KVHD News: State Medical board rules on Dr. Hoshang Pormir

The State Medical Board in action

According to the Medical board of California, former Kern Valley Healthcare District physician, Dr. Hoshang Pormir, currently charged in the hospital's elder abuse case, has had a ruling in his case with the state's investigation into negligence involved with the nursing center at the rural hospital during 2006 and 2007.

Documents from the Medical Board show that Pormir has been given two years probation and limits on his scope of practice such as having a "solo practice" or working with the elderly, were amongst his limitations.

http://www2.mbc.ca.gov/LicenseLookupSystem/PhysicianSurgeon/document.aspx?path=\DIDOCS\20110815\DMRAAADE2\&did=AAADE110815170725193.DID&licenseType=A&licenseNumber=49827

What about the elder abuse trial?

With the quietly revealed probation and restrictions on one of the three defendants in the KVHD elder abuse case, we still have a trial date for March 12, 2012, at the Kern County Superior court.

Not that a plea bargain can't be reached, as they sometimes wait until the very last moment to cut a deal and avoid a trial which could be a greater risk than taking a lesser sentence.

As of the last reports, Dr. Pormir, along with fellow defendants, former KVHD CEO, Pamela Ott, and the former Director of Nursing, Gwen Hughes, still face criminal charges as well as civil cases waiting in the wings as this case may be overshadowed by new cases coming to light out of the public healthcare district.

With a growing list of cases against the hospital in civil court, and several cases emanating from the skilled nursing facility mismanagement, KVHD faces great financial losses in the coming months and years, which could turn out to be the death knell for the ailing hospital.

The community has recently been alerted that the first thing on KVHD's list of "stratragic" planning which was revealed at a special meeting so the community to join in, has a new tax measure at the top of the list.

More vanilla ice cream and a community that is expected to pull the hospital out of debt, which may be impossible with the upcoming legal cases. A letter to the editor of the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper from a former KVHD backer, and a long time volunteer, was turned down by the hospital as she fell after a meeting and broke her teeth.

The angry sounding letter, seemed more disappointed than anything else, but it seems the hospital can dish it out, but won't pay for it, and according to the author, asked that her dentist give a discount.

With the hospital unable to make its monthly payments to debt insurer, Cal Mtg., they stagger on with ideas which would have worked years ago, but with no circumspection, the hospital faces major hurdles, and one of which is convincing unhappy customers to come back to a hospital which cannot provide worthy or adequate healthcare. And then pay some more property taxes too.

Who is William H. Ginsburg?

After a few reactions to the Medical boards' decision with Dr. Pormir, most were shocked by the seemingly "light penalty" which includes a 40 hour course and payment for the classes.

But Dr. Pormir, who has had several different attorneys since the elder abuse charges were brought against him, one being Donald Etra, somewhat famous for his work with celebrities, and his visit with George Bush in the White House.

However, the attorney who is listed as handling the Medical board case, is William Howard Ginsburg, someone sounding familiar, but most don't remember that a young, Monica Lewinsky, and a President, Ginsburg was handling Lewinsky.

These are big attorneys who have been around and know the right people, and so far, this is the first of the cases being handled by the state agency, Consumer rights, Nursing board, so there will be more information to come soon.

Dr. Pormir still has some mountains to climb, but it seems he is being helped by some top notch attorneys, though he has recently had to change to another attorney, financial problems being the reason, he still must face elder abuse charges.

Hughes was first to bankrupt, as the hospital's liability insurance does not cover criminal matters, and then Pormir and Ott claimed hardship and have been assigned attorneys by the court, while Hughes has a public defender.

With money short for years at KVHD, since the late 1980's when they failed to complete an expansion, and have had an anchor around their credit for 22 plus years. However, the actual costs will never be accounted for in anyway, be it the patients who were mistreated or harmed, the suspicious deaths, the management company costs, the losses to overpriced contractors, the contract with debt insurer Cal Mtg. which keeps costing more and doing nothing.

Why did HFS come in to help with a default, chosen by KVHD CFO, Chet Beedle, and then they are not finished with the job, because as board member, Dr. Gross DO, claimed they left "giant holes" in the report which were corrected by the CFO in the finance committee? What was the point of spending more, as these pennies have added up to millions, and this debt is owned by the community.

You do have power but you have to care

But there are several things this community could do to take back this hospital district and we will discuss this shortly.

We could vote a tax for the hospital, but then they haven't exactly helped us, so that may not be the answer. We don't know where the money goes, the community had to catch a 75K error: what's wrong with that picture?

We could also vote out the whole district and start over. We could also vote to take our tax money back from the district until they clean out the parasitic practices and conflict of interest.

There's oversight that the county of Kern could have sent in a long time ago, assigned someone to the hospital. No, we have seen no action on the part of the county or it's representatives to shift control so that there is transparency finally forced on the part of KVHD and it's partner, Cal Mtg.

What do you want to do? Class action lawsuit? Bring in the feds to use the much underused, ROC laws, also known as the "should have known" laws. This would bring the mice out of the woodwork, the employees too frightened to lose their jobs would have to speak up or be charged as they "should have known."

Just a thought, what about you, have any thoughts?