February 10, 2025 • 40 mins
Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in Massachusetts, announced its plan to lay off hundreds of workers, citing a roughly $250 million budget gap. MGH said the layoffs will focus on “non-clinical and non-patient facing roles.” What are some of the challenges MGB is facing that might have led to the layoffs? How will MGH’s restructuring impact the hospital system?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's nice side with Dan Ray. I'm Boston Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I know the audience can turn over every hour, So
let me just take a moment before we get back
to our phone calls. I have Alex and Alice lined
up first to come up this hour. This statement from
the head of the Massachusetts General Hospital today is it's
it's written by a combination of pr staff and lawyers.
(00:32):
And that's a that's a tough, tough group. Okay. So
for example, they talk about, uh, that we face a
quarter billion dollar budget gap over the next two years.
That's a lot of money. That's that's a quarter of
a billion dollars over the next two years unless we
take immediate action that's in caps, to allow us to
continue with planned in future investments. That's one of those
(00:55):
words investments. What does it really mean? So they talk
about examples frontline support, immediate investments in support staff and
other resources to relieve burdens on clinicians and frontline staff,
including compensation. That sounds to me like we're going to
rehire people, I would think, but I don't know. New technologies,
accelerate technology investments to modernize our digital tools like digital pathology,
(01:20):
improve networks in Wi FI and AI capabilities that scale
to streamline administrative tasks can allow technicians to put their
full focus on patient care. If someone can interpret that
for me, I'd appreciate it. Research infrastructure, invest in research cores,
laboratories and staff support work environment, improve the experience of
our patients and our people with near and long term investments.
(01:43):
There's that word again, to modernize our space and address
long standing needed improvements, including but not limited to are along
with campus word salats, community health scale community health programs
to extend their impact. What does that mean? They talk
about our strategic organizational redesign. Think about the amount of
(02:05):
time and money they spent to come up with these
words that frankly don't mean anything to the average person.
Reduced redundancies. Why do you have redundancies in the first place.
A limited number of management and administrative positions throughout the
system will be eliminated, consolidated, or rescoped. I've never seen
(02:26):
that word before, rescoped. That's come up. They paid some
consultant a lot of money to get that word. Rescoped.
Focusing resources on critical patient facing and mission supporting work,
patient hyphen facing and mission hyphen supporting work whenever you
can work a couple of hyphens in, that's a good thing.
(02:46):
Improve efficiency by removing management and administrative layers. Really we
aim to reduce bureaucracy. That's a good thing. Enhance decision
making that's a good thing. Improve communication, and foster a
more agile environment. Word salad empower staff. Frontline staff will
have more direct access to leadership, promoting transparency. Oh, that's
(03:09):
an important word. Transparency, accountability, and better understanding of team challenges.
Anybody wants to come on from mass General Brigham tomorrow
on my show and explain what this press release actually means,
You're more than welcome. I'd love to hear from you.
What has been your experience in hospitals in Massachusetts recently?
(03:31):
The context for me is Obamacare. Obamacare supposedly was going
to make everything simpler, better, and easier. I don't think
it's made it's simpler. I don't think it's made it better.
I don't think it's made it easier. I think it's
more expensive. I think it's more convoluted. I mentioned earlier
today I talked with a friend who had to take
(03:55):
his son to an emergency room. It wasn't a life
threatening emergency, but to an emergency room. When he got there,
he was told he will see a doctor in seven
I think it was seven or seven and a half hours.
That's a long time to sit in emergency room, don't
you think. And by the way, it's on a day,
on a day which is pretty quiet. Then go to
(04:16):
Alex and milis Alex, appreciate your patience. Next next on nightside, Alex.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Hey, danger dining. I'll tell you my odyssey. So I was.
I was scheduled for a procedure on the eighteenth of November.
It was in the Platian and it happened to be
at the MGH, and thank god, all went well. But
after that, a few weeks after that, I had another
(04:42):
issue and then come to find out that I wind
up with a hernia, which I had a schedule and
the had schedule an appointment with with a specialist and
before the new year, he told me you're all set.
I go to check on my appointment and he said
as to me, oh, by the way, we're out of
network now, so we're no longer taking Blue Cross Blue Shield.
(05:06):
And I says, why did you tell me? After the
after the first of the year, I you know, I
could have gone elsewhere where a doctor that was in network,
and you know, like because I've been paying So they
said to me, well, you know that's nothing to do
with us. Just called your insurance company. For long story short,
the cardiologist that I had seen at at mg H,
(05:30):
he has a colleague that's a specialist and he happened
to be in network. So I kind of lucked out
in that regard. But I just wanted to say something
between the insurance company and the hospitals, the patient gets,
you know, the short end of the deal.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, let me let me ask you this. You you
were resc who who rescheduled you after the first of
the year, if your insurance carrier was changing, was that
the doctor?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, they said, I could see this provider, but I
would tell you out of pocket expensive. You know, it
was on a network because they decided that the that
they were, you know, taking Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Alex.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You didn't understand my question. My question was if let
us say I owned a restaurant. Let me keep it simple.
Let us say I owned a restaurant and I knew
I was going to close the restaurant on December thirty first,
and you called on December twentieth and said, my wedding
anniversary is on January tenth, and I'd love to have
a wonderful meal on January tenth. And I took the
(06:35):
reservation knowing that the restaurant was going to close. And
when you showed up on December tenth, the restaurant was closed.
You'd say, well, why'd you take it? Why did someone
schedule you if they knew that the insurance carrier that
you had was no longer going to be accepted by
Mass General? Is what you seemed to That seemed to
(06:56):
be the story.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
You told me exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, it was after the first to the year.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So why did that person schedule you? Why did someone
before the first of the year say, oh, come back,
we'll do the surgery for you after January first, knowing
that you wouldn't have insurance for that. Who was that knucklehead?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It was one of the staff members. And you know
they said, well, we apologized, but I says, an apology
doesn't do me any good because I have paying now
if I wasn't lucky, it's they say, it's who you know?
Is my cardiologist?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, yeah, you got a breakage. I get it. It
doesn't matter to me. Congratulations, congratulations Alex. You were able
to do a workaround because you're a smart guy. Okay,
congratulations on that. But that is what I'm more interested in,
is not the fact that your cardiologist was a really
good guy, that he helped you, Okay. I'm more concerned
(07:56):
that you were put in a position by Mass General.
They scheduled you for a procedure inappropriately. They should have
known that your insurance was going to lapse as of
January first. That's the point of the story that's most
important to me, the fact that you had a good
cardiologist who did a work around for you. You were lucky.
(08:17):
You were lucky. I was thanks you, Alex, appreciate you.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Okay, thank you, Alex, appreciate bye bye again. What I'm
looking for here is conversation, not so much about your
specific success. I mean, I'm glad that Alex had success,
but that's like somehow working within the system because you
get lucky. Most people don't get lucky. I'm concerned about
(08:45):
the system at this point, which ten years ago, Obamacare
was going to be the magic pill, right, it was
gonna work for everybody. Now there's complications I'm not trying
to blame President Obama per se, But did we know
that the border was going to be open? Did we
know that thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions
(09:06):
of people going to stream the cross and they weren't
going to use our emergency rooms, our nation's emergency rooms.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And now you see Mass General is going to lay off.
It's going to do a two percent budget cut. I
wish the federal government was as efficient as the Mass
General Hospital, but I wish the Mass General Hospital was
running it a little bit anticipates a little bit. This
is crazy. We're coming back on night's I feel free
(09:34):
to join the conversation only line opened six one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty. A lot of folks have been
complaining it's tough to get through. Tell you right now
six seven, two five four ten thirty your thoughts on this.
