Do we ever say goodbye to people?

It’s almost cliché to say the world is more interconnected today than ever.
But it’s true.

With social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and many folks just a short text message away, it’s easy to maintain a friendship with a person halfway across the country.
So as I say goodbye to friends, colleagues and all others in Amarillo, it’s comforting to remember I can easily keep in touch with everyone I want to.
Today was my last day as staff writer for the Amarillo Globe-News.

I worked at this newspaper for nearly 3½ years covering health, higher education, cops, courts, business and many general assignments thrown my way.

I worked with some great people and learned and grew a tremendous amount along the way. I am proud of numerous stories I’ve covered and broken as a journalist.

This was my first job out of college. I moved to the Texas Panhandle three weeks after graduating from the University of Georgia to take what I thought was a great opportunity to launch myself.

I wasn’t disappointed.

But it’s time for something different. I’m seeking a more stable industry to try to advance my career.

I start next Monday writing for Chemical & Engineering News, the member publication of the American Chemical Society.

I want to apply my chemistry education to jump into the world of science writing. Washington D.C., where I’ll move later this week, is a Mecca for journalist. It’s time for me to travel to the Holy Land.

I won’t miss the Panhandle winds. I will miss lunch at Sharky’s.
I won’t miss dealing with hospital spokeswomen. I will miss seeing the television news report the same story I broke in that morning’s newspaper.

Thank you to all the kind and generous people I’ve meet.
And remember, if e-mail is too antiquated for you, there’s always Facebook and texting.

Who to point to for health-care reform?

I was listening to the radio on my drive home yesterday evening and heard an interesting sound bite while the dial was turned to the local National Public Radio station.
It was President Obama talking somewhere about his health reform bill. The president made a statement in reaction to Republican complaints about his bill.
“You had 10 years to do something,” Obama spoke of Republicans to the crowd.
Say what you want about Obama and the Democrats’ proposal to overhaul the health care and insurance industries in this country, but President George W. Bush and Republicans were in office for long enough to have acted if they wanted to.
Unless Congress acts before April 1, payments to doctors for treating Medicare patients will drop by more than 21 percent. The argument from doctors is they will stop seeing Medicare patients because they will spend more money treating them than they get reimbursed.
But Congress has done nothing but delay cuts in physician payments for more than 10 years. That dates back to the Bush administration and a Republican-controlled Congress.
Reader comments from my story today want to blame Obama for the Democrats plan for the potential ruin of health care.
If health care in this country goes to Hell in a hand basket, you shouldn’t blame Obama-care and Democrats. Sitting on your hands and doing nothing is just as bad taking action and messing up.

Bell could be back in old post

Texas Tech physician Todd Bell drew much praise and support during his 10-month tenure as health authority for Potter and Randall counties.
His resignation, which came amid an investigation of a Stratford nurse practitioner he oversaw, was as a surprise to many around him. It was a sign of weakness from a highly-regarded man.
However, Bell’s replace to the post, Dr. Roger Smalligan said after his appointment from the Amarillo Bi-City-County Public Health District board last night that Bell could return as health authority.
“I would not want to rule that out,” Smalligan said. “It was just an unfortunate situation that happened from someone so far away abusing the supervisory position.”
The nurse practitioner in question, Ward Palmer, drank on the job and inappropriately prescribed narcotics, according to the Texas Board of Nursing. He has resigned his nursing license.
Charges have not been filed in the case and Bell is not the subject of any investigation.
Those who know Bell have nothing but positive things to say about him.
Bell has kept his duties with the Texas Tech School of Medicine in Amarillo, but also gave up his license to issue certain controlled substances as well as his health authority position on Nov. 23.
I analyze Smalligan’s comments from last night as saying Bell gave up some of his responsibilities to save face and could return once the legal cloud over Stratford settles.
Regional School of Medicine Dean Richard Jordan called Smalligan an “emergency replacement” for Bell.
No one has expressly said Bell will return as health authority, but Smalligan is at least hinting such a thing may occur.

‘The news can’t be bought’

Late last week, I pursued a story on an Amarillo doctor who was disciplined by the Texas Medical Board for killing a patient in November 2007.
The doctor, Naeem Khan, now owns Amarillo Urgent Care, a regular advertiser with the Globe-News.
Shortly after I called the clinic to seek comment from Khan for the story, his office administrator called me back to ask a series of questions of me, my reporting and my story.
The woman ended up speaking with one of my editors. That editor spoke with me shortly after getting off the phone with the administrator.
My editor told me to refer all their further calls to her.
Apparently, the administrator reminded my editor that Amarillo Urgent Care spends a lot of money advertising with us.
“Well, the news can’t be bought,” my editor said, relaying her comments to me.
We printed the story on Khan's medical board discipline Friday and a follow up today on his settling a malpractice lawsuit with the family earlier this year.

