News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 2

C0V3F A2 I THURSDAY, JULY 7. 2011 THE NEWS-PRESS NATION WORLD CELEBRITY BUZZ CNN pulls plug on Eliot Spitzer NEW YORK Eliot Spitzer was bounced from CNN's prime-time lineup on Wednesday, having spent less time as aTVhost than he did as New York governor. CNN reshuffled its schedule to add a new program by former CNBC personality Erin Burnett, move Anderson Cooper's flagship newscast into the tough 8 p.m. time slot and eliminate Spitzer's "In the Arena" program. CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS Doc Severinsen, 84.

Ringo Starr, 71. Warren Entner, 68. Jim Rodford, 66. Joe Spano, 65. David Hodo, 64.

Linda Williams, 64. Shelley Duvall, 62. Roz Ryan, 60. Billy Campbell, 52. Mark White, 49.

Vonda Shepard, 48. Ricky Kinchen, 45. Jorja Fox, 43. Cree Summer, 42. Bret Michaels suit moved to N.Y.

LOS ANGELES Bret Michaels' lawsuit over an accident at the 2009 Tony Awards that the singer claims nearly killed him should be heard in New York where the accident happened, a federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled. It makes more sense for the case to be handled by a federal court in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee wrote in a ruling Tuesday. Taylor Swift forced to put off concerts ATLANTA Artist Taylor Swift says she's postponing concerts this week in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C. because she has bronchitis.

Swift said in a statement that she's been advised by her doctor that she's not well enough to perform shows in Charlotte, N.C, Friday and in Atlanta this weekend. She said the Atlanta show has been rescheduled for Oct 1, and the Charlotte show will now be Nov. 16. James Spader joins The Office' LOS ANGELES NBC officially announced Wednesday that James Spader is the man who will fill void of the "world's best boss" on "The Office-Spader joins the cast of the NBC comedy, reprising his role as new CEO Robert California of the parent company of Dunder Mifflin. He adds a new face following the departure of Steve CarelL The News-Press wire services Shooting puts focus on hospital security THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RLE PHOTO Bret Michaels' lawsuit over an accident at the 2009 Tony Awards will be moved to New York.

use them, he said. "If you put metal detectors in and we have someone walking in with a weapon you've got unarmed security manning them then what?" Bellino said. "Police presence would be expensive." Instead, he said, hospital security should instead focus on suspicious behavior and watching who enters. If a patient is agitated or insistent about staying anonymous, security should be alerted, he said. Lee Memorial Health System, which controls 95 percent of hospital beds in Lee County, has unarmed security at each of its four acute-care hospitals.

It patrols on foot inside and in golf carts outside. Some areas, such as the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit inside HealthPark Medical Center, are closed to visitors without approval. Even so, most of these facilities are easily accessible. The Lee system always reviews its security policies when an incident such as the shooting at Physicians Regional happens, said spokeswoman Mary Brig- gs. 1 "I don't know how a hospital protects itself in I that kind of situation," Briggs said.

"It seems to me that, in this case, the hospital was just the set- ting." Facilities grapple with access issues BY FRANK GLUCK The shooting death of a Collier County woman at Physicians Regional Medical Center on Tuesday is a reminder of an uncomfortable truth about hospitals: Easy access to patient rooms, emergency departments and common areas means violent acts are difficult to prevent, even if a hospital is vigilant. And incidents are on the experts say. "Hospitals are considered safe havens, but that's not always the case," said Joe Bellino, security executive at Memorial Herman Hospital in Houston and an expert on hospital-based violence. "People today are under more stress than I've seen in my life. These people bring that stress." Physicians Regional administrators and security staff are reviewing their security procedures, said spokeswoman Taylor Hamilton.

The hospital would not elaborate. Physicians Regional was open to new patients and visitors Wednesday. They have made grief counselors available to hospital staff. SHOOTING Continued from A1 to end their 36-year marriage, according to the Collier County Sheriff's Office. Witnesses said Jeffrey Moretz then shot and seriously wounded himself.

A short-barreled handgun was seized at the scene, the sheriff's office said. He is being treated at a local hospital and has not been charged in the case. Family members were not available for comment Wednesday. Although prosecutors dropped the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge against Moretz in the 2009 case, their reports detail a marriage beset with domestic violence, threats of suicide and the episode involving their son, Chad Adam Moretz, 33, who has been arrested several times on battery charges and is currently wanted on a contempt of court charge. According to state attorney's and court records: The Moretzes were married in Erie, Ohio, in 1975 after graduating from high school.