When Mass General we've had Steward, which was a disgrace. Okay,
that's just a flat out disgrace, and the Boston Globe
did some great reporting on that, by the way, But
(09:57):
this is also really question and when when I read
this press release, which none of you are going to
read or very few of you are going to read
maximizing our impact. They're basically trying we're going to maximize
our impact. How are we gonna do that. We're gonna
cut two percent of our budget and we're gonna lay
off probably two hundred, minimum two hundred people. That's how
(10:18):
we're gonna maximize our impact. What are you kidding me?
Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Now, back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ the news Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Now, let's try to catch up a little bit here
Alice and Beverly. Alice, appreciate you working through the news.
You're next on Nightside, Go right ahead, Hello Alice. Okay,
we'll put Alice on hold. Maybe she's walked away from
the phone, which is not a good thing for Alice,
and we will go next to Geene and Everett. Geene
(10:51):
and Everett, you are next on Nightside. Go ahead, Gene.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Hi, Jam, good evening. Thank you so much for talking
about this is so important. Listen, about a month ago,
I was in the emergency with my husband. We got
there six p m. We were there all night. We
got out at four o'clock am, sitting near waiting, waiting.
We were seeing about an hour and a half before
we left. Period.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Who was the care you or my husband?
Speaker 7 (11:19):
He's a hot patient. Ye, hey and crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
That had to be nerve wracking, particularly for her heart patience.
Speaker 7 (11:33):
And then and then there were other people in the
waiting room and some were drug addicts, and I had
to then at four in the morning go to my
car in the garage with my husband holding him up. Okay,
how do you think that felt? It was scary? No,
the place was crazy. People were throwing up, one was
throwing up, someone else was doing this, and that it
(11:54):
was nuts. But listen, I wanted. What I want is
I want the governor to take a hard look at
a wake up call. This is a wake up call.
We've had many hospitals going down recently. We know that. Okay,
they have to realize send the migrants home, start building
more housing. We can't handle any more people at all,
and we have to send others back. Start taking care
(12:18):
and be concerned with us US Massachusetts citizens, please and
stop the all the migrant and woke craziness. This is
the time to be serious about fixing the problems we
have right now and not creating more people. I'm concerned
I know people who work at MGH and they do
(12:39):
administrative work. They need their jobs. Some have six children,
you know, Others have you know, mortgages and everything else.
What were these people supposed to do? This is not
the economy where there's a million jobs out there tomorrow.
It's bad times right now. And I just got my
gas bill and it's five hundred and fifty dollars for
one month, thank you very much, because they were allowed
(13:02):
by the state to get a big raise. Is that
because everyone hates us because we have guess heat? I
don't know, but it's not right. And people are suffering
in a lot of ways in the state, and we
need better governance and serious governance, no playing around anymore.
This is bad and this is really bad that these
(13:25):
people are going to get laid off and lose their jobs.
It's putting really people in danger. I'm sorry. I feel
so bad for people. And in the hospital's good and
the nurses are great there, the doctors most you know,
everyone there is great. But you know, maybe they shouldn't
(13:46):
build five hundred hospitals all around them. Maybe they shouldn't
be expanding so much and focus on what they have.
And I also think that the government. The government should
have right now in action a plan for Since we
are not going to have enough nurses and doctors, why
don't you give a little incentive for people to go
(14:08):
to college to become nurses and doctors. Help them so
bide in paying out loans for everybody in the world
who wanted to become a you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, great plea, Thank you very much for the conversation.
I enjoyed the conversation. Talk later by let me go
to Tom in West Virginia. Tom next to nights. I
go ahead.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
I think that woman.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Can you hear me? Okay, yes or no?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yes? I can.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
I hear you from the wind.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Out of my sales. She took the wind out of
my sales. I'm sorry, and you know.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
No, because.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
One third of the world lives an abject poverty, that
what is not our fault as Americans. I hope people
understand that. And I know there's good people that come
from foreign countries that Joe Biden said come in here
and claim asylum. But I'm sorry these people did not
(15:18):
put into the social service system. And Mass General is
a wonderful hospital, and I'm heartbroken to hear that people
will lose their jobs because they've essentially been overwhelmed by
people that don't have health insurance.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Well, I'll tell you this. We're looking at probably tom about.
I'm going to guess a minimum of two thousand people.
They have eighty two thousand employees, which is a huge number,
the largest employer in the state. They're probably going to
lose two thousand. They're going to probably lay off at
least two thousand people. My concern is that that no doctors,
(15:56):
no nurses, should be laid off and let them now
look at some of these extra admitutmsers and people who
are not providing directly medical care. This is bad for
this is and I read this press release. I don't
know if you had a chance to listen to some
of the paragraphs of the sentences. I read nothing but
word salads. I mean, it says nothing. It's just good
(16:18):
words put together. And you know, it's almost as if
it's the being counters and the political consultants who are
running the hospitals as opposed to medical providers.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
All I can tell you is that with Obamacare, and
I'm a talk radio junkie, I listened to conservative talk
radio and progressive talk radio, and after Obamacare was passed,
Progressive Radio was talking about this was probably twenty sixteen,
(16:57):
that the reality is we want to get Hillary Clinton
in there and we want to go to single payer healthcare. Now,
you're probably a well seasoned traveler. Meet people in England
and Ireland with good teeth that have socialized medicine, and
the answer is there are none.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Go to Canada, and go to Canada and try to
get medical treatment at the hospital. Good luck with that.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Yeah, And you know it sounds all well and good,
And I will repeat myself. I grew up in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
I went to high school with highly educated white liberals
that think that single payer health insurance is the cure
to America. And they love the quote Bernie Sanders of
(17:46):
Nordic socialism. Well, those Nordic countries in Northern Europe. Number one,
they strictly enforced their immigration laws.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
They have immigration laws. Yeah. Well, they have no immat
to speak. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
And the Bernie Sanders and his Bolsheviar friends, Bolshevik friends
do not mention that.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
And uh, you know, if that works great.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
For Finland and Sweden, wonderful. But those are different countries
with different populations. It's not going to work in America.
What we'll work in America is the thriving economy of
where we have manufacturing jobs and the employers can give
(18:38):
their employees benefits such as medical and dental. If we
go back forty years ago, that was not necessarily an
issue in America. But we open our borders. I don't
begrudge immigrants for wanting to come in here from wherever,
(18:59):
but we can't take care of the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And I think, I think well, and I think that
somehow the chickens are coming home to roost here a
little bit. So we'll have to see what happens. It's
funny mg H and Well now called mass you know,
and MGB Mass General Brigham. They're going to lay off
people to whatever extent they want. Meanwhile, uh, there are
(19:28):
lawyers running into courts across America to stop any sort
of cutbacks at the federal level. Oh, I mean, it's
it's it's kind of the stories of two of uh
two cities. Here. You have what's going on at at
at Mass General Brigham, which is maybe it's necessary, but
that's a place I don't want to see cuts taking place.
(19:50):
I would much prefer to see a lot of the
fat and waist in the federal government eliminated. So it's there's, there's,
there's really a couple of theme to our story tonight.
So thank thanks for thanks for calling in and thanks
for supporting me on this one. Thank you, Tom, appreciate
your call.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Take care, Dan, by bye YouTube, Thanks good night.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Here's the Yes News at the bottom of the hour,
ten thirty exactly, we're right on time. I got Bob,
I got Glenn, I got Larry, and I got some
room for you. Six one, seven, nine three one, ten thirty.
We will talk about this until eleven, and we will
move on to another topic. I promise coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
You're on Night Side with Dan on Boston's news radio allR.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We got full lines. Let's keep rolling here. People are interested,
and Bob is in Rhode Island. Bob, appreciate you calling.
