Former Kern Valley Healthcare District CEO, Pamela Ott, shown here during the May 2007 KVHD board meeting, where she stepped down as CEO amidst troubles in the skilled nursing facility which lead to elder abuse criminal charges being filed against her two months ago in September.
Ott left KVHD while the nursing center was being threatened with closure, and civil lawsuits were being filed against the district. (No, she wasn't fired by KVHD, but was aided and abetted by the former "sticky three" board members, who sent her off to their friends from Aspen Street Architects, with letters of recommendation.)
She then went on to Sierra Kings District Hospital a month later, being hired on as CEO, with a resume containing suspicious educational degrees originating from a "diploma mill" or unaccredited program, which KVHD overlooked and so did Sierra Kings.
Reedley rids itself of Ott
When Ott was charged two months ago by the state of California, Department of Justice, Medi-Cal and elder abuse, and Board of Registered Nursing, with eight counts of elder abuse, the Sierra Kings District Board of Directors put her on unpaid administrative leave.
The former President of the Sierra Kings board, Trish Johnson, said that the board was not aware of why Ott was going to court at the time, and that the whole issue was a surprise to her. (More research of her resume would have probably lessened the surprise factor.)
Johnson said the board would wait until the November hearing to make a final decision on Ott's status with the district.
The criminal court hearings, which took place last week, resulted only in a continuance for Ott and the two other remaining defendants, Dr. Hoshang Pormir and Gwen Hughes, RN, until Jan. 5, as they all waived their rights to a "speedy preliminary hearing."
While Ott prepared for court last week, the Sierra Kings hospital board of directors, at their regular monthly meeting, made the decision, and terminated the former CEO who will be facing criminal charges as well as several civil lawsuits occurring during her leadership at KVHD.
Human resources fiasco
As I mentioned above, both the Kern Valley Healthcare District and Sierra Kings Distirct, hired on Ott with her fish market, fishy resume, work history and educational degrees. (there are several posts on the blog relating to this topic, as well as Ott's actual resume.)
Imagine that this document, the copy I have was used at KVHD, was seen and reviewed by many people in the chain of command, which makes this another "system failure" as Ott described the state of the nursing center in 2007.
There have been many people arguing recently about how the poor victims in the human resources department have their hands tied by the state and cannot do a full background check.
Maybe so, if you put no work into it at all. However, Ott's resume was so obvious that anyone reading it could have caught it and questioned it, it would have taken all of five minutes to look the degrees up on the Internet.
There is no excuse for this. All who were involved in the hiring of Ott as CEO should be fired, sued, or thrown off the board of directors. (By the way, if Ott is currently job hunting, I would recommend to a potential employer to: READ THIS BLOG FIRST, then decide. Here's your background check and it wasn't free, we all paid the price.)Yes, Ott was the tragedy, but certainly not her resignation
Crazy as it sounds, after the threat of closing the nursing center, the cries for help from the employees, the new drug regimen, KVHD board member, Bob Jamison called Ott stepping down, "a tragedy that didn't have to happen."
Yelling and threatening, Jamison, made it clear that the only problem at KVHD was the media reporting there was a problem at KVHD. He and Ott even threatened libel suits to put the finishing touches on their story.
Jamison, who is the only person at the local radio outlet, QAB media, who can work the engineering for the stations (which allows him great influence over the owners,) engineered a plan to have Ott on the radio to explain what happened at the nursing center. He dedicated a whole hour of radio time to deny the seriousness of the problems and to offer sad excuses to go along with the lies. (See: Here's your witness Jerry Brown to read the transcript of the show)
Jamison was not alone in his grief for Ott and her departure, the two fellow board members, known as the "sticky three," Brad Armstrong and Barbara Casas, were more concerned with Ott's resignation than the meltdown of the hospital.
Brad Armstrong and Barbara Casas, openly attack the community in response to Ott's resignation. Bob Knight, at the right of the picture, tried to warn the other board members and community of the problems, but was not taken seriously because of personal attacks.
But did Jamison, Casas, and Armstrong also help Ott get the job she just lost at Sierra Kings District, by providing references? (If I were Sierra Kings and didn't want to look as ridiculous as they do here for hiring Ott, I would get out those letters of reference and march them down to an attorney who might know what to do about it.)