News organizations – at least those with integrity – don’t allow its organizations advertising dollars or potential advertising dollars influence its news coverage.

In a foul mood for no reason

A colleague of mine rightly pointed out midday Friday I was in a bad mood.
I’m not a great fan of 10-plus inches of snow falling in one day.
Also making me grumpy late last week, my car was stuck in a snow drift on South Van Buren Street outside the newspaper’s offices. I was sans car for more than a day, needed a ride home from work Thursday and a lift to work Friday morning. But a series of events around the end of my workday Friday made me realize I wasn’t seeing the goodness in people.
First, several members of the sports staff at the Amarillo Globe-News helped push my car out of the snow dirt Friday afternoon.
I managed to make it home safely, only to get stuck in more snow in the gutter of my driveway.
About that time, two men stopped the Jeep they were driving, got out with two shovels and started to move the snow from around my stuck car. They didn’t even ask if they could help. They just started to shovel.
Venturing out this weekend, I saw a number of examples of people stopping to help others stuck in the snow.
That colleague was right Friday.
I shouldn’t have been in a bad mood. I should have been kind to others the way they were to me.

Outcome of Amarillo-related Botox trial should be interesting

People sometimes cry when I interview them.
I’m not proud to say that either.
Maybe their crying is a product of the story they’re telling. Maybe it’s a product of me and my harsh questions. I don’t know.
One such case of a mother crying came during an interview from July 2008.
Mother Dee Spears of Amarillo had lost her 7-year-old daughter less than a year before. She and several other families had filed a lawsuit against the makers of Botox, Irving, Calif.-based Allergan, for causing the death of her daughter. I was asking about the lawsuit and her daughter.
Daughter Kristen Spears suffered from cerebral palsy and began receiving Botox injections in June 2006 to treat her limb spasms, according to the lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court in California.
After a series of injections, the child developed pneumonia, her seizures worsened and she developed muscle weakness in her neck that prevented her from holding up her head, according to the suit. She died Nov. 24, 2007.
Jury selection began today in California in the trial of Spears and Allergan.
It’s curious that Allergan didn’t settle the case already.
The pharmaceutical giant profited $3.5 billion in 2008. Its revenue exceeded $4.4 billion. That’s a lot of dough.
Usually the cost of litigation exceeds whatever of a settlement, and defendants rather cut a check than stand trial.
Allergan probably thinks it can win a case against Spears.
The trial may take a few weeks, but we’ll see what the outcome is.

January stinks if you want to find an open treadmill at the gym

You know it’s that time of year when you walk into the gym and can’t find an open treadmill.
You wander the free weight area struggling not to bump into somebody.
It’s January and the season of New Year’s Resolutions.
As a year-round gym goer, I hate it.
Trips to the gym become hellish as crowds of people who don’t typically frequent gyms on Wednesday nights hit the exercise equipment.
Why do people do this? Don’t they realize they’re missing American Idol?
Last night, there were several people at my gym waiting, unable to find a treadmill as I and other used them to run or walk.
I was lucky to have spotted an open treadmill right as I walked in about 7 p.m. But if I were having to wait, I’d be pissed.
I go to the gym three or four times a week year round. The only month of the year it’s over crowded is January.
Gym crowds always seem worse this month than any other of the year. Coincidently, no one goes in December.
In talks with Amarillo-area gym owners and managers, they say they don’t receive a rush of applications in January.
Seems different from my perspective.
I can’t complain too much. At least people are getting themselves healthy.

Shouldn't more be done to fix Potter County's problem?

