My East Ky

A couple of years ago after a emergency room visit and being completely shocked about the price tag for some stitches and some antibiotic medicine I done some research on the web and found a comparison website for the average price of a hospital visit compared to John Hopkins or some other highly credited establishment. Unfortunately I did not bookmark this website and I am unable to find it currently so I am not going to post the results for 2 reasons: 1: my memory I am not completely sure I remember the results 100% and 2: the results may have changed since I did the comparison.

But I have found a great little government run website that lets you compare any hospital you want. The website lets you compare on how well hospitals care for there adult patients with certain conditions or procedures. I just done a comparison of Highlands Regional, Paul B. Hall , and Pikeville Medical Center. The comparison I chose was a survey of a patients hospital experience. Ranking first in most of my comparisons was Pikeville Medical Center with Highlands Regional Center and Paul B.Hall going back & fourth with second and third place. I would like to say that I am overall satisfied with Highlands Regional and I always received the care that I need. Not always in a timely matter in my opinion but I do believe the nurses and doctors there do an outstanding job! Plus look how much they have grown over the years, they are still growing as construction is going on right now. I am writing this not to bash them but to help them improve in the areas they need to. Below is some comparison charts that I did. But by all means check out hospitalcompare.hhs.gov & compare for yourself.

Below is 4 screen shots I took from hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

In national news the stimulus package is coming out early. The checks/direct deposits are scheduled to start on Monday the 28th. Just in time as the price of oil went up again today $119.55 for the black gold. It’s funny how Bush said the package was first to stimulate the economy and go out and spend it, now he saying it will help the American people buy gas and food. Seems to me the only people that are going to benefit is OPEC. Wonder how many billions will be profited this year?

Prestonsburg recently won an award for “Most innovative use of technology” Congrats!

The award was awarded for the wireless access being provided, even though it’s still in a “test” phase. The full article can be read here. According to the article the wireless access has been able to recruit new businesses to downtown. What new businesses? Or are businesses relocating to downtown? The article also says that they are plans for a new Technological business park and a new government website. The park sounds like a cool/good idea but what new government website is needed? I would be ecstatic if I could pay my water bill online & check current usage. Big Sandy RECC has the online bill pay feature but why can’t they show current usage for the month? Plus how about employment opportunities? No way to check online. And the current Prestonsburg website (prestonsburg.net) is completely useless. I assume this is the official Prestonsburg website as it is registered to “The city of Prestonsburg” If I am wrong someone please correct me.

For you rock of love fans Poison with Bret Michaels is coming to the East Ky Expo Center on July 20 with special guests Dokken and Sebastian Bach (Skid Row) will be joining them for most of the tour dates. Tickets go on sale May 2nd @ 10:00am est.

Price range $23.50 thru $47.50

For you die hard Poison fans there are also VIP packages available. Price range $200.00 - $500.00

Wow where to start on this? I found the “malls” one day surfing around I think there was a advertising link on Appalachian news express. Anyway I am completely dumb founded that businesses would advertise on these web sites. I’ll be the first to admit I’m no web designer but come on these web sites are completely horrid! Things that erk me in no particular order

• That damn talking voice that you can’t turn off!
• The graphics look awful…I know he might be trying to save loading times by reducing the quality of them but man you got to have a trade off…plus ever heard of Photoshop? I thought I was going to have a seizure when I click on Respiratory Health
• The sites do not seem to be cross platform compatible i.e.: Firefox…not everyone uses internet explorer
• SEO & Alt tags, the sites have absolutely none, good luck being picked by search engines
• Not sure what it was designed in? Maybe FrontPage lol might want to try Dreamweaver.
• Disabled right click..Why? No real use . (edit view source or just save the web page)
• It’s 2008 looks like it was cutting edge in 1998.

There’s a lot more but that’s all I feel like typing right now. I will give the kudos to the owner though it’s a great idea with very very poor execution. Plus they are actually advertisers on his site so they/he must have a good sales pitch. Just think how many advertisers he would have if he had a decent looking website. My advice (which is worth a penny) is to take those advertising dollars your getting and hire a real programmer and designer to do the job right, because all your doing is probably discouraging your advertiser from ever really getting on the web the way they should be. Might want to check out Freelance Designers or Get a Freelancer.

Oh and if you never seen the “malls” before here you go The Malls