Dr. James Weinstein was quoted in the Valley News on April 2 as saying, “You give up leadership on this and you’ve created nothing but an ordinary academic medical center. You don’t want that.” (‘Changes, Challenges and Choices: An Assessment As Weinstein Ends His Era at D-H.’)
Dr. Weinstein appears to think being an ordinary academic medical center is a bad thing. It is nothing of the sort.
I loved DHMC when it was an ordinary academic medical center — and I miss it dearly. I was born at DHMC and have gone there over the years for surgeries and to make use of their top-notch specialty services.
I have noticed a change in culture during Dr. Weinstein’s tenure as CEO. I remember spending time at a world class yet very much community-oriented institution, an unassuming, honest, caring presence in the valley. I am saddened by what it has become. What was once a nurturing, smart environment has become an ostentatious, money-driven machine, prone to factory-like efficiency and obsessed with image. Dr. Weinstein’s comment encapsulates this change, and not in a good way.
I’d like to believe the good elements are still there, somewhere under the endless schemes Dr. Weinstein finds so alluring and the incessant “Imagine” advertisements. The outstanding day-to-day work of patient care and research should speak for itself.
I am also bothered by Dr. Weinstein’s comment that, “In my mind you don’t build something for today, you build something for the future because today is a mess.” If today is indeed a mess, then we should attend to it. We could start by looking at DHMC culture from 10 or 20 years ago. Prestige was achieved by doing rather than talking. Caring was an act clearly felt and appreciated, not a hollow tagline relegated to the bottom of the name badges.
Charlotte Rutz
Hartford Village
Your assessment of Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s past, present and future marks a sad period in the history of academic medical centers (“Changes, Challenges and Choices: An Assessment As Weinstein Ends His Era at D-H,” April 2).
Rather than building this fine institution into a powerhouse regional medical hub like Partners HealthCare or Geisinger Health System, the D-H board has for too long prioritized charismatic vision over strategic and operational reality and has unwittingly yielded future control over New Hampshire’s fine hospitals to out-of-state medical delivery organizations with deep pockets and enormous bargaining power.
This is a classic story of failed governance and fiduciary responsibility, and it’s high time for the public to demand that D-H’s board wakes up to care for its remaining patients and support an excellent medical school.
John G. Eresian, N.H.
Exeter
The writer is a retired teaching hospital executive and consultant
There is much to be distressed about in the display of our president’s behavior. But the greatest cause for concern may be what the situation implies about the electorate. Many of us have sustained ourselves in the last 50 years with a belief in the long-term reasonableness of what Republican politicians seem obliged to call “The American People.” This has meant a confidence in the eventual good sense, discernment and generosity of the typical American voter.
However bleak the present might seem, we could tell ourselves that our positive impulses would ultimately win out, and we could go back to believing in a future with justified confidence that we had one.
Now I wonder if this trust in our instincts really is justified. It seems that the winning presidential candidate was, right from the beginning of his primary campaign, manifestly unsuitable when imagined as chief executive of the country. The wild bluster, insensitivity and absence of information were there from day one for all to see. Every rally, every tweet, every slanderous accusation — would seem to have been grounds enough for distrust. So I have to ask of about half of my fellow voters: What were you thinking about, and is this condition permanent?
David Montgomery
Hanover
Enough is enough! The American people demand to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the entire Russian connection with our 2016 presidential election. Unfortunately, Congress in its infantile wisdom allowed the independent counsel law to expire in 1999, thus putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.
The White House cannot investigate itself; neither can a hopeless, politically splintered Congress delve to the absolute bottom of the real swamp on the Potomac. Grow up, re-enact the expired statute and let another of the caliber of a Leon Jaworski be independently appointed to follow the Russian dressing as far as it was spread.
John E. Jersey
Hartland
I was pleased to see the recent article about trapping in the Valley News. Having taught Vermont hunter education programs for over 25 years, I was happy to see a tale of two young men who choose to get up early to check their traplines. As traplines have to be checked at least once every 24 hours, this means these youngsters are showing a great deal of dedication and pursuing a craft that is becoming lost.
Many folks don’t recognize the hard work required to maintain a trapline. This pursuit has a long tradition in Vermont and New England with modest financial rewards at best. The greater reward is watching the sun come up, anticipation approaching the next set, and becoming a student of nature. Hats off to these young trappers and the Valley News for presenting worthy content.
Ralph Kurash
Woodstock