You were next on Nightside. Go ahead, Boby, Bye, Dan.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
I did I got a question for you?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Why are you such a Trump supporter? Okay, take a
look at your flora one K. It's doing better and
it's having done and Biden was more and more responsible
than anybody else we're putting you and everybody else that's
in the stock market in a good position. Why are
(21:10):
you such a Trump supporter?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Well, you're about the first person in a while that
has suggested that. What makes you think I'm a Trump supporter?
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Well, it's obvious just listening to you. Give me, give
me an example to support Trump and everything, almost everything.
You say, there's gonna be waste taking off of the government.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Well, do you want to waste? What waste? Let me
ask you would you like do you like waste in
the government or would you like to see waste take
I don't think.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
There is a lot of waste in the government.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Oh, okay, fair enough. That's that's that's a position that
I would suspect you might take it.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
So let me ask you this because you're a Trump supporter.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Okay, yeah, let me ask you this question. What is
the current What is the current federal debt?
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Bob?
Speaker 5 (22:02):
I don't know. It's pretty high, I know that much.
But you can't blame the Democrats for all that.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
No, No, I'm not blaming democrats. I'm blaming everybody. Do
you want to know what it is?
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Yeah, you tell me what is the sixteen billion whatever?
The heck it is.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It's a little more than that. It's thirty seven trillion.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Dollars, okay, and that's been building up for years and
years and years and years.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Correct and probably be.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
The guy that's straightened it all out. He can't know.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
That's why.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Here's the question.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Here's I got another question for you, if you don't mind.
This one's an easier one.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I don't mind.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Who's going to pay the thirty seven trillion dollar debt
when the bill comes due?
Speaker 5 (22:52):
The United States citizens?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Which group of United States citizens?
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Everybody?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Everybody? Now, I don't know. I would bet you you're
like me, a baby boomer, right.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Yes, I am seventy four years old.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Okay, no problem, that's fine, that's fine. It's not gonna
be our generation, Bob, It's gonna be your kids. Well,
because our generation.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Don't have any kids. I don't have any kids.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well see, then then your kids won't pay for it.
But if you did have kids, if you did have kids,
it would be your kids, my kids, grandchildren, great grandchildren.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
At some point, about you and me, about you and
me ourselves, Well, why can't we do it? You must
be a very rich man.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, you'd be surprised.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
One K and Trump's gonna what do you want to do?
How do you think Trump's gonna be? Is that gonna
be good for the stock market? What he's doing, all
the all the programs and stuff he's trying to force
on our throat.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I would I would only say, Bob that if that,
if we could look at the government, it is a
an organization that has built been built upon layers and
layers of waste, layers and layers of waste. Uh. And
if we can eliminate I said, if we could eliminate
(24:26):
waste and provide more help to people who actually need
the help. We just let me ask you a question,
if I could, Would you agree with me that over
the last four years during the Biden presidency, our borders
with Mexico were wide open?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Yes, I do I agree with that. I'm not. I'm
not I'm in favor of it. That was one and
fifty years ago. Everybody in I see, Oh, I can't
they do it in Mexico you're so worried about.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well now now now I understand where you're coming from
a little bit better.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
You.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
First of all, the Biden administration for years said no
the borders aren't open. But you're an honest man, and
you would you you favor open borders, which is okay,
Which is okay. I appreciate that along with open borders
comes child trafficking, comes guns.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I don't agree with that. I agree with you. That's
no good.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Comes comes fentanyl. Do you know how many? How many
young Americans die of fentanyl poisoning every year? Do you
have any idea what that number is? No, I don't, Okay,
I'm going to tell you what the number is about
seventy five thousand young Americans, mostly people in their late teens, twenties,
(25:53):
and thirties, die when you and I were growing up. Oh,
it's more than too bad. It's more than too bad.
It's you know, it's it's tragic.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
I'm sorry about it.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Well, I'm glad you're sorry about it. Okay, So what
are we.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Gonna do about it?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, certainly Biden didn't, that's for sure. Let's give someone
else a chance. Bob. I appreciate your call. It's always
call more often. You're you're a gentleman, and I appreciate
your call.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Thank you very much, Big Dan. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Have a great night. Let's go to Glenn. Glenn, you
were next to night side.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
I have to pull all right. A week ago at
this time, I had the pleasure or mispleasure of having
a sleep study at Beth Israel Hospital. My friend Tim
Will spent the night with me. I'm more asleep a
night here.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Really, So you had a sleep study? What would you
have to sleep study for?
Speaker 6 (26:47):
My doctor wortered it. She wants to know if I
have apnea sleep apnea. So they you know, they put
stuff in her. They taped stuff to your body and
your nose. And it went from eight thirty till five
thirty in the morning. Yeah, and the technician so called
kept waking me up. I only got two hours asleep
(27:07):
thirty nights, five thirty the morning. He kept saying, turnal,
go on your back. I need data. Well, first of all,
I told him I don't like to sleep on my back.
I have nightmares. I don't know. It's a child. I
scream in my sleep, like God, don't let me die.
I get sleep proalysis. I said, I can't. Oh, we
need data. It's only for a half hour and then
(27:27):
you can turn you know. Every time I was you
sound like.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You had a great time gLing. Geez, oh, I certainly did.
Oh yeah, did they figure out if you had sleep apnea?
Let me guess you got sleep apnea.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
No, I don't know what they figured out. I haven't
gotten the results yet.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Okay, but when you when you, when you get the results,
please let us know, because I'm sure there are people
out there waiting with baited breadth of no whether or
not you're sleep apnea. But that's okay, you know.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Yeah, Well, in the guy barely spoke English. He was
a foreigner. He was yelling through a PA system, and
he sounded like he had masks on. He was almost.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
He's probably in the other room, he made right, Yeah, okay,
And uh, and when you're gonna get when you're going
to get the results.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
I don't know because I still haven't gotten the results.
I had a blood test in October because I'm tired
all the time for no reason. I still haven't gotten
the results from that.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Well, you got to get more sleep, then you won't
be so tired.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Well, no, the more the more time I sleep, fine,
I can sleep like a baby and still be tired.
But the point is, I mean I can drink caffeine
and sleep like a baby and wake up tired and sleep.
The first thing I did when I got home was
sleep all day. My schedule got inverted.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
But the thing is, how does that lot apply this uh,
this experience with what we're talking about tonight.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
Well, I take all the hospitals. I don't know if
they're becoming more corporatized, Like I noticed that when hospitals
merged then they laid people off like banks to.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, I agree. I think that's an astute observation that
there are a lot of hospitals that are looking at
it from it's the bean counters, who are you know?
You saw that with the Steward disaster here in Messa.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
I know, And I get bills that I don't have
to pay for. I thought Obamacare was supposed to pay
I have all kinds of insurance and I'm still getting
bills that I ignore.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
But that means you're part of That means you're part
of the problem if you ignore the bills.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Right, Well, yeah, but of course I'm supposed to be
you know covered.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I look, I think that's the field, you know. I
think Obamacare was sold to us. The group that loved
Obamacare the most was insurance companies.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
I know.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
We've been being boozled because sleep study. I will tell you.
I will bet you that that sleep study that that
you uh experienced, if you underwent, I'll bet you they're
going to charge you about three thousand dollars for that
sleep study.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Well, they can put me in dinner's prison because I
ain't gonna say it.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Let me know what the results are. Okay, Yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Wish they would treat me like an illegal, but that's
another story.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Maintain their sense of humor, that's important. Okay, thanks by Yeah,
I have to you gotta you go crazy the simple
I know.
