17 JUL 07: SURGERY OR AMPUTATION?

Summit Hospital executives held staff meetings Monday, to explain its latest round of job cuts. It's the second big reduction since the Phenix City hospital opened 11 months ago. If you didn't know better, you'd think John McCain was running the place.

Summit Hospital confirmed it eliminated 25 jobs last week. I'd go further into exactly how the hospital "eliminated" them -- but we try to keep this blog G-rated.

The reduction of 25 jobs comes three months after Summit Hospital shut down its obstetrics department. So maybe this is a matter of attempting to avoid age discrimination lawsuits....

Spokesman Ian Watson explained Summit Hospital was built with 70 beds, and the managers projected 40 to 50 would be filled on an average day. If you've been on a travel web site and stumbled upon discounted motel room rates in Phenix City, this could explain it.

But while the management expected 40 to 50 beds would be filled at Summit Hospital each day, only about 30 beds are being filled right now. So first not enough Phenix City women were having babies - and now the residents simply aren't getting sick enough?!

Ian Watson says the latest job cuts simply reflect the current needs of Summit Hospital. For instance, the hospital is handling about 100 surgeries per month. So let's see - you only need four or five interns to handle all of those....

Managers believe Summit Hospital's activity will increase, once the Riverchase exit is finished from the Phenix City North Bypass. The way things are right now, the emergency room may be busiest when ambulance drivers get whiplash turning on side streets.

There's one other factor that Summit Hospital's management dares not mention. Base realignment may bring more ailing soldiers to Fort Benning. And the sooner Democrats persuade the President he should pull out of Iraq, the happier the hospital staff will be.

But there's something else working against Summit Hospital. I've read complaints that patients with serious health problems in East Alabama are taken to the Columbus Medical Center, because that's an official "trauma unit." The only trauma at Summit seems to take place when the managers call staff meetings.

BLOG UPDATE: Weeks of tension and concern on two big Columbus issues ended Monday night, at the Muscogee County School Board meeting. For one thing, the board gave final approval to the use of land around the central library. For another thing, board member John Wells returned from "running with the bulls" unharmed.

The school board's vote was unanimous for a "memorandum of understanding" with the city and library system. So it appears there will be a three-way approach to landscaping around the central library on Macon Road. To make this truly an "education park," math students should measure off each section this fall.

But Josh McKoon of the Education Park Coalition still wasn't completely satisfied. He expressed concern the $3 million set aside for landscaping could be spent entirely on "hardscape" [11 Jul]. If McKoon really thinks this will happen, he's assuming the Library Board is filled with hard-heads.

Josh McKoon added the Muscogee County School Board could sell its part of the library land for future development. At least we know there's no demand for an outdoor Library Café....

It suddenly occurred to me Monday that this library land debate has seen a strange role reversal. Josh McKoon chairs the Muscogee County Republican Party, yet he's opposing business development in a small part of Columbus. Teresa Tomlinson of Midtown Inc. is a Democrat, yet she's been accused of being hungry for development and against parkland. Do these two people have evil twins?

Now let's check the good, the evil and the in-between from other Monday news....

+ Which local car dealer appears to have dropped its 30-minute infomercials, right after the 12:00 noon TV news? Could it be that "Mr. Big Volume" plans to become Mr. Walk Softly for awhile?

+ Mayor Jim Wetherington told WRBL Columbus Council is considering asking the Georgia Legislature to abolish the Muscogee County Coroner's position. So with all this talk about next year's election, the council may opt instead for a Coroner-y bypass.

(The mayor explained the county coroner could be replaced by a team of medical examiners. So Ricky Weeks would get the M.E.'s he's proposing -- he simply wouldn't get to be the boss of them.)

+ National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" reported on five days of activity by Fort Benning's Third Brigade in Iraq. Commanders admitted they've changed their approach from kicking in doors to showing "dignity and respect." Please call the insurgents "sir" before they start firing rockets at you.

(The NPR reporter said Third Brigade soldiers shot the wrong man by mistake, in one Iraqi town -- and other military acts led to a comment by Commander Wayne Grigsby that "bullying is not tolerated." Don't put this man on the mailing list for Columbus Cottonmouths season tickets.)

+ Dr. Jay Gogue spent his first day on the job as President of Auburn University. He explained the approach he takes is to "hit the ground listening" - which explains why he wasn't hired to be on the White House staff during the last couple of years.

+ The Georgia Lottery announced it had a record $3.4 billion in earnings last fiscal year. Isn't this wonderful news? Gamblers across Georgia and in surrounding states are losing like never before....

+ The evening sports report revealed two Alabama football players and one Georgia football player were arrested over the weekend. It's enough to make Southeastern Conference coaches lobby for summer training camps, and pre-season exhibition games throughout August.

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