Straight Up with Sherri

Thursday, April 07, 2005

This Just in from: DEE! NICE WORK DEE!
(my own comments in purple)

I was digging for info on the West Georgia Hospice (Phone: (706) 845-3905 Tollfree: (888) 368-3905) in Lagrange and check out the bold red below, this is the same center that was over Woodside Hospice were Terri was held if I’m not badly mistaken. Not that this shows anything YET, but I’m still checking names of board members and affiliations; just to see if there might be something.


Plus, found this - the Facility Administrator at the hospice is Cathy Wiggins: Director of Hospice – who is also....


Cathy Wiggings, West Georgia Hospice, LeGrange – Pres of Board of Directors of

Georgia Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (GHPCO)

GHPCO is a committed member and supporter of the Georgia Collaborative to Improve End of Life Care, a partnership of providers, academics, business leaders and community members that has worked together for the past 5 years to improve end of life care in Georgia. The accomplishments of the Collaborative include community education through Georgia Health Decisions' CRITICAL Conditions program; support of physician, nurse and allied health provider end of life education and training; outreach to community organizations; research on current practices and the Emmy award-winning documentary Final Choices: Changing a Culture. (Changing a Culture? TO WHAT? CAN IT BE ANY CLEARER???)

GEORGIA Collaborative to Improve End-of-Life Care Holds Planning Meeting

In an effort to focus its activities, be more inclusive of organizations around the state, and plan for its future, the Collaborative met January 21, 2004 at the Loudermilk Center for the Regional Community in Atlanta Georgia to create a plan for the next five years. The meeting was made possible through a Rallying Points Certificate and was facilitated by staff from the
Hospice for the Florida Sun Coast - the south's Rallying Points Regional Resource Center. Representatives from more then 30 organizations participated, and committees were formed around several key areas, including governance and sustainability. It is hoped that the participation of new organizations and individuals will reinvigorate the Collaborative's efforts.



Final Choices: Changing a Culture Wins Emmy Award!

Final Choices: Changing a Culture won an Emmy for Best Medical Program at the 2001 Southern Regional Emmy Awards. The award was presented to Carol Fisk, Gerald Bryant, and Leigh Green. Final Choices was developed in September 2000 with the GEORGIA Collaborative to Improve End-of-Life Care to run on Georgia Public Television (GPTV) as a companion piece to On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying and was the winner of a National Headliner Award in May 2001 and a Georgia Association of Broadcasters Award in June 2001.

Our Beginnings
In late 1997, and with funding from the Georgia Coalition for Health, the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, and the Georgia Department of Medical Assistance, we initiated active program involvement in issues related to end of life care. That initial effort has now organizationally evolved into the Georgia Collaborative to Improve End of Life Care and encompasses multiple, statewide programs including feasibility studies, quality interventions programs, and public and private sector policy redesign.
(JUST LOVE THE "POLICY REDESIGN" THING! )


Our Partners



· Georgia Psychological Association

· Georgia Hospice Organization

· Emory University School of Medicine

· Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of GA

· Medical College of Georgia

· Mercer University School of Medicine

· Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Georgia

· Morehouse School of Medicine

· United Healthcare of Georgia

· Medical Association of Georgia

· Georgia State Medical Association

· Georgia Hospital Association

· Georgia Department of Community Health

· Georgia Nursing Home Association

· Georgia Medical Care Foundation

· Georgia Health Decisions

· Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia

· Georgia Health Policy Center



CALL TO ACTION!!!


Calling ALL-- Let's join in doing more research!

Some suggestions:

Georgia Coalition for Health

the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation

Final Choices: Changing a Culture won an Emmy for Best Medical Program at the 2001 Southern Regional Emmy Awards. The award was presented to Carol Fisk, Gerald Bryant, and Leigh Green. Final Choices was developed in September 2000 with the GEORGIA Collaborative to Improve End-of-Life Care to run on Georgia Public Television (GPTV) as a companion piece to On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying and was the winner of a National Headliner Award in May 2001 and a Georgia Association of Broadcasters Award in June 2001.

13 Comments:

  • Sherri,

    You amaze me. I have a feeling that we would disagree on quite a few issues, but I'm glad we agree on this one. If the right to die mov't is organized, large, and has members who are inclusive of all walks of "life", the the Right to Life folks need to organize similarly.

    Right now the mainstream media and the general public see the folks that thought Terri should live as conservatives, rebulicans, Bible thumping Christians who want to push an agenda down their throats. We know that's not the case. Many, many people who identified with Terri's plight were like myself and very liberal by societies definition.

    I made a post on blogsforterri calling for inclusiveness and for the right to life organizataions to merge into an entity large enough to include all the types of humanity in the county today. When people realize that the one voice calling out for this to stop is mulitfaceted, they can no longer marginalize it as a whacko conservative agenda.

    In a large enough organization, you'll have media, film, magazine, news, legal, medical, etc type of people. There will be lots of talent and their associated contacts in their industries to help get the message out to the lay public in a way that will eventually begin to be noticed. It'll take time to counteract years of misinformation as to what living wills really are.

