Quick bulletin from the front lines of the resistance against the Koch Brothers puppet government, Wingnut Welfare edition. Public Health Priorities demonstrated by appointment of a new administrator for the Division of Public Health are alarming those inside and outside of the agency. Shawn Doherty of the Cap Times reports:
"...health department Secretary Dennis Smith's pick for the state's new health officer is Karen McKeown, a young nurse from Tyler, Texas (pop. 109,000), has created a bit of a buzz in the local public health world."
And why?
She has been a nurse for 10 years at the East Tyler Medical Center, where she managed a 50-bed oncology ward at the mid-sized hospital, but such clinical work caring for individuals in a medical setting is very different than overseeing the health of the community at large, I'm told.
Wisconsin's health officer is charged with everything from making sure the state has an emergency plan for threats like H1N1 to managing environmental hazards like lead paint to coordinating immunization campaigns. Previous occupants of McKeown's job have boasted a lengthy list of experiences and advanced degrees in the specialty.
More below the Orange Omnilepticon
Now,, you might wonder what extraordinary qualifications McKeown brings to the job. Again from the article:
McKeown, who was homeschooled by her mother, also earned an associate of arts degree from Tyler Junior College, a two-year school, in 1998 and a bachelor's degree in nursing two years later from the University of Texas branch in Tyler....
....Indeed, a colleague at her Texas hospital and a former professor at Yale, where McKeown obtained a master's degree in nursing from a new part-time online program she completed over several years from her home in Texas, speak highly of her. (McKeown received web-based instruction in the Nursing Management, Policy and Leadership program, flying to New Haven, Conn., once a month for intensive weekend workshops.)
In an email, Yale nursing school professor Donna Diers describes McKeown as "an outstanding student, dedicated, engaged and enthusiastic."
I am not one to discount nurses for expertise in health care - they have a type and range of knowledge in providing care that complements the more commonly sought expertise of physicians in ways that are sadly underrated. If she is truly as talented and promising as the department PR release about her appointment makes her seem, then more power to her.
BUT.... there's a bit more in the Cap Times story that may be relevant to fully understanding the qualifications that led to her selection for a job that potentially could be of vital importance to millions of Wisconsinites:
What McKeown does have in addition to her nursing background is something she shares with her new boss, Secretary Smith -- experience as a fellow with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Just last month, Heritage published a 19-page paper by McKeown titled: "Empowering Patients as Key Decision Makers in the Face of Rising Health Care Costs," an article that Robert Kraig of Citizen Action of Wisconsin called a "weird mix" of conservative ideology and McKeown's own observations about work on the front lines of palliative care. (McKeown's piece argues "American values of limited government and individual liberty and responsibility" demand that patients and not "an unaccountable government body" control health care decisions.)
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree:
Before assuming his post a year ago as Gov. Scott Walker's health secretary, Smith was a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where he wrote articles criticizing President Obama's federal health care reforms, as well as Medicare and Medicaid programs as being unsustainable. Over the past year, Smith has led the Walker administration's efforts to pare back the state's public health programs.
The news release about McKeown praises her as being a good fit for these ongoing efforts. "Her skills will be extremely valuable in this climate of declining federal public health funds," it says.
A request for an interview with McKeown was denied by a departmental spokeswoman.
Now I've taken the liberty of emphasizing some of the text in the quotes and juxtaposing them for a more pointed summary; read the article yourself and decide if that seems reasonable or not. It would perhaps be going a bit too far to speculate that McKeown's appointment is more about demolishing government involvement in healthcare than in protecting the public from disease and injury. I report, you decide.
And while you're doing that, picture this scenario being played out throughout all the government agencies and departments of Wisconsin. This is just one glaring example of how when a conservative gets into office these days, you may end up getting a lot more than you bargained for.
Sat Jan 21, 2012 at 7:36 AM PT: Update: It's a wonder anyone in Walker's administration can rail against 'unaccountable government' with a straight face when that's their whole modus operandi.