She brought her husband in to get a catheter, and Dr. Gregory Crawford, of the Kern Valley Healthcare District, Emergency Room, gave her some bad news: her husband had heart failure.
At a meeting, late last year, the woman pictured below showed up to the tell the board of directors and their management team that this was not so, her husband simply needed a catheter, but they put her and her spouse through "terror." (sounds familiar to me)
Sitting next to the newest board member, David Derr, who was promoted by Dr. Gross owner of Sienna Wellness, this woman said Crawford changed all her husband's medications, which left him with hypo tension, she said, 80/40 blood pressure.
Greg Davis, PA, with the Rural Health Clinic was supposed to have visited their home, after the ER turned into a whole new set of tests, diagnoses, etc. Now, I have never heard of these home visits or how the KVHD administration bills or doesn't bill for such service, but unfortunately, her husband was now back at the hospital.
This time, after she attempted to get him his 'new' medicines from the KVHD retail pharmacy, he was back to the ER being transferred to Memorial Hospital in Bakersfield.
"Now this is ridiculous, I don't know how many tests he ran, but to me that's fraud."
After the trip to Memorial, she told the board, he came back on the "...same medication he was on from the very beginning."
A seemingly concerned, KVHD chairwoman, Victoria Alwin, told her to speak with Tim McGlew, the CEO, as he had an open door policy. And that she could speak to him in "private."
My take on it, was that she wanted attention to the matter in the ER, not a brush off by an administrator. As to the outcome, we know from her perspective, that her husband had to endure a number of new tests, new side effects from medications, a hospital stay, a transfer, and finally back to the medications he was on...not good.
And do they have Medicare? Did Medicare pay to torture this woman and her husband? I sure hope not, as this will be the topic of the month...what's on your bill?
The pharmacist
The pharmacist
Marge Eckman, came to the meeting, steaming mad, as her husband, she said, was given a prescription bottle without critical information on the bottle, as well as having two dosages in one bottle.
She made a "mock" prescription of pills, indicating cotton was used to separate the two different dosages and the pharmacist gave her this bottle to take home.
Her ire was up, as Alwin, AKA, "timer lady" told her she had three minutes to finish her story. Eckman dismissed her with her hand, and kept talking about the SAFETY issues associated with this type of situation. (they don't like this stuff on film as you would suspect)
Once again our CEO, took up the position that he would fix the situation. The pharmacist was "terminated" or something of that nature, we were told, and has not been seen around since that meeting. (See article in the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper, by Susan Barr, regarding all the good things about this former pharmacist)
Here's your prize
After the board was either irritated or dismissive as you can tell from the picture, Dr. Robert Gross DO, rubbing his forehead, his usual demeanor when having to deal with an issue, and Alwin shocked that anyone would go past their three minute limit, Eckman wound up with her husband in the ER.
Marge called me the next month to say that she had been in the ER and met a doctor, the director of the "standby" emergency room, and they were almost like "kin" now. I said, what do you mean?
She told me, he was Armenian or had some Armenian relatives, and they were now "very close." In fact, she was given his cell phone number and told to call him anytime.
I said, "good, call him all the time." She responded, "I have called him three times..." and went on to say he "gave me some good advice."
Mind you, this was before the election, which had "Measure G" in the balance, and those who complained were properly lubricated as the hospital had much money at stake.
I asked Marge, "you didn't cancel your complaint with the board of pharmacy because of his sudden interest in you and your husband's health?"
She repsonded, "No way, I'm not stupid." (And I agree)
Dr. Sacapano, shown here, at a board meeting early in 2010, when he became the "medical director" for the ER.
Sacapano would then be responsible for the actions of the doctors who work for him inside the ER. He would be responsible for their behavior, such as the complaints made by others, such as myself, about doctor's such as Dr. Gregory Crawford, who has probably had at least three complaints go to Tim McGlew through my channels.
Has the ER improved? No. And Dr. Sacapano has to take that seriously if he is to be the "director" or lead in the play.
I want to talk about what happened to me, but now for a reason: It cost taxpayers thousands of dollars for my ER visits, and some of the items on my bills were not even within the realm of my issues.
My issues should have been handled by my regular doctor at Sienna Wellness Clinic, but I ended up at the ER as I was not treated for my "actual" complaints. Visit after visit, call after call, and finally the ER. And the bill for the ER is not only outrageous, but it's "untrue" in certain cases.
Next up: Medicare and Medi-Cal Fraud: it's easy and it's profitable...look there Kamala Harris as Jerry Brown left a mess here at KVHD.
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