I’ll keep today’s post short and to the point. I just want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your support of my blog. It is because of readers, such as yourselves, that I keep blogging. I also want to thank those of you that continuously support and encourage me through your emails, comments and donations.
I appreciate each you for taking the time to read my blog.
Best wishes to you and your families in 2016 and many years after that.
See you all next week with another installment of border politics, the culture of corruption and commentary about news and politics around the world. I am also planning more cartoons, videos and infographics in 2016.
Enjoy the New Year’s celebrations and remember to be safe!
THANK YOU for all you did this year to keep us informed and fill the vacuum left by the incompetent local media especially the lasiest, most biased newspaper on the planet- The El Paso Times. I especially thank you for your relentless pursuit of the truth regarding the El Paso Children’s Hospital. You contributed GREATLY to the unfolding drama and correctly labeled the IGT/rent conspiracy when no one else would even “whisper” it. You have pored through tedious documents and interpreted them for all of us when no one else had the tenacity, intelligence or passion to pursue that information. I wish you the very best in 2016 and ask you to continue to closely follow the UMC-EPCH story. There are still so many unanswered questions: did Valenti act alone? Did UMC- CC give him their blessing or did he hijack the IGT without them fully understanding the possible consquences. What was Krafsur’s role? Did UMC pay Krafsur consulting fees to help Valenti hijack the IGT? Which UMC boardmember refused to be deposed and triggered the complete 360 from CC- going from “EPCH owes UMC 120 million” to “well, maybe EPCH only owes 15 million”. Keep your eye on the EPCH operations- the new CEO has to be experienced in a medicaid rich environment and the new Board lacks depth in hospital operations. We know Miguel Fernandez lacks good judgement so a leadership gap already exists. Rosemary Castillo and Dr. Chedha will announce their replacements and we can only hope they have brains and ethics. Keep us posted because the El Paso Times will boast of their worthiness even if they are under indictment! The new leadership must purge the hospital of the Larry Duncan-Sam Legates- Brad Fuhrman axis of BAD LEADERSHIP and move on by replicating what actually works at EPCH like radiology and NICU. There are some TTUHSC doctors that need to leave and in spite of all the complaints about them, it seems impossible to rid the place of the carpet baggers who refuse to buy a home in El Paso and become invested tax payers. Meanwhile the place is full of culturally incompetent doctors and residents who struggle with English much less speak Spanish and posess no knowledge of our religious and cultural norms. EPCH was built inpart to train future pediatricians for our badly underserved population but a disproportionately high number of the pediatric residentcy slots go to doctors who are NOT from the US or Latin America. In fact this last year, a graduate of the Paul Foster School of Medicine did not get a residency slot but several doctors from foreign schools in India and the Middle East were admitted to the program. Is there bias in the pediatric residency program at TTUHSC and how does it impact EPCH and our future pool of pediatricians? Only 5% of the MD’s in USA are Latino yet it is the fastest growing demographic. Do you see a problem with Latino patients being treated primarily by Indian and Chinese MD’s? Keep up the GREAT WORK and THANKS!!!