Again, the onus of responsibility comes down from the top. Even if none of these people ever touched a resident of the nursing center or knew their names, they created an environment of fear and dishonesty, which lead to the system failure or whatever term you want to call it, which hurt residents, families, and the future of this hospital, and in turn the future of this community.
That kind of authoritarian leadership created a hostile environment inside that hospital, where many people were threatened with termination, hours cut, pay cuts, licenses reported; anything to keep employees from questioning the administrators and their board member cohorts.
(Hitler never put one single person on a train to a concentration camp. He didn't have to do the dirty work; it was the environment of fear he created that lead people to do things they would not normally do or agree with. )
As Ott resigned in May 07, she gave the board thirty days notice, meaning she may have stepped down that night at the meeting, but she had thirty more days in power and some cleaning up to do.
Ott's last thirty, dirty days at KVHD
The day after her resignation, several employees found themselves facing the firing squad, Human Resources Manager, Michelle Rosado. (Rosado left shortly after Ott in 07)
Rosado wasted no time in getting those out of the hospital who could be a threat to the cover up of the nursing center which had been ensuing for months.
Anyone who knew me, was immediately suspect. Employees told me they were ordered to "never" talk to me. My medical care suffered as a consequence.
There was no compassion as I got phone calls from distraught staff with stories of being thrown out of their offices without time to even gather all of their things.
They were ordered off the property. The paranoid administrators then turned to another tactic and that was to try and hold up unemployment claims and people trying to retrieve money from their vacation, sick time, and retirement accounts.
Next was the insurance issue, as terminated employees were scrambling to hang onto their health insurance, they were told, like in most cases, the only option was the COBRA policy, which was overpriced, especially for the recently jobless.
So, the stress continued as Ott blamed the terminations on the nursing home management company, Sycamore Asset Management Company, who came in via Ott and the board. (I've got this on tape Sycamore...?)
Sycamore was given carte blanche to do what they had to do to pull the SNF out of possible closure, and they were handed on a silver platter, a time and materials contract, to do it with.
The board and the financial officer, Chet Beedle, allowed this company to charge almost two million dollars, for their services, which did not end the woes of the nursing center. There was no due diligence in that decision, and currently hurts the hospital which barely has five days cash on hand.
(We could use that money now. Where's Pam Ott? Would she be willing to pay our fines and the tab for Sycamore? We need the money back Pam.)
Two board members and dozens of employees tried to get thru the bulwark, Robert and Kathryn Knight, reported the CEO, but in the end, all the propaganda and defamation kept the truth buried, until now. (see blog post: Urban legend, revelation and responsibility)
Firing can be a good thing though
I think ridding yourself of employees who are irresponsible, lacking in skills, lying on their resumes, pretending not to know about criminal activity, engaging in criminal activity, showing no compassion, invading private employee information, is a really good idea.
But that's not what happened at KVHD.
In fact, people were fired for no good reason on many occasions. But the ones who were doing the things I described above, many of them are still getting a paycheck from our public healthcare district every month.
And one of the people, actually, as has been posted in this blog, invaded the privacy of two employees without recourse. He also misled the board members on many financial decisions. He was involved in a nasty dispute regarding a health clinic which ended up requiring our favorite players, attorneys.
But he's still there. Even with new board members, who should be wary of everything this person claims and says, there has been no real action to change the situation.
How can you fire people for no reason, and not fire those for a good reason?
Can KVHD make any sense of this themselves? I cannot.
If the board and administrators truly want what is best for this district and this hospital and ultimately the community's survival, then they should take their job's seriously, and make the tough calls.
To do this they must cast off any doubt or fear that they will be criticized or even lose a few admirers, when they get around to doing what is right. (it's been long awaited, trust me)
Correct the imbalances; create a new environment of participation and honesty; and rid us of the past crimes against this community.
She doesn't have a bunker
Here we are more than two years later and the Sierra Kings District Hospital is doing what we at KVHD should have done: fire Ott.
Sierra Kings is not without its own problems, as the former President of the board, was recently asked to step down by members of the community, as the hospital has filed for bankruptcy and questions about the origin of these problems still plague the residents.
