Book em' Danno! Or Donno, or I mean, sorry, Donny, Jerry and Steve, our guardians of some California justice

Why not these two?

Now we know if we caught Pam Ott, former CEO of the Kern Valley Healthcare District, charged with eight counts of elder abuse by the state of California, smoking some marijuana, she would be in jail, on "bail" in a jumpsuit, being cursed by board member, and media non-personality, Bob Jamison.

But, because it was a matter of governance, or lack thereof, we seem to have forgiven those who allowed a situation to occur in a hospital and nursing center which may have lead to the demise of residents who knew nothing of the politics which played a role in their care.

I was looking through the California Penal code, for the fun of it, a week or so ago as there are so many laws on the books which could be applied in our case here at KVHD. I sit here this fine Friday afternoon, late for appointments, wondering why there are not at least two more defendants for next week.

We know that there are documents that pertain to the responsibilities of those in charge of the nursing center or any nursing home. The administrator, the leader, is the top dog, according to the district policy and the laws of the state of California.

That should not be questioned.

But our administrator also had a second in command, who knew very well, what was going on. Ott even pointed that finger early in 2006, when Department of Health Services or "Public Health" (thank you, I'm scared already) questioned Ott's credentials.

As has been pointed out on this blog, which has reached an unmanagable 200 posts, (wow, let's celebrate! It took 200 blogs to explain this situation, but only one jury can send the message home) that Ott had help in the cover up.

Let's see the CNO of the time, she definitely knew; the CFO, Chet Beedle, who recently made fools of the board and current administration with his pharmacy analysis, was cutting out more jobs than the mortgage industry, which made for big gaping holes in the staffing, he knew.

And board members, Bob Jamison, Brad Armstrong, and Barbara Casas were either covering for the "leadership lite" administrative nightmare, or they were duped like most of us.

Either way, it's still malfeasance. They should have looked at the records, stopped the cover up, but they, instead, helped Miss Ott out of the "country" off to her new position at Sierra Kings District Hospital which has now met with trials and tribulations under her leadership. They are bankrupting their hospital. (we're just killing our business little by little here at the hands of a CFO, but, let's keep him, pay him, and allow him to continue down this path of fiduciary suicide)

But the CFO, was right in the middle of all of this, taking out personal personnel information to try and keep the employees in their places.

(Yes, we're going to have another holocaust blog for Monday. The first one didn't work out as I was straight out of surgery trying to write it, but now, I'm ready. Are you ready for Mien KVHD?)

How is it that other employees were fired for lesser issues, but, again, the administration gets a break?

Now, the former CNO, who currently works in quality control and the cardiac arrest her departments which were created out of scratch, those medicines off the charts, needs to be addressed in a courtroom.

Thelma and Louise of the SNF, Ott and Sharon Brucker, read reports to the board throughout 2006, with such concern as, "whoops" our patients lost 25 pounds, yes, we need to start weighing them. But only when we can find a way to bring them out without restraints.

Brucker the former CNO, was seen in court last month though, in the audience unfortunately, as Ott took a few minutes to show up and plead not guilty at all, what are you talking about, to the elder abuse charges.

Ott didn't have to post bail, it was all quite streamlined for her, so I asked the Department of Justice, (several times in fact) why she was treated with this "fast track" method of justice.

I have not received a suitable answer or actually any answer. It's not a rhetorical or hysterical question, Scott Gerber, bad boy of PR: I was serious: why would you treat her that way after the evidence shows she had no regard for anyone else, employees, residents of the SNF, or the law itself?

Come on DOJ, serve the "loco" motion

As I said, there are so many laws on the books which could easily be used in this case to make sure, double check, that we got all the people out of there who need to be made an example of for the rest.

Would it be crazy to press these charges? I don't think so. I'm quite certain that even though the DOJ's investigation was late, like me, and the evidence was shredded, and the tapes were lost, (though there were some other tapes made by Ott, which I'm wondering if they have been turned over to the DOJ) there is still evidence.