    With your ability to get information and your energy, you would be a force to be reckoned with in such a group. ....probably not the media spokesperson though ...Hahahaha. :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:48 PM  

  • I have a sick feeling we're seeing just the tip of the iceberg.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:05 PM  

  • Another site which shows how the euthanasia movement has embedded itself in our culture:

    www.lifetree.org

    Shows the influence of AARP, Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (PBS sponsor), George Soros; universities, health orgs, etc.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:46 PM  

  • THIS IS FROM SHERRI:


    I can't post on my blog!!

    Not even comment!

    I HATE BLOGGER!

    PLEASE- TELL EVERYONE TO KEEP BUGGING THE JUDGE- I JUST TALKE TO THE NEPHEW- KENNETH-- HE SAYS THE INSURANCE AGENICIES ARE CERTAINLY INVOLVED- THE JUDGE DOES HAVE FINAL SAY SO--

    JUDGE NOT HAPPY WITH THE ATTENTION HE IS GETTING- JUDGE BOYD IS ALSO NOT AN ATTORNEY

    PLEASE GET THIS ON MY BLOG!

    I CAN'T!

    aaaaaaaaaaarg!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:20 PM  

  • Sherri, have you tried clearing your cache, dumping cookies and rebooting your computer? I hope that works for you.

    There's a panel on CSPAN right now talking about judicial activism, and Terri has been mentioned several times.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:09 PM  

  • [SNIPS]

    Hospice that enrolls Non-Terminal Patients Commits Fraud

    The United States Office of Inspector General has issued its warning to the public about questionable hospice agency practices and stated that some hospices have been found to engage in, "practices which ... have inappropriately maximized their Medicare reimbursements at beneficiary expense. These practices include: Making incorrect determinations of a person’s life expectancy for purposes of meeting hospice eligibility criteria." A hospice that bills Medicare, Medicaid or a private insurer for a non-terminal patient is violating the contracts which allow hospices to provide services for the terminally ill.

    Hospices are not licensed to care for the chronically ill. In order for a patient to be admitted to hospice, the physician must "certify" that the patient is likely to die within six months due to a terminal illness. Terri Schiavo has no terminal illness; the only cause of death in her case would be her intentional murder by those intent on ending her life.

    Original Hospice Mission Violated

    The original hospice mission is to care for, support and manage the symptoms of the terminally ill until a death occurs in its own natural timing. Every hospice nurse and physician knows that hospice is supposed to neither hasten death nor seek to cure the terminal illness. Hastening the death of a patient goes against everything hospice stands for.

    Although Terri Schiavo's case will be decided in a Pinellas County courthouse, any hospice that accepts a chronically ill patient has violated not only the spirit of hospice and the mission of hospice, but the **federal regulations** governing hospice.

    Read the entire article. There's much more:

    http://www.hospicepatients.org/terri-schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:37 AM  

  • Sean Hannity will be in Atlanta tommorrow--maybe he will be interested?

    By Blogger JJ, at 1:36 AM  

  • Wow, a (fellow) engineer who happens to be into math, Monty Python, and ... ... Catholicism? Interesting.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:52 AM  

  • I forwarded this story to Hugh Hewitt, Bill Bennett, Polipundit and Drudge yesterday and will continue to forward it to them and others. Where is the media now? Not even the media that knows what a travesty the Schaivo case was has picked up on this yet.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:39 AM  

  • Hmmm I found a Cathy Wiggins-
    HCQA-Cathy Wiggins, Interim Executive Director--Home Care Quality Authority . This was 2002, I am Wondering if she is the same person.

    http://www.hcqa.wa.gov/board/minutesaug82002.htm

    The group deals with In-Home care for seniors and people with disabilities. They are in washington State.

    Has anyone one seen Cathy's c.v or resume?

    By Blogger KC, at 9:40 PM  

  • Tom

    Kenneth's phone # is posted on this blog-- I suggest yuo call him and ask him yourself!

    I have talked to Kenneth several times-- and the impression I got- was not even close to a smooth talker....

    YOU CHECK THE FACTS! DON'T COME HERE THROWING OUT STUFF TO TRY AND ASSASINATE SOMEONE'S CHARACTER_ WHEN YOU ADMIT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IF YOU HAVE THE SAME GUY!

    POST THIS INUENDO ON YOUR OWN SITE! NOT HERE!

    By Blogger Straight Up with Sherri, at 9:51 PM  

  • "Assasinate" his character? Hardly.

    Anyway, my own system problems seem to have been resolved, and I have posted at my own site, thanks.

    And although I understand your "shout now, check facts later" theory, there may come a time when the credibility of bloggers is (a) exhausted, or (b) still able to muster media attention.

    Which is why folks pass down the story of the boy and the wolf, and discourage the ringing of false fire alarms.

    Tom Maguire

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:03 AM  

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