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Tell me about it, all right, let me know.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
What happens in this one. I'm gonna bet you. I'll
bet your buck you got apnea. If they test you
for apnea and they're gonna come back and tell you
got sleep apnea.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
I'm telling you, well, I hope you could have.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
We could have saved the taxpayers three thousand dollars and
just comes with the diagnosis.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
And I think where quickly Tom from with Virginia. I
think he was talking about the difference between a homo
genius culture and a heteral genius socialized Madison works in
a homo genious culture. But we're a heterical genius culture.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Great, great student observation, and you use that we have
just used those words correctly.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Well, yeah, we have immigrants with the sniffles that can't
speak English and the emergency room. I mean, I hate
to be rude, but yep, yeah, well you.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Don't hate to be rude, but you don't enjoy being rude.
Speaker 8 (31:29):
Let me put it like that.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
Yeah, I know. Thanks when I talked to you later,
good night, Yeah, thanks too, doctor you.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Soon be better, be better. Back at night Side right after this.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Back to the phones we go. We're going to go
next to Larry in Oxford. Hey, Larry, welcome, mister Ray.
Speaker 9 (31:56):
I think that both the Fuggal government of which you're
talking about from time to time this evening, and also
the General Brigham are facing the same kind of problems,
which is a leadership issue, and the leadership has been absent,
probably because the board hasn't been careful at the maths
(32:19):
General over the last few years, and they really need
to look at the balance because running a major teaching
hospital or particularly a Hobbard Teaching Hospital. There are three
critical people, the hospital administrator, the president of the hospital,
who was usually a doctor, and the chief nurse. And
(32:42):
I was very close to the chief nurse who is
my wife at another Harvard Teaching hospital. She's now been
dead and gone for over ten years. Critical issues, very
critical issues. Now in the federal government, we've had President Trump,
(33:03):
President Biden, President Trump, and then those in front those
who came before him, a couple of them, including President Obama.
And I said, the leadership was absent there. The leadership
was absent. They didn't have a clue sometimes about what
to do and how to manage the Congress, manage the
(33:25):
judicial system, which has has a role to play in
our constitution. And the fact of the matter is the
leadership has been absent in both places. Until US comes back,
it's not going to change.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Okay. So, as someone who has had some experience and
with with hospitals, in hospitals, hospital management, what do you
think this augur? Is this news today from mass General Brigham?
Does that augur well or at all?
Speaker 9 (33:59):
Because the fact of the matter is they're not going
to know who to lay off, you know, and how
to balance it. So that you don't get into trouble
with more trouble because you get the wrong people gone.
It's a real problem, all right, sir.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I wish that. I wish that you were, you know,
more optimistic about it. But I think you have a
realistic view, So I appreciate it.
Speaker 9 (34:28):
I ladiate and blind, and I'm promised senior officer in
the Air Force. You know, I have to tell you
it's leadership is an issue, and leadership is something you've
got to stay with all the time.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Oh absolutely. I mean, if you want to talk about
if you want to talk about sports, the successful sports
franchises have they always have. They have to have great athletes,
but they also have to have great leadership.
Speaker 9 (34:57):
So I you know, I think until it happens in
the federal government, and I don't think it's there now,
and I don't think it's been there for over a decade. Yeah,
maybe longer.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I'm looking for the next Democrat who's like Jack Kennedy,
and looking for the next Republican who's like Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 9 (35:20):
Now he had to look for an FDR or Aarry Truman, like.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I'd like to try to have one from each party.
Speaker 9 (35:27):
As an example, sir, then you can go to General Eisenhower.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, a great military commander, not probably the greatest president
of the I think Ronald Reagan was a much greater
president than Dwight Eisenhower. I think Eisenhower was kind of
sleep at the switch. If you're talking about leadership, we
didn't have a great had We had a lazy nineteen fifties. Historically.
I don't think we we kept up with the Russians,
and it took President Kennedy to get us going back
(35:57):
back on the stick on that point. And that was
a big issue with the time. In my opinion. That's
just simply my opinion. Larry, again, Willia, I really appreciate
the conversation. I'm sorry about losing your wife.
Speaker 9 (36:07):
Who crossed the who crossed the line between Eisenhower and Kennedy,
That tug who kept pushing to make sure we weren't
sleeping at the switch. His name was Curtis LeMay.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Well. He was George Wallace's vice presidential candidate in nineteen
sixty eight, and he was a bit of a joke
because well, I don't know about that, Okay, all right,
we could argue that another day, Larry, I gotta keep
rolling here, my friend, I got other folks I got
to get to. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Let
me go to Dana in Gloucester. Dana, next on, Nice,
(36:48):
I want to get you in at least one more.
We're go and go ahead, Dana.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
My experiences with primary care.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Physicians Okay, good or bad?
Speaker 5 (36:59):
I Dad, I had one before I got to see him,
be left. They had. I had to pick another one
before I got to see that one. They left. I
went for a year and a half without seeing a physician.
Finally I got one.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
They're not easy to get data, as I'm sure you
know from your own experience right now, to get a
primary care physician. And and this was this was aggravated
by COVID. My primary care physician retired when COVID occurred
because he was concerned I think, you know, for his
own safety, which is understandable. And also he was overwhelmed
(37:43):
by the amount of paperwork that he was required to do.
He was doing more paperwork than providing medical care. I
believe in his in his mind, he was doing much
more paperwork than he should have.
Speaker 5 (37:56):
Yeah, well, it doesn't look good for healthcare in Massachusetts
with the Stewart Buckle, and now with what you're talking
about with mass General Brigham, it does a rough good.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
It's been a rough few months here, Dana. That's why
we're talking about it tonight. And I appreciate, appreciate you
calling about the problem with PCPs. Very important, very important.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
All right, Dan, thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Thanks, thank you, Dan, appreciate it. Let me go to
Jim and Ashland. Jim, you were next on Nicee. Go
right ahead, Jim.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
Yeah, I've been to the ring in the last four years.
I've I've been really sick and they can't figure it out.
So I've been almost every hospital in Boston. And on
top of it, my wife worked for Stewarts and so yeah,
(38:45):
it's so bad just trying to get a person. I mean,
it's so ridiculous. These places. They can't afford lea anybody off.
They're gonna hire more people. You can't talk to anybody.
It's ridiculous. I get an appointment now. My next appointment
is with one of the Holy Hospitals in Boston. I
haven't been to Israel and they can't fit me until
(39:07):
August twenty fifth. And I've been so sick the last
four years, and like I said, my wife by insurance
just changed because it's through with debacle and I'm trying
to like navigate everything. But you can't talk to anybody.
You can't talk to anybody. You just call and get
you leave a voicemailing, and some of them even say, well,
(39:29):
we'll get back to you within twenty four to forty
eight hours. I'm like, that's unacceptable. Somebody should answer the phone.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
It's not forty eight hours.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Well, the same I called it one of the major
utilities today. I'm not going to mention which one it was,
but they said leave your number and we'll call you
back within ten minutes. Well, I left my number around
two thirty. The day ended around five o'clock. I still
haven't heard back from them, so they're all screwed up.
Speaker 8 (39:59):
Well, this is the same thing I just I just
ran into that they're doing the gas lines over on
my street and I'm one of the only houses in
the in the uh In neighborhood don't have gas. So
they said, oh, they'll probably run it for nothing because
there and I tried to get a hold of person
for three days, three days and all I got was recordings.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
We're falling apart. At the same simple as that. Hey, Jim,
hanging there.
Speaker 8 (40:22):
You're not alone anywhere in the healthcare system.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Jim, thanks very much, keep your keep your wits about you. Okay,
hopefully we'll get this squared away, I promise. Okay, thanks,
thanks for calling, and thanks for listening to you.
Speaker 8 (40:39):
You've got you talk to you producer real quick too.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Sure up, yeap, he'll talk to Roth. You hang on there.
