Playing games with my heart....and yours...KVHD under Fire

Perusing the new Kern Valley Healthcare District "Strategic Plan" (rolling eyes)

I had a some time on my hands along with a strip of tape clinging to my spine this week, so I decided to begin reading the newest strategic plan opened to the public at a special meeting where the administrators at KVHD rushed to bring the plan in under the necessary time frame for those grant monies which were doled out in an interesting arrangement.

Since it was such exciting material I jumped from the table of contents straight to the new pain management section of what I will call the "high hopes and low IQ" report as the irony of this is too funny not to tell you about.

Now the hospital claims to have both an ER and a "skilled" nursing facility, but that is rather a tall order to fulfill those needs. KVHD Skilled nursing amounts to nothing more than an average nursing home can offer.

In the ER you have little in the way of services, or as the locals call it, "the band aid station" and there have been complaints, and remarks on varying sites and in the newspapers, about the "drug seekers" who consume all the time from those who are sober, non-smoking or swearing citizens, waiting patiently for the doctors to get people "high."

The irony begins in that we have an ER where the doctors and staff are so blatantly "anti-pain medication" that I can only laugh at their inability to see their own hypocrisy.

I mean if they really think this a problem rather than defaming and harassing patients, why not speak up and tell your board and manager that there should not be "pain care" here...then add your justifications at the end. (oh that's right, there are some pesky laws about caring for people's pain and not causing aggravated conditions.)

This really is an important issue we must begin to address truthfully and openly, and if you have pain management, I suggest, you begin getting a new bond to build the drug rehab center you will need when those drugs come floating out onto our streets and into the schools and you find them in your kids sock drawer.

Having pain management would be a risky business as the hospital has heard complaint after complaint about doctors and nurses in it's own ER, what would they do with a new contingent of drug addicts?

Taking most pain killers means risking addicting your mind and body to chemicals, which is a decision which should be made with ALL educational information included.

Trust me, this is not how pain management clinics are being operated, I like to call them "legal crackhouses."

A bright young man in the rehab business said they are seeing more and more average people coming in to try and get off medications that they did not know would become problematic.

Chronic pain is tricky business and takes a doctor of some worth to work out the details, keep it safe, offer options outside of simply prescribing pain killers which is what most of them are doing, and to no surprise they are doing well financially. Customers surprisingly come back again and again.

Actually, KVHD CEO, Tim McGlew, told me about the pain management in January at my bedside shortly after I stopped screaming. I'm sure he will tell us all about it, the addict profit margin, which is the bottom line they snort over there you know.

There are times for medications and times for vacations

The pharmaceutical market is flooded with pain medications, new ones, such as one I tried, called Exogal. It was really fun, as I slept the day away getting nothing done. This was not what I needed and did not fit my pain level or my health issues, or my disability.

Pain is not an easy situation even for a doctor to understand, but it comes with its own side effects. Pain can lead to stress on the body and mind, which we know can lead to any amount of ailments.

Exagol is one of many variations of addictive medicines that are to be used at a "HOSPITAL" and not bought from a strung out pharmacy tech or from someone's grandmother's medicine cabinet.

There are many people out there who are in pain, not catching your toe on the coffee table, but passing a bowling ball type of pain, or a broken bone, nerve damage, things that not everyone can relate to and understand, these are serious, on-going problems, which usually involve complex health issues.

Bringing compassion to a person in pain is usually a natural response in normal human beings, however, this is KVHD, and we have to maybe look at why they have become the hardened rocks who think giving out a dose of pain killer to someone in pain is encouraging addiction.

They are obviously not trained

And I've noted that there needs to be serious discussion, not just Obama talk, but real information on how these pain medications, or any others for that matter are to be used and in the most functional way.

If you are nauseous they give you an anti-nausea medicine in the ER. Why? Because this is uncomfortable and it could cause other issues such as dehydration.

What these doctors and staff are failing to gather is that this is the same thing, except that it has to be done without prejudice but obviously with some judgment.

And who can you count on for good judgment? KVHD and a pain clinic? No, I don't think so.

There are so many other things to repair

Before KVHD sails off on the Titanic plan with their "high hopes" they have much that they could do better already, but unfortunately the long run of mismanagement, petty infighting, bullying, registry costs, inbred contracting and the financial catastrophe, have prevented this district from becoming what it had the potential to become.

As we used to say in baseball, it's the fundamentals, and we practiced rigorously until the moves were seamless because we cared about our performance. KVHD has not gotten the basics, they are illiterate to the needs of the community, openly hostile to patients and employees, and now they want to manage more responsibility such as the comfort and well being of pain management patients, or as they say in the ER, "Junkies," "Drug seekers," "crackheads."

Can I see your license please?

First, where does this ER get off supposedly trying to treat my heart condition when they can't fix a broken arm?

Second, umm, why didn't I get told I had a heart condition? There are serious problems with the records, and now the government is pushing money at the electronic records which certainly would help...but somebody still has to gather the information and get it to the patient in time for early detection which costs less both in terms of money and health.

Which in my case, and others who have been sharing information, is a problem they are not even aware of or actively correcting. One person told me she had a test revealed to her after THREE YEARS that she had a gastric issue, which now may require surgery. Go KVHD!

I'm sure the average person can see the danger and the outcome is never in favor of the patient. The law has insured that doctors will not have to incur high costs for liability insurance, so their "service" is unlike normal business practices in that they are allowed to get away...with anything.

