Sarasota Health News

Editor's notebook, January 12

David Gulliver - posted 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12

Welcome back. Look around and you’ll see Christmas brought a few changes to Sarasota Health News.

First and most obvious is the logo, at far left, of Doctors Hospital of Sarasota. The hospital recently offered to support the website, and we welcome its generous donation, which should cover the costs of web hosting, email and other operations for a year.

Some important background: Soon after we launched the site, board member Patricia Driscoll contacted hospitals and major medical practices across the region. We asked if they wanted to support an organization dedicated to providing information on access to and quality of health care.

Doctors Hospital is the first to step up, and we hope others will follow and support what we think should be a worthy goal for anyone in healthcare. We also hope that soon such donations from individuals will be tax-deductible; stay tuned.

I should take a moment here and say -- needlessly, I hope -- that neither this nor any sponsorship will affect the topics and tone of the reporting here. The support is certainly welcome, but I’d drop it in a heartbeat if it would compromise our coverage.

The lead story today does cover an issue that Doctors Hospital, I believe, wants to see covered. But I first reported it months before the hospital’s sponsorship, and will continue to do so. I see it as the biggest healthcare business issue in my four years in Sarasota, and am still stunned that no other media group is paying attention.

If you’ve read this far, you’ve noticed the second change, the creation of a slot for advertising on the site. In one way, it’s no different from other news websites, which allow advertising. (You may have noted hospital advertising in the local newspaper and its website.)

But there’s one major difference: We won’t clutter this site with lots of ads or any pop-ups. At this time, we hope to make that the exclusive ad slot on the page. (As we have told email bulletin subscribers, we also may add an advertising slot to those messages.)

The third change, and the one of which I’m proudest: The addition of “report cards” on the region’s hospitals. It’s something I did regularly while employed by the Herald-Tribune, and has gone missing in the paper’s coverage of late.

We’ve started with one of my favorites, consumer ratings of hospitals’ performance, and we’ll be adding other measures steadily. For now, the report cards are in table format, suitable for printing, and we hope to add interactive lookups -- which may be more feasible now that we’re getting financial support.

The fourth major addition is a healthcare events calendar. I hope this can be the start of more community collaboration, where readers send in events and other readers take note. We’ll be doing more along these lines soon, I hope.

Finally, a word of thanks to the aforementioned Ms. Driscoll, who recently left the Sarasota area for a healthcare marketing job in Arkansas, and is stepping down from the board. She was an inspiration in the early going, and for that I’ll always be grateful.





	Editor's notebook, January 12 David Gulliver - posted 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12 Welcome back. Look around and you’ll see Christmas brought a few changes to Sarasota Health News. First and most obvious is the logo, at far left, of Doctors Hospital of Sarasota. The hospital recently offered to support the website, and we welcome its generous donation, which should cover the costs of web hosting, email and other operations for a year. Some important background: Soon after we launched the site, board member Patricia Driscoll contacted hospitals and major medical practices across the region. We asked if they wanted to support an organization dedicated to providing information on access to and quality of health care. Doctors Hospital is the first to step up, and we hope others will follow and support what we think should be a worthy goal for anyone in healthcare. We also hope that soon such donations from individuals will be tax-deductible; stay tuned. I should take a moment here and say -- needlessly, I hope -- that neither this nor any sponsorship will affect the topics and tone of the reporting here. The support is certainly welcome, but I’d drop it in a heartbeat if it would compromise our coverage. The lead story today does cover an issue that Doctors Hospital, I believe, wants to see covered. But I first reported it months before the hospital’s sponsorship, and will continue to do so. I see it as the biggest healthcare business issue in my four years in Sarasota, and am still stunned that no other media group is paying attention. If you’ve read this far, you’ve noticed the second change, the creation of a slot for advertising on the site. In one way, it’s no different from other news websites, which allow advertising. (You may have noted hospital advertising in the local newspaper and its website.) But there’s one major difference: We won’t clutter this site with lots of ads or any pop-ups. At this time, we hope to make that the exclusive ad slot on the page. (As we have told email bulletin subscribers, we also may add an advertising slot to those messages.) The third change, and the one of which I’m proudest: The addition of “report cards” on the region’s hospitals. It’s something I did regularly while employed by the Herald-Tribune, and has gone missing in the paper’s coverage of late. We’ve started with one of my favorites, consumer ratings of hospitals’ performance, and we’ll be adding other measures steadily. For now, the report cards are in table format, suitable for printing, and we hope to add interactive lookups -- which may be more feasible now that we’re getting financial support. The fourth major addition is a healthcare events calendar. I hope this can be the start of more community collaboration, where readers send in events and other readers take note. We’ll be doing more along these lines soon, I hope. Finally, a word of thanks to the aforementioned Ms. Driscoll, who recently left the Sarasota area for a healthcare marketing job in Arkansas, and is stepping down from the board. She was an inspiration in the early going, and for that I’ll always be grateful.