I got a break for the news. Uh, we're gonna
switch topics, gonna talk about yesterday's Super Bowl. If you're
on the line, I'd love to have you stay there
and start that conversation. Coming back right after the break
at eleven o'clock
It's nice side with Dan Ray. I'm Boston Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I know the audience can turn over every hour, So
let me just take a moment before we get back
to our phone calls. I have Alex and Alice lined
up first to come up this hour. This statement from
the head of the Massachusetts General Hospital today is it's
it's written by a combination of pr staff and lawyers.
(00:32):
And that's a that's a tough, tough group. Okay. So
for example, they talk about, uh, that we face a
quarter billion dollar budget gap over the next two years.
That's a lot of money. That's that's a quarter of
a billion dollars over the next two years unless we
take immediate action that's in caps, to allow us to
continue with planned in future investments. That's one of those
(00:55):
words investments. What does it really mean? So they talk
about examples frontline support, immediate investments in support staff and
other resources to relieve burdens on clinicians and frontline staff,
including compensation. That sounds to me like we're going to
rehire people, I would think, but I don't know. New technologies,
accelerate technology investments to modernize our digital tools like digital pathology,
(01:20):
improve networks in Wi FI and AI capabilities that scale
to streamline administrative tasks can allow technicians to put their
full focus on patient care. If someone can interpret that
for me, I'd appreciate it. Research infrastructure, invest in research cores,
laboratories and staff support work environment, improve the experience of
our patients and our people with near and long term investments.
(01:43):
There's that word again, to modernize our space and address
long standing needed improvements, including but not limited to are along
with campus word salats, community health scale community health programs
to extend their impact. What does that mean? They talk
about our strategic organizational redesign. Think about the amount of
(02:05):
time and money they spent to come up with these
words that frankly don't mean anything to the average person.
Reduced redundancies. Why do you have redundancies in the first place.
A limited number of management and administrative positions throughout the
system will be eliminated, consolidated, or rescoped. I've never seen
(02:26):
that word before, rescoped. That's come up. They paid some
consultant a lot of money to get that word. Rescoped.
Focusing resources on critical patient facing and mission supporting work,
patient hyphen facing and mission hyphen supporting work whenever you
can work a couple of hyphens in, that's a good thing.
(02:46):
Improve efficiency by removing management and administrative layers. Really we
aim to reduce bureaucracy. That's a good thing. Enhance decision
making that's a good thing. Improve communication, and foster a
more agile environment. Word salad empower staff. Frontline staff will
have more direct access to leadership, promoting transparency. Oh, that's
(03:09):
an important word. Transparency, accountability, and better understanding of team challenges.
Anybody wants to come on from mass General Brigham tomorrow
on my show and explain what this press release actually means,
You're more than welcome. I'd love to hear from you.
What has been your experience in hospitals in Massachusetts recently?
(03:31):
The context for me is Obamacare. Obamacare supposedly was going
to make everything simpler, better, and easier. I don't think
it's made it's simpler. I don't think it's made it better.
I don't think it's made it easier. I think it's
more expensive. I think it's more convoluted. I mentioned earlier
today I talked with a friend who had to take
(03:55):
his son to an emergency room. It wasn't a life
threatening emergency, but to an emergency room. When he got there,
he was told he will see a doctor in seven
I think it was seven or seven and a half hours.
That's a long time to sit in emergency room, don't
you think. And by the way, it's on a day,
on a day which is pretty quiet. Then go to
(04:16):
Alex and milis Alex, appreciate your patience. Next next on nightside, Alex.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Hey, danger dining. I'll tell you my odyssey. So I was.
I was scheduled for a procedure on the eighteenth of November.
It was in the Platian and it happened to be
at the MGH, and thank god, all went well. But
after that, a few weeks after that, I had another
(04:42):
issue and then come to find out that I wind
up with a hernia, which I had a schedule and
the had schedule an appointment with with a specialist and
before the new year, he told me you're all set.
I go to check on my appointment and he said
as to me, oh, by the way, we're out of
network now, so we're no longer taking Blue Cross Blue Shield.
(05:06):
And I says, why did you tell me? After the
after the first of the year, I you know, I
could have gone elsewhere where a doctor that was in network,
and you know, like because I've been paying So they
said to me, well, you know that's nothing to do
with us. Just called your insurance company. For long story short,
the cardiologist that I had seen at at mg H,
(05:30):
he has a colleague that's a specialist and he happened
to be in network. So I kind of lucked out
in that regard. But I just wanted to say something
between the insurance company and the hospitals, the patient gets,
you know, the short end of the deal.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, let me let me ask you this. You you
were resc who who rescheduled you after the first of
the year, if your insurance carrier was changing, was that
the doctor?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, they said, I could see this provider, but I
would tell you out of pocket expensive. You know, it
was on a network because they decided that the that
they were, you know, taking Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Alex.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You didn't understand my question. My question was if let
us say I owned a restaurant. Let me keep it simple.
Let us say I owned a restaurant and I knew
I was going to close the restaurant on December thirty first,
and you called on December twentieth and said, my wedding
anniversary is on January tenth, and I'd love to have
a wonderful meal on January tenth. And I took the
(06:35):
reservation knowing that the restaurant was going to close. And
when you showed up on December tenth, the restaurant was closed.
You'd say, well, why'd you take it? Why did someone
schedule you if they knew that the insurance carrier that
you had was no longer going to be accepted by
Mass General? Is what you seemed to That seemed to
(06:56):
be the story.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
You told me exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, it was after the first to the year.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So why did that person schedule you? Why did someone
before the first of the year say, oh, come back,
we'll do the surgery for you after January first, knowing
that you wouldn't have insurance for that. Who was that knucklehead?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It was one of the staff members. And you know
they said, well, we apologized, but I says, an apology
doesn't do me any good because I have paying now
if I wasn't lucky, it's they say, it's who you know?
Is my cardiologist?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, yeah, you got a breakage. I get it. It
doesn't matter to me. Congratulations, congratulations Alex. You were able
to do a workaround because you're a smart guy. Okay,
congratulations on that. But that is what I'm more interested in,
is not the fact that your cardiologist was a really
good guy, that he helped you, Okay. I'm more concerned
(07:56):
that you were put in a position by Mass General.
They scheduled you for a procedure inappropriately. They should have
known that your insurance was going to lapse as of
January first. That's the point of the story that's most
important to me, the fact that you had a good
cardiologist who did a work around for you. You were lucky.
(08:17):
You were lucky. I was thanks you, Alex, appreciate you.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Okay, thank you, Alex, appreciate bye bye again. What I'm
looking for here is conversation, not so much about your
specific success. I mean, I'm glad that Alex had success,
but that's like somehow working within the system because you
get lucky. Most people don't get lucky. I'm concerned about
(08:45):
the system at this point, which ten years ago, Obamacare
was going to be the magic pill, right, it was
gonna work for everybody. Now there's complications I'm not trying
to blame President Obama per se, But did we know
that the border was going to be open? Did we
know that thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions
(09:06):
of people going to stream the cross and they weren't
going to use our emergency rooms, our nation's emergency rooms.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And now you see Mass General is going to lay off.
It's going to do a two percent budget cut. I
wish the federal government was as efficient as the Mass
General Hospital, but I wish the Mass General Hospital was
running it a little bit anticipates a little bit. This
is crazy. We're coming back on night's I feel free
(09:34):
to join the conversation only line opened six one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty. A lot of folks have been
complaining it's tough to get through. Tell you right now
six seven, two five four ten thirty your thoughts on this.
