However, the two board members not in the majority have stuck by this valley even under attack. AT the last board meeting in Oct. 2008, the chairman of the board was yelling at a public speaker who wanted to tell his story about the cost of CT scans at the hospital. Apparently, the chairman didn't have time to listen to the community because he wanted to truncate the meeting and watch the debates. When the two other board members backed the speaker and asked that he be allowed more time, the board members were reprimanded rather loudly. In fact, the residents of the skilled nursing facility were having their dinner right next door.
Who are the two board members who tried to allow the public to speak? Robert and Kay Knight. They are not part of the entitled three members who have thus far, oh, let me list this stuff for you.
- The Knights were against Measure M which was an ill conceived construction project without a true plan. But the other board members voted to have this valley pay with their property taxes for something that never was viable. (will show you the sketches that were created that show they didn't even have a spot to put a new ER and acute care unit nor did they really know the amount it would cost)
- Also, the Knights voted against using the architecural firm currently being paid by the health care district. There was conflict of interest between this firm and another being used by the hospital.
- This architectural firm was part of the fiasco out at Tehachapi. The firms "pre-fab" units were initially okayed by the Office of Statewide Health Planning, but have since been heavily scrutinized because of budget runovers and other problems. But they still get paid by KVHD. (Until recently, when a new firm was brought in)
- The sticky three, we will call these board members, have used their other positions in the valley to spread their agenda as if it is the only one. The chairman has a job where he was able to use his position to take on board issues and broadcast his opinions to the valley. He also had a blog where he put up offensive materials against the Knights. (I have these blogs and recordings of the radio show)
- The sticky three plus their old leader, not only tried to quash the other board members, but they went after the employees too. When the employees came to the board for discussion they were sent packing. Then in an effort to thwart something good happening, the so-called leaders began pulling out employee files to pressure the very people holding the hospital together. I saw these files, I taped the whole thing.
- On to the Skilled Nursing Facility and it's problems: the hospital CEO and the sticky board members lied two years in a row about the problems that were happening in the SNF.
- The hospital was near closing it's doors to the SNF in 2007 when CMS/DHS came in to investigate some serious complaints. There were penalties that the hospital had to pay in the hundreds and thousands of dollars.
- But did the hospital's top board members try to stop the onslaught of bad news and bad care in the SNF? No. In fact, the owner of a company who handles out of control problems in Skilled nursing facilities, read in the paper what was happening at the hospital. He came to the meeting and gave them his card and they took over the SNF.
- The board members did not seek out help, it came to them and they took it. And boy oh boy did it cost them a pretty penny. The company had to stay for almost a year to get things almost straightened out. But never finished and lost their high paying jobs.
- Only the Knights told the public that there was serious issues in the SNF and they were the only board members willing to talk about the extreme cost issues.
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