They eventually moved to Collier County, where they owned a construction business called Master Builders and Remodeling. Their marriage, according to their son, was marred by domestic violence. "He'd beat my mom up real bad and threatened that if she went to the cops he'd kill her," Chad Moretz told detectives investigating the 2009 "We will continue to add value by improving quality while decreasing expense through better and more efficient and effective practices," Weiss said in an email. "We have been prudent these past few years in anticipation of less payment by all of the insurance carriers." NCH does not have plans for staff or position cuts, Weiss said. Everything on table Budget talks with the Lee Memorial's board of directors are on hold until August.

Typically, the board gets some hint to upcoming spending before its July recess. In the meantime, system President Jim Nathan has asked members to arrange individual meetings with top leadership if they have any budget-cut- ing machines at major airports around the world. Once a terrorist finds a willing suicide bomber, secures the explosive material and makes the bomb, carrying off this tactic is not that difficult, said Chris Ronay, a former chief of the FBI explosives unit "It's rather easy and the damage could be rather severe," Ronay said. Surgery to implant explosives could be done a the restraining order against her husband. "I did not ask for this no contact order and do not want it," Christine Moretz wrote.

Women who are abused by spouses are often in denial because of fear of retaliation, for financial reasons or because they mistakenly believe things will get better, said Mary Ann Green, spokeswoman for the Shelter For Abused Women Children in Naples. "But with domestic violence, there is a pattern of abuse that escalates," Green said. Filing for divorce or leaving is often the last straw for an abuser, Green said. Christine Moretz, who had separated from her husband and got a job as the lead concierge at Cap Ferrat, a condominium in Pelican Bay, filed for divorce June 17. Two weeks later, she was killed.

"It's a very emotional time for us," said Sandra Shock, general manager at Cap Ferrat "She was such a warm and cheerful woman." Jeffrey Moretz's former attorney, Lee Hollander, said the suspect was a nice guy. "I realize that may be contrary to the present allegations, but he was kind and pleasant," Hollander said. "I certainly wasn't expecting this." Hollander said the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge against his client was dismissed by prosecutors after Moretz claimed self-defense. 4 percent of its work force. Ultimately, it eliminated about 32 staff positions, some already vacant, and squeaked by with a $3.3 million profit margin.

Most of that was attributable to keeping labor costs down and unexpected increases in patient volumes. Even so, the Medicaid cuts are permanent. And future federal cuts to the Medicaid and Medicare programs loom as Congress considers potentially drastic cuts to the federal budget. The state's decision to move Medicaid patients into a managed-care plan will likely also require new, yet-uncalculated, hospital cuts, system officials say. "We have made up for these shortfalls in the past and will have to find ways to do so in the future in order to continue to provide the safety net for our community," Nathan wrote in his latest Web posting to the community.

"This is not a temporary change but, we know that our patients rely on us to provide quality, compassionate, life-saving care that will not change." chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island and explosives expert, said it would be tough to carry out such an effort successfully. She said there are only so many places to hide a bomb in the body, and a suicide bomber would have to recover enough from the surgery to travel and set off the device. Reporter Laura Ruane contributed to this report shooting. Violence erupted at the Moretz household Aug. 19 of that year when Chad said he came home cussing because his father sent him to a dentist who was unable to pull his bad teeth.

He said his father pulled a gun from his desk and started blasting. Chad ran out of the house. "Then I felt him put the gun to the back of my head. I knocked it away and then he shot right next to my ear," Chad said. He said his wife, Kim-berly, jumped in to save him, and his father fired another round, almost hitting her.

But Jeffrey Moretz told detectives his son, who was being treated by a psychiatrist, was the abuser. "He's blackened my face so bad that you wouldn't even recognize" me, he said. On the day of the 2009 shooting, his son told him, "T'm gonna kill you and rip your head Jeffrey told investigators. Jeffrey Moretz said his son threw a cabinet and "I figured I was going to be attacked," so he pulled out the gun. He said his son followed him onto the patio and he started firing in the air.

Christine Moretz came out of the house screaming and shaking, Deputy E. Oberdorff wrote in his report. She said her husband also threatened to shoot himself or overdose on pills. She denied her husband abused her. I Later, the wife wrote Circuit Judge Frederick Hardt, asking him to lift ting or moneymaking ideas.