When Mass General we've had Steward, which was a disgrace. Okay,
that's just a flat out disgrace, and the Boston Globe
did some great reporting on that, by the way, But
(09:57):
this is also really question and when when I read
this press release, which none of you are going to
read or very few of you are going to read
maximizing our impact. They're basically trying we're going to maximize
our impact. How are we gonna do that. We're gonna
cut two percent of our budget and we're gonna lay
off probably two hundred, minimum two hundred people. That's how
(10:18):
we're gonna maximize our impact. What are you kidding me?
Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Now, back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ the news Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Now, let's try to catch up a little bit here
Alice and Beverly. Alice, appreciate you working through the news.
You're next on Nightside, Go right ahead, Hello Alice. Okay,
we'll put Alice on hold. Maybe she's walked away from
the phone, which is not a good thing for Alice,
and we will go next to Geene and Everett. Geene
(10:51):
and Everett, you are next on Nightside. Go ahead, Gene.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Hi, Jam, good evening. Thank you so much for talking
about this is so important. Listen, about a month ago,
I was in the emergency with my husband. We got
there six p m. We were there all night. We
got out at four o'clock am, sitting near waiting, waiting.
We were seeing about an hour and a half before
we left. Period.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Who was the care you or my husband?
Speaker 7 (11:19):
He's a hot patient. Ye, hey and crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
That had to be nerve wracking, particularly for her heart patience.
Speaker 7 (11:33):
And then and then there were other people in the
waiting room and some were drug addicts, and I had
to then at four in the morning go to my
car in the garage with my husband holding him up. Okay,
how do you think that felt? It was scary? No,
the place was crazy. People were throwing up, one was
throwing up, someone else was doing this, and that it
(11:54):
was nuts. But listen, I wanted. What I want is
I want the governor to take a hard look at
a wake up call. This is a wake up call.
We've had many hospitals going down recently. We know that. Okay,
they have to realize send the migrants home, start building
more housing. We can't handle any more people at all,
and we have to send others back. Start taking care
(12:18):
and be concerned with us US Massachusetts citizens, please and
stop the all the migrant and woke craziness. This is
the time to be serious about fixing the problems we
have right now and not creating more people. I'm concerned
I know people who work at MGH and they do
(12:39):
administrative work. They need their jobs. Some have six children,
you know, Others have you know, mortgages and everything else.
What were these people supposed to do? This is not
the economy where there's a million jobs out there tomorrow.
It's bad times right now. And I just got my
gas bill and it's five hundred and fifty dollars for
one month, thank you very much, because they were allowed
(13:02):
by the state to get a big raise. Is that
because everyone hates us because we have guess heat? I
don't know, but it's not right. And people are suffering
in a lot of ways in the state, and we
need better governance and serious governance, no playing around anymore.
This is bad and this is really bad that these
(13:25):
people are going to get laid off and lose their jobs.
It's putting really people in danger. I'm sorry. I feel
so bad for people. And in the hospital's good and
the nurses are great there, the doctors most you know,
everyone there is great. But you know, maybe they shouldn't
(13:46):
build five hundred hospitals all around them. Maybe they shouldn't
be expanding so much and focus on what they have.
And I also think that the government. The government should
have right now in action a plan for Since we
are not going to have enough nurses and doctors, why
don't you give a little incentive for people to go
(14:08):
to college to become nurses and doctors. Help them so
bide in paying out loans for everybody in the world
who wanted to become a you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, great plea, Thank you very much for the conversation.
I enjoyed the conversation. Talk later by let me go
to Tom in West Virginia. Tom next to nights. I
go ahead.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
I think that woman.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Can you hear me? Okay, yes or no?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yes? I can.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
I hear you from the wind.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Out of my sales. She took the wind out of
my sales. I'm sorry, and you know.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
No, because.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
One third of the world lives an abject poverty, that
what is not our fault as Americans. I hope people
understand that. And I know there's good people that come
from foreign countries that Joe Biden said come in here
and claim asylum. But I'm sorry these people did not
(15:18):
put into the social service system. And Mass General is
a wonderful hospital, and I'm heartbroken to hear that people
will lose their jobs because they've essentially been overwhelmed by
people that don't have health insurance.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Well, I'll tell you this. We're looking at probably tom about.
I'm going to guess a minimum of two thousand people.
They have eighty two thousand employees, which is a huge number,
the largest employer in the state. They're probably going to
lose two thousand. They're going to probably lay off at
least two thousand people. My concern is that that no doctors,
(15:56):
no nurses, should be laid off and let them now
look at some of these extra admitutmsers and people who
are not providing directly medical care. This is bad for
this is and I read this press release. I don't
know if you had a chance to listen to some
of the paragraphs of the sentences. I read nothing but
word salads. I mean, it says nothing. It's just good
(16:18):
words put together. And you know, it's almost as if
it's the being counters and the political consultants who are
running the hospitals as opposed to medical providers.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
All I can tell you is that with Obamacare, and
I'm a talk radio junkie, I listened to conservative talk
radio and progressive talk radio, and after Obamacare was passed,
Progressive Radio was talking about this was probably twenty sixteen,
(16:57):
that the reality is we want to get Hillary Clinton
in there and we want to go to single payer healthcare. Now,
you're probably a well seasoned traveler. Meet people in England
and Ireland with good teeth that have socialized medicine, and
the answer is there are none.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Go to Canada, and go to Canada and try to
get medical treatment at the hospital. Good luck with that.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Yeah, And you know it sounds all well and good,
And I will repeat myself. I grew up in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
I went to high school with highly educated white liberals
that think that single payer health insurance is the cure
to America. And they love the quote Bernie Sanders of
(17:46):
Nordic socialism. Well, those Nordic countries in Northern Europe. Number one,
they strictly enforced their immigration laws.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
They have immigration laws. Yeah. Well, they have no immat
to speak. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
And the Bernie Sanders and his Bolsheviar friends, Bolshevik friends
do not mention that.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
And uh, you know, if that works great.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
For Finland and Sweden, wonderful. But those are different countries
with different populations. It's not going to work in America.
What we'll work in America is the thriving economy of
where we have manufacturing jobs and the employers can give
(18:38):
their employees benefits such as medical and dental. If we
go back forty years ago, that was not necessarily an
issue in America. But we open our borders. I don't
begrudge immigrants for wanting to come in here from wherever,
(18:59):
but we can't take care of the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And I think, I think well, and I think that
somehow the chickens are coming home to roost here a
little bit. So we'll have to see what happens. It's
funny mg H and Well now called mass you know,
and MGB Mass General Brigham. They're going to lay off
people to whatever extent they want. Meanwhile, uh, there are
(19:28):
lawyers running into courts across America to stop any sort
of cutbacks at the federal level. Oh, I mean, it's
it's it's kind of the stories of two of uh
two cities. Here. You have what's going on at at
at Mass General Brigham, which is maybe it's necessary, but
that's a place I don't want to see cuts taking place.
(19:50):
I would much prefer to see a lot of the
fat and waist in the federal government eliminated. So it's there's, there's,
there's really a couple of theme to our story tonight.
So thank thanks for thanks for calling in and thanks
for supporting me on this one. Thank you, Tom, appreciate
your call.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Take care, Dan, by bye YouTube, Thanks good night.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Here's the Yes News at the bottom of the hour,
ten thirty exactly, we're right on time. I got Bob,
I got Glenn, I got Larry, and I got some
room for you. Six one, seven, nine three one, ten thirty.
We will talk about this until eleven, and we will
move on to another topic. I promise coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
You're on Night Side with Dan on Boston's news radio allR.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We got full lines. Let's keep rolling here. People are interested,
and Bob is in Rhode Island. Bob, appreciate you calling.
