A health care mess reported by Laura Hart

I am in the middle of a story right now which is breaking regarding a Kern County Grand Jury investigation at this public healthcare district. Because of very bad moves on the part of several frightened people I think I will finally get my day in court with these criminals.

My blog is a bog, as there are almost 400 posts and my organizational ability is impaired, but I will give you the best summary I can give.

Past issues: Goldman Sachs did a feasibility study in 1986 which lead to this hospital selling "revenue bonds" to expand the district's property and services. The cost was to be 13,000,000. These bonds had to be insured and the state office of statewide healthcare planning and development along with their other office, Cal Mtg., entered into a contract with this tiny hospital. The contract is incredible really. The construction project was to be a certain size which fit the amount of potential monies it would reap if these services were in place.

Didn't happen. The construction project was not finished by half. But a hospital worth four million now sold more bonds in 1991, which meant the new amount hit 22 million. But they still didn't finish it.

Now, you would think that Cal Mtg. as the insurer being paid premiums would let the hospital off the hook and pay the debt as they have been slowly sinking for the past 20 years. But that's what I don't get: they don't pay off, they shut the hospital down and liquidate it. They also have the power to remove administrators they don't think are doing the job.

And bankruptcy isn't an option as in all information I have read they don't allow it, not in so many words as it is a constitutional right. But they are the only credit as the debt ratio is dramatic at the hospital.

This lead to cutting staff, services, and quality. It also lead the arrival of now criminally charged, ex-CEO, Pamela Ott, whose qualifications consisted of two degrees from "Kennedy Western University" which is a diploma mill. The board in 2003, and Cal Mtg. which has an obligation to oversee their debtors, did not. They even went off contract.

Current issues: In 2005, the hospital cut staff, but only at the lower level, like those pesky nurses' aides who take care of the elderly residents. Stress became a factor and no one, including myself, knew that there was an ominous situation taking place: the people from DHS, Department of Health Services, caught them using physical restraints and patients were losing weight and becoming dehydrated as the staff dried up.

Then in 2006 they made an effort to obtain a GOB to pay for a seismic upgrade mandated by SB1953. We were told the hospital would close if we didn't get the property tax money, twelve million. Well, many election offenses occurred and the CEO and CFO, both with lousy resumes, were trying hard to keep the public from knowing the problems they were having with the state inspections of the nursing home portion of the hospital.

On August 1, 2006, a new Director of Nursing, DON, arrived, her name was Gwen Hughes. We were told she was an "expert" in geriatric medicine.

Instead of using physical restraints which the CEO on tape had said was "recently" changed (the laws were not changed I verified) the new DON began a campaign for the use of psychotropics, or what they call "chemical restraints."

She was part of a team which included the doctor who managed the nursing center and ER, DR. Hoshang Pormir, who at one time was a friend. This team also had a pharmacist, but the pharmacist was told to answer to the DON.

Three people died in the nursing center in those only six months. Actually, that's not complete, that's only what they caught at the attorney general's office. I interviewed many nurses and the state would not listen, they have created their own case. (I'll leave that part for later as Mr. Jerry Brown and I have to talk and soon)

There were more deaths, and I've heard rumors of a class action lawsuit, to add to the others which are mounting at this point. Four more lawsuits were in the closed session portion of this months regular board meeting.

The defendants will be seen Oct. 15 to answer to charges but I'm afraid Matt that the state who screwed up this case and bad, may try to plea deal these three. The pharmacist took a deal to squeal and she has every right as she was a scapegoat. It took me nine months of kicking and screaming before they brought in the CEO, but they finally did.

It's insane and a much longer story, but this gives you a background. But it's not over...

We have the latest CEO and they left the criminal CFO behind to purge the hospital of its money, going again after a general obligation bond, but they have tried to hide from us what this now 22.7 million dollar property tax bailout is really about.

I went to elections and am the argument against the measure, Measure G, it's now called. I also rebutted their argument in favor, but I did something extreme, I named every representative who did nothing to help, including Jerry Brown and Cal Mtg. along with local representatives and law enforcement.

I'm about to lash out at the county as I found out just yesterday that my and others complaints to the grand jury in 2007 were never thoroughly investigated by anyone.

And when I found myself holding a fake contract several months ago, I called the grand jury. This person told me how to lay out a white collar crime case as that is what lead to the elder abuse charges. Though I think it should be murder and will make a point of that after I get more info.

Phew! There you go in a nutshell.

www.kernvalleyhospital.blogspot.com/

Also, we have a YouTube sight which is going to be built up soon, (I think there are over 50 shorts) but you can find the address on the KVHD under fire site above or simply go to YouTube and try the search, "Ask Bob Jamison" and you can see that they were angry when I caught them with their elder abusing pants down.

There has been bullying, harassment, death threats and I had the luxury of having a gun pointed at me. Gosh am I getting to something or what?


Laura Hart