I reported in Sunday’s newspaper that new HIV cases in Potter and Randall counties continue to be a high levels, and that is concerning local public health officials and AIDS advocates.
In Potter County, infection rates for Chlamydia and gonorrhea increased last year, according to provisional 2009 data the Amarillo Public Health Department released last week. Potter County already reported the second highest infection rate in the state in 2008 for those diseases.
Teen Pregnancy still continues to trouble those working to curb the incidence of that.
However, no one I’ve spoken with in my three years as health reporter for this newspaper seems to offer a decent or different way to reduce the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy in Amarillo.
I may be wrong, but I don’t recall from my reporting much change in or alternate thinking from the powers that be in trying to tackle this public health issue. Should there be more?
The Amarillo Public Health Department can’t change their tactics per strings attached to their state and government funding. Nonprofit activists’ hands are tied because of limited funds. The Bi-City-County Health Board, which meets quarterly, doesn’t do anything besides listen to reports from city staff members.
In Lubbock, public health officials are dealing with the same problems as counterparts in Amarillo; lack of funding. Two vital health positions were cut from the city budget last year.
My question still stands.
Should more be done about these troublesome rates?
Should the general public be more concerned that Amarillo sits near or at the top of dubious state rankings for STDs and teen pregnancy? If so, shouldn’t they demand more be done from those in charge?

Fallen teen taken to Oklahoma

The Booker teenager who fell more than 40 feet at an Indianapolis mall in October was expected to be transported to an Oklahoma City children’s hospital today, his father said last week.
Philip Caler, a 16-year-old sophomore at Booker High School, fell 41 feet from a mall escalator Oct. 22 while visiting the FFA national convention in Indianapolis. Caler had spent the past two months at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
Caler, who is still in a coma, was moved to Triumph Hospital in Amarillo Dec. 23 after nearly two months in Indianapolis. His family decided to move him to Oklahoma City to give him more specialized care.
Father Gary Caler said his son is still making progress and the additional move this week didn’t mean his condition was worsening. In fact, Philip is showing better response to stimuli and is opening his eyes more and more.
Philip suffered a litany of injuries including breaking six vertebrae in the fall that had him ricochet off the second-story railing.

Funny story I wanted to pass along

Two nurse friends of mine at Baptist St. Anthony’s Hospital were surfing the Internet early Saturday morning to catch the latest news on their boss, former Chief Executive John Hicks, who had suddenly left the hospital the day before.
A security guard, I’m told, approached the nurses and told them to leave the Web site of the Amarillo Globe-News, Amarillo.com.
The security guard had received orders to enforce the rule. The reader comments on the site were “too negative,” the nurses remembered being told.

Land dispute years in the making

I wrote this for this piece for the story in today’s paper on the whole Harrington Regional Medical Center-Amarillo Area Foundation dispute:

The issue of selling/donating land dates back to at least the early 1990s when High Plains Baptist Hospital, now called Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital, sought to buy the land along Wallace Boulevard across from itself and the Harrington Cancer Center.
“We couldn’t negotiate a price that was acceptable to us as best as I could remember,” said Steve Dalrymple, then senior vice president and general counsel for High Plains Baptist Hospital.
High Plains was looking for additional parking space, he said, but instead the hospital expanded its existing employee lot.
Steve Gens, president of the Harrington Regional Medical Center, remembered a different scenario. The hospital was looking for the land to be donated, but Gens said High Plains Baptist wouldn’t disclose how it would use it.
Later, High Plains would withdraw from the medical center, “but it was for a number of reasons, not just this land deal,” Dalrymple said. “We were looking to save some money,”
When High Plains merged with St. Anthony’s Hospital in the middle of last decade, BSA joined the organization only to withdraw last week.
“I think it’s been an ongoing issue since the medical center organization has chosen to sell property,” Dalrymple said. “I know some organizations had trouble with that.”

City-county health board has problems with attendance

The Amarillo Bi-City County Board of Health held its quarterly meeting this week and one board member was noticeably absent.
Actually, it wasn’t too noticeable since he hardly ever attends meetings.
Dr. J. Taylor Carlisle has only attended 26 of the 73 board meetings since his appointment, according to the minutes from the latest meeting. The physician at the Amarillo Diagnostic Clinic barely attends one in three meetings.
What’s the point?
To be fair to Carlisle, the board rarely votes on matters. It listens to city staff members of five departments (public health, environmental health, the health authority, animal control and the city’s office of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children – better known as the WIC Program) give updates on city business.
The seven-member board sometimes has trouble drawing a quorum of four.
The Potter County Commissioners Court appoints two of the board’s members. Carlisle is one.
Randall County and the city of Amarillo each point two. The city of Canyon appoints one.
I’ve attended nearly 10 of these meetings since coming to Amarillo, probably more than Carlisle and most members in that time.
This board serves little function to city and county operations in Amarillo. It’s mainly a formality.
However, it could provide more oversight of five very important city departments. But how is that possible when members like Carlisle don’t care enough to attend formal meetings once every three months?