You were next on Nightside. Go ahead, Boby, Bye, Dan.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
I did I got a question for you?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Why are you such a Trump supporter? Okay, take a
look at your flora one K. It's doing better and
it's having done and Biden was more and more responsible
than anybody else we're putting you and everybody else that's
in the stock market in a good position. Why are
(21:10):
you such a Trump supporter?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Well, you're about the first person in a while that
has suggested that. What makes you think I'm a Trump supporter?
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Well, it's obvious just listening to you. Give me, give
me an example to support Trump and everything, almost everything.
You say, there's gonna be waste taking off of the government.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Well, do you want to waste? What waste? Let me
ask you would you like do you like waste in
the government or would you like to see waste take
I don't think.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
There is a lot of waste in the government.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Oh, okay, fair enough. That's that's that's a position that
I would suspect you might take it.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
So let me ask you this because you're a Trump supporter.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Okay, yeah, let me ask you this question. What is
the current What is the current federal debt?
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Bob?
Speaker 5 (22:02):
I don't know. It's pretty high, I know that much.
But you can't blame the Democrats for all that.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
No, No, I'm not blaming democrats. I'm blaming everybody. Do
you want to know what it is?
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Yeah, you tell me what is the sixteen billion whatever?
The heck it is.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It's a little more than that. It's thirty seven trillion.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Dollars, okay, and that's been building up for years and
years and years and years.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Correct and probably be.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
The guy that's straightened it all out. He can't know.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
That's why.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Here's the question.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Here's I got another question for you, if you don't mind.
This one's an easier one.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I don't mind.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Who's going to pay the thirty seven trillion dollar debt
when the bill comes due?
Speaker 5 (22:52):
The United States citizens?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Which group of United States citizens?
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Everybody?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Everybody? Now, I don't know. I would bet you you're
like me, a baby boomer, right.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Yes, I am seventy four years old.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Okay, no problem, that's fine, that's fine. It's not gonna
be our generation, Bob, It's gonna be your kids. Well,
because our generation.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Don't have any kids. I don't have any kids.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well see, then then your kids won't pay for it.
But if you did have kids, if you did have kids,
it would be your kids, my kids, grandchildren, great grandchildren.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
At some point, about you and me, about you and
me ourselves, Well, why can't we do it? You must
be a very rich man.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, you'd be surprised.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
One K and Trump's gonna what do you want to do?
How do you think Trump's gonna be? Is that gonna
be good for the stock market? What he's doing, all
the all the programs and stuff he's trying to force
on our throat.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I would I would only say, Bob that if that,
if we could look at the government, it is a
an organization that has built been built upon layers and
layers of waste, layers and layers of waste. Uh. And
if we can eliminate I said, if we could eliminate
(24:26):
waste and provide more help to people who actually need
the help. We just let me ask you a question,
if I could, Would you agree with me that over
the last four years during the Biden presidency, our borders
with Mexico were wide open?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Yes, I do I agree with that. I'm not. I'm
not I'm in favor of it. That was one and
fifty years ago. Everybody in I see, Oh, I can't
they do it in Mexico you're so worried about.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well now now now I understand where you're coming from
a little bit better.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
You.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
First of all, the Biden administration for years said no
the borders aren't open. But you're an honest man, and
you would you you favor open borders, which is okay,
Which is okay. I appreciate that along with open borders
comes child trafficking, comes guns.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I don't agree with that. I agree with you. That's
no good.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Comes comes fentanyl. Do you know how many? How many
young Americans die of fentanyl poisoning every year? Do you
have any idea what that number is? No, I don't, Okay,
I'm going to tell you what the number is about
seventy five thousand young Americans, mostly people in their late teens, twenties,
(25:53):
and thirties, die when you and I were growing up. Oh,
it's more than too bad. It's more than too bad.
It's you know, it's it's tragic.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
I'm sorry about it.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Well, I'm glad you're sorry about it. Okay, So what
are we.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Gonna do about it?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, certainly Biden didn't, that's for sure. Let's give someone
else a chance. Bob. I appreciate your call. It's always
call more often. You're you're a gentleman, and I appreciate
your call.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Thank you very much, Big Dan. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Have a great night. Let's go to Glenn. Glenn, you
were next to night side.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
I have to pull all right. A week ago at
this time, I had the pleasure or mispleasure of having
a sleep study at Beth Israel Hospital. My friend Tim
Will spent the night with me. I'm more asleep a
night here.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Really, So you had a sleep study? What would you
have to sleep study for?
Speaker 6 (26:47):
My doctor wortered it. She wants to know if I
have apnea sleep apnea. So they you know, they put
stuff in her. They taped stuff to your body and
your nose. And it went from eight thirty till five
thirty in the morning. Yeah, and the technician so called
kept waking me up. I only got two hours asleep
(27:07):
thirty nights, five thirty the morning. He kept saying, turnal,
go on your back. I need data. Well, first of all,
I told him I don't like to sleep on my back.
I have nightmares. I don't know. It's a child. I
scream in my sleep, like God, don't let me die.
I get sleep proalysis. I said, I can't. Oh, we
need data. It's only for a half hour and then
(27:27):
you can turn you know. Every time I was you
sound like.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You had a great time gLing. Geez, oh, I certainly did.
Oh yeah, did they figure out if you had sleep apnea?
Let me guess you got sleep apnea.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
No, I don't know what they figured out. I haven't
gotten the results yet.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Okay, but when you when you, when you get the results,
please let us know, because I'm sure there are people
out there waiting with baited breadth of no whether or
not you're sleep apnea. But that's okay, you know.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Yeah, Well, in the guy barely spoke English. He was
a foreigner. He was yelling through a PA system, and
he sounded like he had masks on. He was almost.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
He's probably in the other room, he made right, Yeah, okay,
And uh, and when you're gonna get when you're going
to get the results.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
I don't know because I still haven't gotten the results.
I had a blood test in October because I'm tired
all the time for no reason. I still haven't gotten
the results from that.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Well, you got to get more sleep, then you won't
be so tired.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Well, no, the more the more time I sleep, fine,
I can sleep like a baby and still be tired.
But the point is, I mean I can drink caffeine
and sleep like a baby and wake up tired and sleep.
The first thing I did when I got home was
sleep all day. My schedule got inverted.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
But the thing is, how does that lot apply this uh,
this experience with what we're talking about tonight.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
Well, I take all the hospitals. I don't know if
they're becoming more corporatized, Like I noticed that when hospitals
merged then they laid people off like banks to.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, I agree. I think that's an astute observation that
there are a lot of hospitals that are looking at
it from it's the bean counters, who are you know?
You saw that with the Steward disaster here in Messa.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
I know, And I get bills that I don't have
to pay for. I thought Obamacare was supposed to pay
I have all kinds of insurance and I'm still getting
bills that I ignore.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
But that means you're part of That means you're part
of the problem if you ignore the bills.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Right, Well, yeah, but of course I'm supposed to be
you know covered.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I look, I think that's the field, you know. I
think Obamacare was sold to us. The group that loved
Obamacare the most was insurance companies.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
I know.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
We've been being boozled because sleep study. I will tell you.
I will bet you that that sleep study that that
you uh experienced, if you underwent, I'll bet you they're
going to charge you about three thousand dollars for that
sleep study.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Well, they can put me in dinner's prison because I
ain't gonna say it.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Let me know what the results are. Okay, Yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Wish they would treat me like an illegal, but that's
another story.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Maintain their sense of humor, that's important. Okay, thanks by Yeah,
I have to you gotta you go crazy the simple
I know.