Trish Johnson, did not step down as a board member, but rather a wishy washy stance was taken and she slipped into another chair, and now is no longer in a leadership position on the board, yet still a board member.
I don't think that move will satisfy the people in Reedley though, as they are willing to take up signs, speak out and walk in front of the hospital, with regard only for the community, not themselves or reputations.
I have asked repeatedly that Bob Jamison and Brad Armstrong admit their mistakes and step down from the board. I am not the only one who believes this would be best for our community: I just happen to be the only one willing to say it.
The Valley of Fear
We live in a valley of fear, as we're prone to ignore problems for the sake of our standing in the community. There are people here who would throw you under the bus in a heartbeat if it made them look better or kept them out of trouble.
I've seen that happen at this hospital over the last few years, and it is indeed sickening.
Pam Ott fed off of this environment, that is how she was able to escape responsibility for two years, and even get a couple of awards from the Association of California Healthcare Districts, ACHD, before the law caught up with her.
Bob Jamison and Brad Armstrong must believe that by stepping down from the board and allowing progress to the scene, that would somehow diminish them and their previous power.
Realize this: these two board members get little money to do what they do (which these days is nothing); they do get healthcare insurance with the district; but all in all it's not a paying job, it's a service.
And boy oh boy did they serve up quite a dish for us: colluding with each other, allowing criminal activity, engaging in criminal activity, ignoring serious and deadly problems, hiring unqualified CEO's, and yet they are still here. (It boggles the mind)
They will never have their power back, the way it was when Ott and Beedle reigned as King and Queen.
Jamison and Armstrong stay because they are not strong enough to leave. It's that simple. There is strength in character, so that answers our questions.
Final thoughts
I'm sure there will be some happy people out there who believe that Pam Ott is now getting what she deserves: what comes around goes around, they say.
I don't blame them a bit as Ott showed no compassion toward anyone, and that lack of sentiment was followed by her followers, Ott's gang. (See post: Ma's gang)
The finale may not be the way we would like it as the state of California, Department of Justice, maybe hoping to escape the trial and go for the plea bargains.
But if we can save this hospital from itself at this point, and survive the immoral and unethical years, then we can be proud of ourselves.
We have a serious situation coming from every direction at the healthcare district, as it is weakened to the point of considering even to close down a pharmacy used by residents utilizing the local district services or simply living on the south side of the lake.
If they can't run a pharmacy, how can these people run a whole healthcare district?
Is this not a model of ineffective financial planning, development, and certainly financial advice?
We have become the Kern Valley Public "thrift store" District, as the auxiliary manages to have continued success financially, and a construction project which went without a hitch, and was fully completed.
The Auxiliary, an all volunteer crew, manage to keep this district running, providing money for the rehab on the aging buildings, and rundown or nonexistent equipment. Umm, since they're paying for everything, they should be invited in on the discussion of how to run the pharmacy.
We will have more on the pharmacy soon. Please know that the employees left at the gutted pharmacy are trying their best to get your order, and that they do not have the power to change the situation. If you want to complain, talk to the man who is in charge of finance, CFO, Chet Beedle. 760-379-2681, press O, and ask for Chet.
And thank you, Sierra Kings, for setting a strong example of community teamwork, involvement, to deal with situations such as we have at our relative healthcare outlets. You have filed for bankruptcy and now have divested yourselves of Ott, whereas we should bankrupt, and fire the left over players from the Ott regime.
And also a thank you goes out to the woman (I didn't get her name, but I will) from the Board of Registered Nursing, who in court last week, asked the judge that Ott be required to check in with the agency before taking on a leadership position in any new employment she may get.
(In September when she was initially charged, Ott was not required to post bail, spent no time in jail or a jumpsuit, and her only stipulation was that she could not hold a leadership position in a hospital with a nursing center. Oh, the inequity of these decisions.)
The judge denied the board of nursing's request, but the fact that she persisted and may really understand, unlike the judge, what Ott is capable of, makes her diligent in her pursuit of justice. (Remember, I posted the email where Ott again misrepresents her credentials even further past her resume, and tells me she was a nurse practitioner. She was offering to help me as I had become ill, which was truly timed in her favor. That should be reason enough right there to keep an eye on Miss Ott.)
More to follow...
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