He also promised to keep those individual talks under wraps, according to a memo to them. "Since 'everything' must be on the table for consideration, it is important that you be able to comfortably surface your thoughts while avoiding public debate over each thoughtidea before the opportunities have had a chance to be vetted," Nathan wrote. In a recent message to the community, Nathan said the system hopes to save money by fully implementing a new electronic medical records system, reducing unnecessary hospital readmis-sions and opening community health clinics that steer the sick away from costly emergency room visits. Been through worse In the short term, these Medicaid cuts pale in comparison to the 2008 fiscal year, when the system faced a $65 million budget shortfall. At the time, it considered cutting 400 to 500 employees, or more than couple of days before a planned attack, said James Crippin, an explosives expert in Colorado.

In order for it to work, there would need to be a detonation device, and it's conceivable that if the explosive was implanted in a woman's breast, the detonator could be underneath the breast so that all the operative would have to do is press downward, Crippin said. But Jimmie C. Oxley, a "We are proud of the quick incident response by our security personnel and the rigorous emergency management preparation that our hospital and clinic associates established and followed," the hospital said in a statement. Shootings are rare at U.S. hospitals, but violence is on the rise, according to the Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization that accredits more than 19,000 health care organizations.

It found that self-reported rates of assaults, homicides and rapes were at their highest recorded level between 2007 and 2009. Hospitals at risk In a separate study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore calculated that assault rates at U.S. health care facilities is four times higher than in other workplace settings. A shooter injured a doctor and killed a patient in September at Johns Hopkins. Are metal detectors an answer? The Johns Hopkins researchers concluded they provide a false sense of security.

Bellino agrees. About 5 percent to 8 percent of U.S. hospitals MEDICAID Continued from A1 "Our employees are our most valuable asset, so the last thing we want to do is cut out employees," said Richard Akin, chairman of the system's elected board of directors. "And I'm not expecting that to happen." With annual spending of more than $1 billion, the system is among Lee County's top economic engines. It employs about 10,200 full- and part-time staffers and controls 95 percent of Lee's hospital beds.

It is also one of 15 Florida "safety net" hospital systems that take in a disproportionate share of low-income patients. Medicaid reimbursements to the system will drop about $4 million between now and Oct 1, the beginning of the system's next fiscal year. Chief Financial Officer Mike German said those cuts can be wiped out by managing labor expenses this fiscal year. Another $18 million will be lost in the subsequent 12 months, the largest projected one-year drop for any hospital system in Southwest Florida. IMPLANTS Continued from A1 and by stories of a 95-year-old woman having her diaper removed, and 6-year-olds being patted down," said Bob Schaeffer, a Sanbel resident and a political consultant.

Schaeffer was referring to two widely reported, controversial screenings in recent months at airports in the Panhandle Estimated annual Medicaid reimbursement reductions Lee Memorial Heaith System' $18 million Lehigh Regional Medical Center $449,632 NCH Healthcare System $10.6 million Physicians Regional Medical Center Pine Ridge $1 .5 million Beginning Oct 1, Lee Memorial Health System estimate that also Includes state cuts to "Low-Income Pool" reimbursements tor safety net hospitals. SOURCES: LEE MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM, NCH HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, THE SAFETY NET HOSPITAL ALLIANCE OF FLORIDA THE NEWS-PRESS Delivering your world THE NEWS-PRESS A GANNETT COMPANY 127th Year, No. 193 CORRECTIONS If you see an error in The News-Press contact Sheldon Zoldan, 335-0560 or Corrections appear on the first page of the section in which the error was made. DELIVERYSUBSCRIPTIONS For delivery inquiries or to order a new subscription: 800-468-0233 or online at Monday trough Friday contact customer service prior to 5 p.m. to receive credit for delivery errors.

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Fax: 33M708 Entered as PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID at the Post Office at Fort Myers. Postmaster Send address changes to above address Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD): 3350424. Weekdays: 8:30 am-6 p.m. Saturday: 8:30 am- noon To put those numbers in context: This year the system is expected to take in about $24 million more than it spends, or a margin of about a 2.2 percent. The system is a nonprofit governmental entity, mean ing profits are put directly back into the system to pay for staff and Healthcare System in NATHAN Says electronic records will save money Collier County would see the second-highest reduction at Lee and Collier hospitals, an annual Medicaid amount of about $10.6 million, according to Dr.

Allen Weiss, CEO of NCH Healthcare. and in New Orleans. As airport security has increased since the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks, so has the terrorists' creativity in developing methods to get around it. Last year, it was reported that British officials uncovered intelligence that al-Qaida was seeking to surgically implant bombs inside people, a move some believed was prompted by use of full-body imag Hi.