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Tell me about it, all right, let me know.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
What happens in this one. I'm gonna bet you. I'll
bet your buck you got apnea. If they test you
for apnea and they're gonna come back and tell you
got sleep apnea.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
I'm telling you, well, I hope you could have.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
We could have saved the taxpayers three thousand dollars and
just comes with the diagnosis.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
And I think where quickly Tom from with Virginia. I
think he was talking about the difference between a homo
genius culture and a heteral genius socialized Madison works in
a homo genious culture. But we're a heterical genius culture.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Great, great student observation, and you use that we have
just used those words correctly.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Well, yeah, we have immigrants with the sniffles that can't
speak English and the emergency room. I mean, I hate
to be rude, but yep, yeah, well you.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Don't hate to be rude, but you don't enjoy being rude.
Speaker 8 (31:29):
Let me put it like that.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
Yeah, I know. Thanks when I talked to you later,
good night, Yeah, thanks too, doctor you.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Soon be better, be better. Back at night Side right after this.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Back to the phones we go. We're going to go
next to Larry in Oxford. Hey, Larry, welcome, mister Ray.
Speaker 9 (31:56):
I think that both the Fuggal government of which you're
talking about from time to time this evening, and also
the General Brigham are facing the same kind of problems,
which is a leadership issue, and the leadership has been absent,
probably because the board hasn't been careful at the maths
(32:19):
General over the last few years, and they really need
to look at the balance because running a major teaching
hospital or particularly a Hobbard Teaching Hospital. There are three
critical people, the hospital administrator, the president of the hospital,
who was usually a doctor, and the chief nurse. And
(32:42):
I was very close to the chief nurse who is
my wife at another Harvard Teaching hospital. She's now been
dead and gone for over ten years. Critical issues, very
critical issues. Now in the federal government, we've had President Trump,
(33:03):
President Biden, President Trump, and then those in front those
who came before him, a couple of them, including President Obama.
And I said, the leadership was absent there. The leadership
was absent. They didn't have a clue sometimes about what
to do and how to manage the Congress, manage the
(33:25):
judicial system, which has has a role to play in
our constitution. And the fact of the matter is the
leadership has been absent in both places. Until US comes back,
it's not going to change.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Okay. So, as someone who has had some experience and
with with hospitals, in hospitals, hospital management, what do you
think this augur? Is this news today from mass General Brigham?
Does that augur well or at all?
Speaker 9 (33:59):
Because the fact of the matter is they're not going
to know who to lay off, you know, and how
to balance it. So that you don't get into trouble
with more trouble because you get the wrong people gone.
It's a real problem, all right, sir.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I wish that. I wish that you were, you know,
more optimistic about it. But I think you have a
realistic view, So I appreciate it.
Speaker 9 (34:28):
I ladiate and blind, and I'm promised senior officer in
the Air Force. You know, I have to tell you
it's leadership is an issue, and leadership is something you've
got to stay with all the time.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Oh absolutely. I mean, if you want to talk about
if you want to talk about sports, the successful sports
franchises have they always have. They have to have great athletes,
but they also have to have great leadership.
Speaker 9 (34:57):
So I you know, I think until it happens in
the federal government, and I don't think it's there now,
and I don't think it's been there for over a decade. Yeah,
maybe longer.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I'm looking for the next Democrat who's like Jack Kennedy,
and looking for the next Republican who's like Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 9 (35:20):
Now he had to look for an FDR or Aarry Truman, like.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I'd like to try to have one from each party.
Speaker 9 (35:27):
As an example, sir, then you can go to General Eisenhower.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, a great military commander, not probably the greatest president
of the I think Ronald Reagan was a much greater
president than Dwight Eisenhower. I think Eisenhower was kind of
sleep at the switch. If you're talking about leadership, we
didn't have a great had We had a lazy nineteen fifties. Historically.
I don't think we we kept up with the Russians,
and it took President Kennedy to get us going back
(35:57):
back on the stick on that point. And that was
a big issue with the time. In my opinion. That's
just simply my opinion. Larry, again, Willia, I really appreciate
the conversation. I'm sorry about losing your wife.
Speaker 9 (36:07):
Who crossed the who crossed the line between Eisenhower and Kennedy,
That tug who kept pushing to make sure we weren't
sleeping at the switch. His name was Curtis LeMay.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Well. He was George Wallace's vice presidential candidate in nineteen
sixty eight, and he was a bit of a joke
because well, I don't know about that, Okay, all right,
we could argue that another day, Larry, I gotta keep
rolling here, my friend, I got other folks I got
to get to. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Let
me go to Dana in Gloucester. Dana, next on, Nice,
(36:48):
I want to get you in at least one more.
We're go and go ahead, Dana.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
My experiences with primary care.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Physicians Okay, good or bad?
Speaker 5 (36:59):
I Dad, I had one before I got to see him,
be left. They had. I had to pick another one
before I got to see that one. They left. I
went for a year and a half without seeing a physician.
Finally I got one.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
They're not easy to get data, as I'm sure you
know from your own experience right now, to get a
primary care physician. And and this was this was aggravated
by COVID. My primary care physician retired when COVID occurred
because he was concerned I think, you know, for his
own safety, which is understandable. And also he was overwhelmed
(37:43):
by the amount of paperwork that he was required to do.
He was doing more paperwork than providing medical care. I
believe in his in his mind, he was doing much
more paperwork than he should have.
Speaker 5 (37:56):
Yeah, well, it doesn't look good for healthcare in Massachusetts
with the Stewart Buckle, and now with what you're talking
about with mass General Brigham, it does a rough good.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
It's been a rough few months here, Dana. That's why
we're talking about it tonight. And I appreciate, appreciate you
calling about the problem with PCPs. Very important, very important.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
All right, Dan, thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Thanks, thank you, Dan, appreciate it. Let me go to
Jim and Ashland. Jim, you were next on Nicee. Go
right ahead, Jim.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
Yeah, I've been to the ring in the last four years.
I've I've been really sick and they can't figure it out.
So I've been almost every hospital in Boston. And on
top of it, my wife worked for Stewarts and so yeah,
(38:45):
it's so bad just trying to get a person. I mean,
it's so ridiculous. These places. They can't afford lea anybody off.
They're gonna hire more people. You can't talk to anybody.
It's ridiculous. I get an appointment now. My next appointment
is with one of the Holy Hospitals in Boston. I
haven't been to Israel and they can't fit me until
(39:07):
August twenty fifth. And I've been so sick the last
four years, and like I said, my wife by insurance
just changed because it's through with debacle and I'm trying
to like navigate everything. But you can't talk to anybody.
You can't talk to anybody. You just call and get
you leave a voicemailing, and some of them even say, well,
(39:29):
we'll get back to you within twenty four to forty
eight hours. I'm like, that's unacceptable. Somebody should answer the phone.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
It's not forty eight hours.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Well, the same I called it one of the major
utilities today. I'm not going to mention which one it was,
but they said leave your number and we'll call you
back within ten minutes. Well, I left my number around
two thirty. The day ended around five o'clock. I still
haven't heard back from them, so they're all screwed up.
Speaker 8 (39:59):
Well, this is the same thing I just I just
ran into that they're doing the gas lines over on
my street and I'm one of the only houses in
the in the uh In neighborhood don't have gas. So
they said, oh, they'll probably run it for nothing because
there and I tried to get a hold of person
for three days, three days and all I got was recordings.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
We're falling apart. At the same simple as that. Hey, Jim,
hanging there.
Speaker 8 (40:22):
You're not alone anywhere in the healthcare system.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Jim, thanks very much, keep your keep your wits about you. Okay,
hopefully we'll get this squared away, I promise. Okay, thanks,
thanks for calling, and thanks for listening to you.
Speaker 8 (40:39):
You've got you talk to you producer real quick too.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Sure up, yeap, he'll talk to Roth. You hang on there.
I got a break for the news. Uh, we're gonna
switch topics, gonna talk about yesterday's Super Bowl. If you're
on the line, I'd love to have you stay there
and start that conversation. Coming back right after the break
at eleven o'clock
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