The Tale Of Two UPMCs (And A Plea To Mark Nordenberg On Behalf Of Standard English)

The Post-Gazette's Sally Kalson reminds Pittsburgh that, behind the unattractive face of UPMC, thousands of employees work to heal their neighbors. Those rank-and-file employees did not create the anticompetitive health care system, have not manipulated that system to crush competition and communities, and do not spend their working days compromising and overrunning elected officials and regulators. Most of them help patients without million-dollar compensation and often with distinction and even sacrifice.

The ugly aspects of UPMC sometimes occlude these points, making Sally Kalson's reminder useful.

On the other hand, could someone ask Mark Nordenberg to require -- if UPMC desires to continue to derive the benefits of using "University of Pittsburgh" in its name -- that UPMC engage the English Department to proofread billboards, print advertisements and broadcasting scripts? UPMC's abuse of standard English in commercials should embarrass the university at least as much as the fabricated figures flexible mathematics used by the Department of Athletics when counting football crowds during the early years at Heinz Field.