News and Record from Greensboro, North Carolina • 20

B10 News Record Tuesday April 9 2013 BUSINESS x' tf wSV TtjMjjfiW sx fk A4wZ I inr fleg 'SA fisS 'W ST liii lilSOgtl Hospital workers sometimes ignore or misinterpret alarms from patients' rooms says the Joint Commission a group that accredits hospitals This leads to dozens of deaths a year it said Hospital group warns about The Associated Press CHICAGO Constantly beeping alarms from de vices that monitor the vi tal signs of the critically ill have hospi tal workers who sometimes ignore the noise leading to at least two dozen deaths a year on average a hospi tal accrediting group said Monday These cases are probably vastly underreported said the Joint Commission in an alert to hospitals calling at tention to the problem The beeping devices in clude those that measure blood pressure and heart rate Some beep when an emergency and some beep when not working That can lead to noise fatigue and the de lay in treating a patient can endanger lives the accred itation commission said Complicating the situ ation is the abundance of technology with no stan dardizatioh for what the beeps mean said Dr Ana McKee the executive vice president and chief medical officer The es timate of possible deaths related to the problem is considerably lowerthan the reports it found in a US ood and drug Ad ministration database The DA lists more than 500 deaths potentially linked with hospital alarms be tween January 2005 and June 2010 But that in cludes mandatory reports of malfunctions and in some cases the connection to a death is only tenuous The own database reports 80 deaths and 13 severe injuries be tween January 2009 and June 2012 Hospitals voluntarily re port these to the commis sion which reviews them and in these cases deter mined there was a clear connection to the device McKee said There likely are far more problems than have been reported partly because ignoring or misinterpreting an alarm may have set off a chain of events that led to an injury or death she said But tracing back to that first oversight can be difficult McKee said Alarm system events in cluded patient falls delays in treatment and medica tion errors that resulted in injury or death the Joint Commission said The most common factor was But other problems included misinterpreting alarm signals too few staffers to respond to alarms and equipment malfunctions the proliferation of technology alarms and a lack of more challenging for doctors and nurses to re spond adequately McKee said The commission said hospital leaders need to address the problem and train staffers in safe alarm management The organization accred its more than 10000 US hospital and health care or ganizations Aft fcl A PACKAGES START1NGAT KtMM LIMITED TIME OER! fekKMnrt kHMfl Nt A DIRECT STARr lad Shelter Penj PPni zi nmirai min 1 1 iw V1 I I I I 1 1 The News Record along with the Guilford 1 County Animal Shelter SPCA of the Triad and the Animal Rescue oster Program would like to thank ALL of our sponsors in our quest to hnd homes ror our needy friends Your next chance to help: Publishes: Sunday April 21 2013 Deadline: Thursday April 18 2013 5 pm CALL NOW! (336) 373 7355 TO RESERVE YOUR SPONSORSHIP I I ml i H5J 1 IbmmI (H fwSa mRHb $80M speedway lawsuit fate up to Court of Appeals The Associated Press RALEIGH The mogul behind one of the coun largest auto racing track operators is trying to resurrect a lawsuit claim ing local officials reneged on an offer of $80 million in incentives to land a new drag strip and upgrade the Charlotte Motor Speed way A three judge state Court of Appeals panel will hold a closed door discussion today to deter mine whether the lawsuit will be heard by a jury A judge last year dismissed the lawsuit against Cabar rus County by Speedway Motorsports and Char lotte Motor Speedway both based in Concord and headed by Bruton Smith At issue is whether Smith can enforce what his lawyers say was an oral agreement that ended threats to move the 135000 seat speedway and build a new drag strip somewhere other than the heart of NASCAR coun try The contract put in writing until after the new drag strip opened the following year with terms the track opera tor rejected If the lawsuit move forward Speedway Motorsports could have to wait up to 40 years to be reimbursed for road and other upgrades around the track has received what it bargained for and seeks now to avoid its re turn lawyers for SMI said in court filings The lawyers counter that not their responsibility that SMI built the drag strip and made other improvements before a contract was fi nalized Business logic seem to hold when Smith threatened in 2007 to somehow move the su perspeedway the success ful auto dealer helped design and build in 1959 the lawyers said fact that aban donment of the dragway improvements would be economically senseless by no means prevented it be ing done After all plain tiffs insisted that they every right and to abandon the far more expansive speedway im the lawyers said not clear if SMI which owns the track and seven others in Georgia Tennessee California Kentucky Nevada New Hampshire and Texas has yet seen any of the $80 million announced in 2007 A track spokesman declined comment and lawyers for both sides did not respond to requests for comment last week SMI reported profits of $421 million last year on revenues of $490 million The dispute started when Smith ordered work ers to start grading land on speedway property for the $60 million drag strip 20 miles north of Char lotte before seeking per mits from local officials Area residents complained about the potential for in creased noise Smith downplayed those objections in a 2008 inter view you have any friends that built a house close to a speedway that know there was a speedway Smith chief executive of ficer and chairman said you imagine? All of you knew there was a speedway here When local officials de layed granting approvals Smith threatened to build the drag strip elsewhere and move the speedway which helped foster a motorsports industry es timated to be worth $6 billion a year in North Carolina Local officials tried to soothe Smith The county tourism bureau flew a plane over the speedway with a banner that read (heart) you The street leading to the track was renamed ton Smith The two sides an nounced a deal in Novem ber 2007 for Smith to build the drag strip and make more than $200 million in speedway upgrades with Concord and Cabarrus County officials offering tax breaks worth $80 mil lion But the two sides never reduced their announced agreement into contract language until the day after the 30000 seat four lane zMax Dragway officially opened the fol lowing August just three weeks before its first scheduled race The terms said SMI would spend its millions in infrastruc ture improvements within three years the lawyers said but would be reimbursed from property tax breaks as the improve ments increased its value The method is a common way North Carolina gov ernments encourage com pany investment Smith rejected the con tract SMI and the speed way sued the county and the city in Septem ber 2009 Concord was dropped from the case af ter agreeing to pay a $28 million and getting land easements The Charlotte Observer reported lawyers say local officials verbally promised in 2007 to come up with the $80 million in no more than six years They say the county had a financial motive like a corporation and therefore de fend itself with a state law protecting municipalities from lawsuits Cabarrus law yers counter that there was nothing that could be considered a contract un til the 2008 document de scribed what both sides would do and when The agreement announced the previous year included none of that the lawyers said was an agreement to agree which is not an agreement at Cabar rus lawyers said The attorneys say it would be difficult for the county to come up with $80 million quicldy be cause it is allowed to col lect only $104 million in property taxes a year That capacity is publicly known so SMI say it was blindsided the law yers said A decision is expected in about three months If the case moves forward it could be appealed to the state Supreme Court Where advertising is a destination not a distraction The marketplace for real solutions real results Put News Record advertising to work for you Call 3737150 news RKORDgp ake Your company featured in our paper? 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