/tell him to leave a place that he loved so much was excessive. What does a person do to start over at 63 years of age? How does anyone do that?
Let me tell you a couple of stories that no one knows about Dr. Jones. He would routinely take patients home to the Kamiah area from the hospital after they were released, if they had trouble getting a ride. There was another incident involving a certified nursing assistant who had trouble getting her hours in during a certain pay period when the hospital census was extremely low. The CNA not only did not make any money that pay period, but had to come up with her health insurance premium so that she could maintain her coverage. As soon as Dr. Jones heard of her dilemma, he immediately wrote out a check to cover her health insurance premium so that she could maintain her coverage. He would never want to know this, but he did a lot of things like this routinely without question.
An additional incident pertaining to another Essentia Health decision was dismissal of Lorinda Hughes, a valued member of our Radiology staff. Lorinda worked in Radiology, was on call every Sunday, and taught the students wanting to become a radiology tech at LCSC. She brought in students routinely to rotate through St. Mary’s Hospital, and this proved to be a valued recruiting tool. She has several allergy reactions and was told by Dr. Garges, her allergist, not to even attempt to take the flu shot. However, Essentia Health did not honor her allergist’s decision and wanted her to take the flu shot anyway. It was her allergist’s opinion that this was too dangerous for her. Essentia Health decided that it was not good enough and it was either take the flu vaccine and risk a severe reaction or be dismissed. She had to choose to resign.
The absence of both Lorinda Hughes and Dr. Jones will be felt for months, if not years, and the ripple effect of their absence will remain. We will all be the poorer without them. All of us at St. Mary’s will do our very best to care for Dr. Jones’ patients, as Dr. Jones would want us to do. Taking care of patients will always be out primary responsibility, as Dr. Jones always said, “St. Mary’s Hospital forever.” However, with the last couple of decisions made by Essentia Health, I do not believe they have our best interest here at St. Mary’s Hospital in mind.
Respectfully submitted,
Ronald Sigler, M.D.

To the Editor
Thanks to Dr. Jones
We wish to express our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Jones for his many years of caring and personal
service to us, our family and our community.
We also wish him the best on his retirement. He will be greatly missed in this community.
Thanks again.
Dan and Anna Johnson
Nezperce

Redneck Review!
No. 150 - 3/5/2018
Now might be the time to "cut to the chase" folks!  Wikipedia tells me that this old saying has come to mean: "to get to the point without wasting time."  The point we have tried to make in our last few reviews is that governments which take from some and then single out who the receivers will be will eventually find so many people wanting or demanding to be "receivers" that the government giving out these handouts is destined to go bankrupt!
It was also suggested that uncomfortable evidence exists that our country is falling into this deadly habit over the years, and may well be on the verge of predicted financial disaster!
It was also suggested here that the driving force behind this logical and historical evidence is human nature itself,  that there are tendencies in each of us and in the very nature of we humans which explains why this trend seems to occur over and over in our past history.
It is the purpose of this review to examine and discuss just what these human tendencies might be that seem to cause this repeated cycle in history.
First, is it not true that there is a universal tendency in all of us to take the easier of two alternatives presented? Given two ways to accomplish any task, is it not true that most of us will gravitate towards the easier way?  Not to say this is bad, only to claim that it is human nature to choose the easier of different ways of getting something done. Thus, if several people work on the same task, it is often true that one individual will slack off, and force partners to take up that slack. This can even be seen on athletic teams when the going get tough! It can sometimes be noticed  that an individual gives up more easily, or simply slacks off and lets fellow members attempt to pick up that slack.  Or on a crew assigned a task, some individuals seem willing to back off and ride the efforts of their fellow workers. 
Allowed to continue, this tendency tells us that many individuals willingly will accept freely those things in life which others have put forth hard effort to provide. And any  government which allows this to happen, or even encourages it, is going to endorse the tendency and create a climate in which more and more  people will choose the easier path. Could this not be what is happening in our country as welfare costs escalate, and more and more things are offered "free!"  Is it not true that TV in the past few years continually screams "FREE" that which has had to cost someone something?  Maybe it is time to reexamine and appreciate the slogan Steve Symms used to gain the Senate years ago by repeating the slogan -TANSTAAFL:    "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!" Senator Symms used this slogan in the election of 1980 to upset Senator Frank Church who had been the senator from Idaho for 24 years.
And is it not true that a second basic tendency of all of us is that we are born with a desire to "do it my way?"  From the small child to the old adult, it is easy to claim that this tendency is in fact born in us!  Babies scream when unhappy, youths rebel from their parents, adults in many cases find it hard to obey rules and laws established by common sense, governments, or religions of one kind or another.  When carried to extremes, some among us choose to do their own thing;  steal from others, kill when offended or unhappy, or in dozens of other ways, create havoc among society by simply insisting on "having it their way."
Is there a solution to this recurring problem?  Next week it will be claimed that there is a time tested solution, and that our future could depend on our willingness to use it!
Jake Wren

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