Maybe you can't get them all on elder abuse charges, but there are other lesser charges, easier to prove that would at least get them out of the hospital so they can't do any more damage. And maybe then, we can heal this place.

But we need felonies as the hospital does not rehire those with felonies on their record.

And you need to take the board members too. Do not let them think they can do this without some sort of slap on the wrist or fanny or something. They knew what was going on: Bob, Brad and Barbara, "the killer B's."

However, politics played a big role in all of this, but the unfortunate element was the residents: they didn't get a vote, on measure M, their staffing, or the drugs a certain nursing director decided to use.

They didn't have a choice, but we do

The residents of the Kern Valley Healthcare District skilled nursing facility didn't know the staffing was cut because there was a need to save money. They didn't know that when they rang their call lights, busy nurses were doing all they could just to keep up with the heavy load dumped on them in 2006 KVHD budget.

The residents also didn't know why the people they had come to love and care about, the nurse's aides, who were pushed beyond the call of duty, were helpless to stop the people at the top. The aides were threatened with licenses and forced to work overtime, and more overtime, sick or well, they had to come in or the nursing center would close.

The residents also did not know why the board of directors so coyly turned away from the employees who tried to blow the damn whistle, but only air and fear came out.

They didn't deserve the disrespect nor did they have any idea what was really going on around them which would lead to such a disaster.

And the families of the residents, how do they feel?

We are now on a new course at the skilled nursing facility, one with more compassion, "more staff", customer service, renewed research into better systems, and a new CCO, Cynthia Burciaga, who is monitoring the situation.

Our new CEO, Tim McGlew, has added a new element as he had the insurance liability carrier, Betagroup, do a risk assessment of the nursing center.

Though we are paying attention now, there was a serious problem for the families who feared for their loved ones in the SNF.

From all the information I have heard and seen, the families had to fight to get information and paperwork. (Yes, the paperwork was delayed, how convenient)

But along with that, they were treated as if they were simple "complainers" in some cases, by the CEO, Ott and even mentioned was CFO, Chet Beedle, whom I accused of this behavior at a recent meeting.

How could the families even watch the video of Bob Jamison calling the tragedy at KVHD, Pam Ott's resignation? I'm sure they felt great that Jamison followed it up by allowing Ott a full hour of radio time to propagate her agenda.

(See posts: Here's your witness Jerry Brown and "Hey Tokyo Rose, where's your Kimono?)

But now we, and I mean the government, the lawyers, the families of victims, the staff, the staff who were fired, the whistleblowers, have to come together and get the truth out there for those who want it, and more so, those who need it to move on from this mess.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, the State of California has sufficient evidence to prove that Pam Ott, the spy, the media attack, the buffer, the number's guy, were part of a cover up of crimes against the residents of the hospital, but not only that, crimes against a community.

Again, we thank you for coming to be our jurors, and we know you will see through the facade, the collusion, to bring the leaders, the corporate administrators and elected board members, to justice for their roles in harming the public and obstructing the investigation.

We know you will be fair and impartial as you hear all the testimony of witnesses and victims of a case which lead to abusing elderly patients for the sake of saving money, (to pay Cal Mtg. I would say that, but they won't), and by the leaders who tried to cover their tracks and scapegoat the little guys. It could have been you, Jane or John juror, you could have been threatened with your job or fired, by an entrenched system of bullying and scapegoating."

That's how I would open my case...You have all that you need to convince a jury full of average folks who probably would not take kindly to hearing about high level, heavily reimbursed, bosses at a public healthcare district who allowed and even prolonged potential elder abuse.

I don't see any problems getting that message across to a jury. Feel free to utilize my little blog here and I've got many other bits of evidence around here at home too. Let's do lunch, then do KVHD...

(I'm trying very hard not to blow a fuse with the uploading problems with the video for Youtube. After three hours on Verizon's DSL, or supposed high speed internet, I managed to load one video last night. It's Chet Beedle though, and you should watch. I don't know what the problem is, maybe I'm competing with Jerry Brown throwing up all his gubernatorial campaign videos on Youtube...I dont' know. I'm still trying though. Aren't I?)