On your mind

Think of public good, not profit

Re “Hospitals battle for preemie business,” Jan. 20: When do we have a citizen’s review, a consumer perspective of the medical services delivery in the Miami Valley?

The competition continues to be cutthroat for specialized services, be it hightech cancer treatment or the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The only apparent goal is profit. There is no basis that two proton cancer centers are needed. Dayton Children’s is dedicated and capable of serving the needs in the community for NICU.

Kettering Medical Center seems to be on a cowboy mission to muscle its way into every “most profitable” service area, creating losses in existing facilities for its personal gain.

A community plan would identify the needs for health care regionwide. It might put public health above profit. Imagine the money being spent on duplication going to prevention services — fewer cancer cases and fewer preemies. That would also mean fewer profits and a healthier populace. What if the hospitals were better staffed with nurses? All of the reliable data says the higher the nurse-patient ratio, the better the recovery rates.

What if the profits of a few would not be the deciding factor for the vast majority? Imagine a health care system that works in consort with the public good and public health. That is not the case with KMC and the other major facilities at this time.

Do what’s best for the children

My wife and I gave birth to our first son in July of 2011 at Kettering Medical Center. He was 10 weeks early and was born into this world a mere 2 pounds and 13 ounces. He was immediately placed in the NICU unit upon birth and remained there for 39 days.

We had daily conversations with the NICU staff and doctors, who assured us they were going to take care of our boy with the utmost care and concern.

Not only did they help my sick child and family cope with this monumental task, they also became part of our extended family. We often joked with the nurses that they had become honorary aunts to my son. They also went above and beyond to be there for my wife and I as well. They were always there to lend an ear, give advice, and comfort us in a time of uncertainty.

Kettering’s neonatal unit went far above and beyond what my wife and I expected, but it wasn’t just the neonatal team that gave us such excellent service. The mother/baby unit, and the labor and delivery unit also deserve a huge amount of gratitude for the care and compassion they presented us. We have been so touched by the care we received there that we take our son back often, just to see those who took care of him in his wee stages of life.

I hope that Miami Valley and Children’s hospitals drop their grievance of Kettering stealing their “business” and realize that what is best for pre-term children should be the prime concern of all doctors and nurses in the Miami Valley — regardless of what hospital gives them their paycheck.—

Where is planning when roads built?

Reading of the planning just beginning that would provide a new ramp from westbound Ohio 73 to northbound Interstate 75 is painful. It is harmful to the wallets of those taxpayers who will front the costs for this new study and, eventually, for construction.

With all of the work that had been done in and around this interchange, it seems that there is no planning. If there had been planning, all phases of construction would have meshed with the other parts. Now, more taxpayer dollars are going to be paid to conduct a new study. Astounding!

The Austin Pike area is similar, as the lack of planning along this stretch of new road is epic in its proportions. No sooner was the roadway opened than the highway design geniuses found a need to cut an access point here ... and later on, another point there.

Common sense was absent during all of this highway work. Because the thinking process has been reactive in nature, taxpayers have been forced to buy some expensive roadwork that just does not work.

Hey, it is only money, and Ohio has money flowing all over the place, doesn’t it?

Don’t believe hype about ‘losses’

Re anti-piracy legislation: I am a small business owner who sells digital books; I am a stakeholder in the issue of online piracy. I ask that the DDN and other news services be more accurate in its reporting about Big Media’s “losses” to online piracy. They assume that each downloaded copy is a lost sale, which is just not true. What I will watch or read for free is very different from what I will pay for.

Also, keep in mind that these companies believe that you should never be able to lend a song or book or movie to anyone — not even people in your own family. And if you bought the same music on LP, 8track, cassette or CD, you should have to buy the exact same music one more time on MP3. They would limit you from making your own MP3S from music you already bought.

Their claims are simply preposterous and unsupported by facts. Reporting these supposed “losses” as anything other than propaganda is a disservice to readers and journalistic integrity as a whole.

‘Expect air fares to rise in Dayton’

Re “Southwest a new competitor,” Jan. 22: I think that the airport manager and other “industry analysts” are under a delusion regarding Southwest Airlines coming to Dayton.

I constantly monitor whether to fly out of Dayton or Columbus. The latter used to be cheaper, but Dayton now has lower fares, thanks to Airtran.

I am an elite flier with Continental, but I always check out Southwest and seldom find Southwest cheaper than Continental.

Southwest is riding on its laurels as a low-cost carrier. Note that its advertising now focuses on fees, rather than fares. I expect fares to rise in Dayton. It will not surprise me if I soon start making the 1.5-hour trip to Port Columbus rather than 40 minutes to Dayton International Airport.

A recent Speak Up comment accused President Obama of being smug and arrogant during his recent State of the Union address. Personally, I think that Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and John Boehner take smugness and arrogance to levels that Obama can only dream of.

I have a question for all the people so vehemently opposed to the new EPA regulations on power plant emissions: Exactly how much lead and mercury in the atmosphere would you find acceptable?

While the liberal media obsesses over Mitt Romney’s tax returns, I couldn’t help but resurrect the 2008 news report that showed Joe Biden only gave an average of $369 to charity over the 10 years prior. Compare that to the $7 million Romney gave in just one year. Interesting.

If President Obama wanted to prove that he wants more jobs and less use of Mideast oil, he blew that opportunity by rejecting the Keystone pipeline.