WHAS has it all wrong about Wayside...says Tim Moseley

Back on February 14, WHAS TV in Louisville did a story concerning Louisville's homeless, in particular the emergency medical needs the homeless face. The author/reporter gave specific emphasis to Wayside Christian Mission in the piece. Over the weekend, I, and many others, received a rebuttal from Tim Moseley, Wayside's CEO. Below you will find the article from WHAS's website, then the video from TV embedded. Read on, and send notes to WHAS if you wish.

Online Article

Tim Moseley's Reponse to the article.
Dear Mission Friends,

The WHAS story regarding the overuse of emergency rooms by the homeless and in particular, Wayside Christian Mission had several problems.

• The story only focused on Wayside and no other homeless shelter provider. Some of you reported to me that the story biased the viewer against Wayside prior to viewing the report and served to diminish the report's objectivity.
  
• Those interviewed seemed to have snippets of interviews shown, out of context and always supporting the reporters point of view.
• Nina had to ask the station news director for an interview and when the interview occurred she reported that the questioning indicated that the reported had already made his decision on the direction of the story. She asked for the interview after WHAS had already sent an undercover van to film EMS runs to the Mission, indicating the story was already set.
• A man who was mentally ill and homeless was interviewed by the reporter. The man's name was used. The man also was psychotic during the interview, talking to his imaginary companion, discussing his anti-psychotic medications.
• The report suggests that Wayside has an opportunity to reduce some of the problems shown through more staff training on handling EMS calls. EMS always goes with the caller's desire to be transported to the emergency room or not. Why should our staff be placed in that position? Also, the reporter never questioned our staff training during the interview, assuming from the report that it did not exist.
• One of you suggested that the numbers and costs were far out of line with "real costs".
• 911 calls are not always EMS calls and often one EMS call brings a Metro Police car and a Metro Fire Department Medic dispatch. It should be said that the fire department medics have often been highly complementary of the support given by Wayside's staff prior to the medic's arrival.

Some of you emailed or spoke directly to the reporter and I am very thankful for your efforts. This pressure likely caused the reporter to add the postscript from Nina's numerous attempts to email him to deliver additional information. As some time has passed, I put together some additional thoughts below. I also think there is an opportunity to use this unfortunate story to improve communication and possibly develop strategies to better serve the health care needs of homeless people in our community.

As to the number of emergency calls placed from our Emergency Shelter on Jefferson Street, it occurred to me that one third or more of homeless men and women are veterans of the U.S. military; owing to their valiant efforts in keeping this land free, we enjoy the benefits of living in an open society—and this includes a free press. Rather than begrudging emergency treatment to homeless veterans, we should be providing better housing and better medical care for those whose sacrifices have kept us free.

I believe the WHAS story was unduly critical of our staff. First, it is not necessary that a security guard be medically trained. On the other hand, EMS employees are medically trained to assess a patient’s condition and yet even they do not make a medical decision not to transport, not even if they consider the situation warrants as much. Simply stated, no Wayside Christian Mission staff member has the legal or medical authority to determine who goes and who does not go to the hospital. EMS and Fire Department Medics would be much better equipped to make those decisions, however they, too, follow the client's wishes.

As to the security guard who was mentioned in the news report, the news reporter failed to explain that it was the case manager who likely asked the guard to make the phone call while he attended to the patient’s needs. One of our case managers who, by the way, is medically trained, is also a military veteran. He works five to six evenings per week and, again, would stay with the patient while having the guard to place the phone call to EMS.

Dale Pyscher, the state licensed social worker I mentioned, receives yearly training in biological hazards; these hazards refer to biological substances that pose a threat to living organisms, primarily those that threaten human well-being. His credentials also include:

Advanced CPR Instructors Course

American Red Cross (Louisville Chapter) Instructor of the Year

Advanced First Aid Course United States Army

CHSP Course

United Parcel Service (Louisville) Safety Team—reduced injuries through the mentoring of 48 personnel over a two year period

If a resident changes his or her mind about going to the hospital, the EMS worker has the resident sign a waiver of liability. This rarely happens, of course, and it should also be noted that EMS employees and fire department medics do an excellent job in assessing a client’s needs. It does, however, indicate the need for a higher level of evaluation by medical personnel and likely the concern for making a wrong decision.

In summary, it is clear the WHAS story did not examine or ask what level of training the Wayside Case Manager had secured. Instead, its report portrayed a shelter staff with no training while assuming that the guard on duty who made the call was the decision maker. In addition, the report completely bypassed an even more pressing question: why not have EMS medical responders make the decision as to whether or not a client should be transported? These are medically trained employees of Metro Government. Would this save the tax payer thousands of dollars in emergency room visits? The reality is that making these types of decisions are far more dangerous and costly than simply transporting a person to the emergency room. Would WHAS have one of their employees evaluate a visitor who was having chest pains in their lobby and decide the person was not in sufficient danger to warrant a call to EMS? Of course not, for a wrong decision could quickly put them out of business and into the headlines.