Bell: Swine flu not expected to be "catastrophic" this fall

Assuming the severity of the H1N1 virus doesn't change in the next few months, Amarilloans should not fear a deadly outbreak of the virus this fall, the area's top health official said Tuesday.

“I don’t think it’s going to be catastrophic,” said Dr. Todd Bell, public health authority for Potter and Randall counties. “I think this is basically going to boil down to a busy flu season.”

Bell gave those comments late Tuesday at meeting of the Amarillo Bi-City-County Health District Board.

He said the flu season, which lasts from October to March and peaks in Texas around February, may start a bit earlier this year because of the virus commonly referred to as swine flu.

“I would not be surprised if the health-care system is stressed or strained,” Bell said.

Amarillo had just one confirmed case of the H1N1 virus through July, when state and national health officials stopping tracking individual cases.

Head scratcher on H1N1 in Amarillo

Surprised. Puzzled. A little concerned.
Those are all ways to describe how Amarillo public health officials feel when thinking about why their city has not seen any cases of H1N1, the virus commonly called swine flu.
“Right now, we haven't been able to find an explanation as to why that's the case,” Amarillo Public Health Department Director Matt Richardson said.
State health officials have confirmed more than 4,200 H1N1 cases and almost 200 more are still pending.
Still, none have appeared in Amarillo and only one – a recently confirmed case in Hemphill County – has shown in the Panhandle.
Other West Texas cities, Lubbock, Abilene, San Angelo and Wichita Falls, have reported multiple cases. None still in Amarillo.
Why?
Health officials can offer a few possible reasons, but they say there is no scientific reason as to why the virus shouldn’t have appeared locally nearly four months after it first showed in the state.
Only a relative handful of flu cases are tested for H1N1; those patients who are hospitalized with flu-like illness.
“Certainly in Amarillo, we don’t have as many of those as other communities,” Richardson said.
He and other Amarillo health officials have asked state and regional experts to explain why Potter and Randall counties don’t have H1N1 cases.
Still no answer has been given.

Win a 3-bedroom home for $50 and some luck

I’m trying to remember the nicest prize I’ve ever won in a raffle.
It may have been a leprechaun statue for some St. Patrick’s Day event.
Whoever win’s this raffle will certainly take home a sweet prize. Heck, the prize is a home.
The Myelin Project, an international research foundation based in Amarillo, will raffle off a three-bedroom home in south Amarillo to raise money to fund medical research projects.
The Myelin Project funds researchers seeking cures for diseases that attack the insulating sheath surrounding nerve cells. The most notable disease is adrenoleukodystrophy or ALD.
In an age where endowments are drying up and donors are hard to come by, the Myelin Project is buying a home from local builder Wayne Osteen and selling tickets to cover the cost of buying it and raise money for the foundation.
The auctioned home will be 1,775 square feet, have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage. It will be located at 3600 Springfield Ave. in the City View Addition off South Western Street near Hollywood Road.
Homes in that neighborhood and around that size are selling for around $200,000.
Tickets cost $50 and the winner will be drawn Oct. 18. The home’s ground breaking will take place 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The first 3,500 tickets will pay for the house. The rest will go to the foundation to help fund researchers.
Tickets are available online at www.myelin.org.
For $50, I may just have to take a chance.

Hello (blogging) World

Where do I start?
I was asked to write an opening blog entry to “introduce” myself to readers before I take a dip into a new medium, blogging. One question most out there are wondering is why do I want to start this?
Those who work in the newsroom of the Globe-News recently held a staff meeting to introduce two summer interns. Everyone in the room took turns to introduce themselves and state their job.
I was the fourth person to speak.
“I’m David Pittman. I cover higher education, health and medicine, general business stories.”
My answer drew some chuckles from colleagues, mainly because I have a lot to cover. Inevitably, I don’t have the time or space to do full stories on all issues that come before me.
I envision this blog as a way to serve as an outlet for some issues left uncovered, including the wave of news releases and alerts that always flow in. I can expand upon stories already written about and don’t have space or time to touch on. I can still provide analysis of on-going issues I cover.
The concept of journalists blogging is nothing new in an era when a vast majority of Americans go online for at least part of their news.
This blog will be my attempt to provide more information and insight on a different medium. I’ve already built a large twitter following at twitter.com/David_Pittman.
Stick around. We’ll probably both learn something.