The Keystone Cardiologists from the KVHD ER


(pulse and oxygen saturation Saturday, October 8. 2011: I NEED MY NARCAN, Tom, Phil, and the KVHD cardiology team...lead by Dr. Suckapiano)

As I sat reading the latest in KVHD propaganda, or as they call it, the strategic plan, I could hear the thumps in my chest, the very same symptom on the day that KVHD should have killed me, but accidentally left me alive, and I'm kind of grouchy about it too.

Next week I will be given the tests to see if I have to actually go through and have a pacemaker implanted which if it is the proper solution, I will hope I can have it done. Since this recent medical find out of the "KVHD X files" (also known as our medical records) was only uncovered in the last month which is criminal really, I have to begin the tour I should have made last year: to the proper doctors.

It has been a lot to consider that in one visit to the ER at KVHD, that I now face something I had no idea I would be facing at this age.

The only thing about it, is that it at least makes sense this time.

The new KVHD ER threat

What they did in that ER to me was the new threat at the KVHD ER. The doctors were not treating my heart condition that they themselves only knew about, but they treated a drug overdose which wasn't there with a medication called Narcan which is usually just uncomfortable to a reviving overdose victim, but to a heart patient with autoimmune, the response was chest pains, screaming, and stress to my heart.

So, the question becomes, why if this was the proper treatment, did they stonewall me, and not tell me what medication or treatment I was being given? The craven nurse would not even make eye contact.

And secondarily, this is not the treatment for bradycardia, let me be clear, it is a treatment for overdose victims who are in respiratory distress, unconscious, I was driving, walking and talking, until they sure showed me.

Pain management patients need to avoid the KVHD ER until future notice as this is a potentially dangerous practice, as Narcan is usually not a problem if there is a drug overdose, but when it's given to a person who has other or unknown illnesses, it can be harmful. Never allow KVHD to give medications without consent, and if they are unwilling to tell you or write it down for you...RUN!

Danger, either these doctors and nurses purposefully sent me on a injurious, torturous trip, or they are...quacks. I think we need to do some research after we heard our former, suing us, hugging us, surgeon, who came up with a few background issues a patient should be privy to prior to seeking his services.

It's time to see their credentials first: all trust gone

I say, we had Pam Ott's diploma mill credentials, Chet Beedle's amazing resume where he is three places at once, the DON of the SNF not quite all credentials, and this is a public service district, where we have a right to know if the hospital is continuing its practice of hiring people with suspicious backgrounds, or affiliated with someone's friends.

Focus and Execute this blight on the valley

Oh yes, I did get to see the number one strategic plan and you all know what it is, c'mon blog readers, you're smarter, faster and stronger, than other simple consumers...it's a, a, a, GOB!

How did those clever folks over at CCAHN, the new game in town with some old faces, ever come up with that one?

Right, we should pay them tax money, as Chet Beedle, leaves a losing game of playing hospital administrator, he gets the prize of a nice retirement he is currently telling friends and colleagues about his eminent departure from the nasty sore he has left in this valley. His legacy of bogus budgets, lying to creditors, breaking promises, berating employees, will leave a bad taste, even as bad as Cal Water, in our mouths for years to come.

With a decade of Beedle's strung out financial planning, we are currently just that: out of money and time. But don't worry about Chet he's very well vested, more so than anyone else.

The jokes on us and our health

If we as members of this community had taken it upon ourselves to look past all their names on the agenda, their contracts, and truly see that we have not put up a healthcare district to be proud of, but a den of iniquity to be ashamed of. The nurse I met in Bakersfield put it best:

"Oh, I live in Lake Isabella too." He said as he wheeled me out the automatic doors of the hospital.
Of course, being who I am, I responded, "then why are you working down here?"
He put it about as good as it gets, "I did work there 25 years ago, but the administration was so corrupt that I didn't want to have anything to do with it. And nothing has changed."

There's some truth for you...the same conditions exist now which lead to the encumbrance of the community's tax dollars those 25 years ago. Without changing the conditions, we will end up feeding every finance company who eagerly claims they can help us.

(We probably even have a reverse mortgage now that I may have missed on the consent agenda...)

The hospital has been eaten away at as if it were covered in termites. This is not a matter of a few mistakes, this is an ailing hospital, stalked by predators in the healthcare industry who know how to profit from these situations. Such as management companies...BRIM....Sycamore Management Company (via a Beedle email) who keep coming up with the same bail out proposition: "big money" as Chet calls the GOB.

But big money, actually any money, is spent recklessly without regard for the owners of the district: us.

Sycamore left with MILLIONS and the owner told me he obtained the contract simply by looking in the newspaper and finding the hospital nursing center was at the point of closure, immediate jeopardy. There's some literal ambulance chasing.

In white collar crime there is a pattern to be established, and I think after a quarter of a century we can now see the pattern, but have "yet" to conquer it.

(Next architectural drawings we paid 10K for last year and probably will again. But we may get help through old chum, David Yarborough, former owner of Aspen Street Architects, who happens to be doing a very similar expansion to his ER at Gridley Memorial.
Yes, Mr. Yarborough, who worked with KVHD on it's seismic plans for several years, is now the CEO, of Gridley, and brought on his former company Aspen Street to help him on his project. Gosh, it's so good to be back together again...sharing ideas, strategic plans, and money. Soon Caldwell, Flores and Winters will rejoin, excuse me, continue their active contract... And it was all Tim McGlew's doing. Thanks Tim.)