Waiting for the world to change...I'm using the express lane

"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."
Mother Jones

I guess this could be called a memorial for the fallen employees of KVHD. And most certainly for the people who trusted the hospital with their care and care for their loved ones.
Some employees just left before the gunshots were heard when former CEO, and main conspirator in the skilled nursing facility fiasco, Pam Ott resigned in May of 2007.
Ott knew she was cornered, the emails were flying, the Kern Valley Revitalization forum was rocking, and requested SNF manuals were flung out the CEO's door at me. (Whizzing just past my head I might add. Remember that Heidi?)
The newspaper was being pressured, as I was demanding information and answers from an arrogant "public healthcare district" not used to being put on the spot.

I told Ott, "I've got so many knives in my back, all you're hitting is metal," as she took shot after shot at me. The new mantra was that I was trying to take down the district. Just like the Knights.
Funny thing, people were biting on that crap like hungry trout.

Little did I know they were willing to sink to any level to protect themselves...
Well, she and the rest of her gang, took the biggest and best shot at me they could, right through the heart: the employees who knew me or about the SNF were fired, abused, mislead; and I cracked.
The day I took that missile they knew they had me. I dropped hard to the floor: the thud could be heard around the valley.
I cared about all the people who were helping in the initial investigation, who were taking care of their families, just trying to do their job, and these criminals didn't give a damn about anyone but themselves. It was the most dismal display of cover your own ass I have ever seen.
The shock of learning in the first place that people I thought I could trust were the very slime which was and is the rotten core of KVHD was tough enough. Then watching from the floor as they walked all over everyone, scapegoating as they went along, I knew I had to get back up, somehow.

There is a ninth inning, and I'm now up at bat. And I've got my Louisville Slugger with me. And I'm a great curveball hitter now too.
Before I came back in the game I made sure that everyone on my team never admitted to knowing me, liking me, or certainly talking to me.
(Actually, Chet Beedle, CFO, had the employees certain they were next on the hit list if they talked to me or about me. My wounds were not tended in the emergency room out of employee paranoia. I don't blame them, they were just trying to keep their jobs in a town where the hospital rates as number one employer.)
People in the community who have been my supporters were equally warned by me not to admit to knowing the likes of me. That way I get good information about what is really being said and going on. And I had to make sure I was covered and nobody got hurt, again.
Now, there's no more fooling around. Let me explain.
That's it!
When my parrot is out roaming she often finds some way to get into trouble. I correct her only so many times before the final words, "that's it."
She knows immediately I'm completely serious and her bad deeds will now come to an end: she gets a time out in her cage.
So, I'm telling you Beedle/Ott gang, I'm done correcting, "that's it."
If anyone thinks I'm not serious then you will be sideswiped. This last meeting was only a small taste of what I'm capable of and now you're going to have to just guess what's coming next.

And Pam Ott I'm not done with you either. I'll see you in court and hopefully at your own trial.
Our government oversight officials shouldn't count out some face time with me as I'm tired of writing and asking them to do what they are supposed to be doing. We will bring our cameras with us too. Pictures are just plain fun.

Don't forget this is a public healthcare district, and I plan on giving it back to the public, warts and all. (Former board member, JoAnn Jones, angry with me, said in an email: why don't you just use a match and burn it down. (The hospital.) JoAnn, did you not know about the advent of lighters? And I will use mine to light the fireworks only; ooh, pretty.)
First you clean the wound then you stitch it up otherwise you've got a puss problem. KVHD has a puss problem.
Does the new leadership have the back bone for this? There's some heavy lifting required.
People say, "Rome wasn't built in a day," and the grand canyon took years of natural erosion to create. I say, Rome was a "Pre-fab" and the grand canyon took a week with a Catepiller tractor.
I know there are so many of you out there "waiting for the world to change." I'm here to tell you I'm tired of waiting...

Board meeting pix 2 July: full report this week

Dr. Finstad, it was an observation I made about the way the public was being informed of their concerns at the hospital. I thought it was funny, but it was not intended to put you on the spot.

Part Two: After the lashing I gave Bob Jamison, Brad Armstrong and Chet Beedle, discomfort was palpable in the cafeteria. My unseasonably warm attitude was still hanging in the air after Dr. Finstad's report, so he may have thought my comment was directed at him.

People report to me on their visits to the hospital giving me details of their care. A woman whose children were ill with high fevers even to the point of vomiting blood, asked a nurse if there were any cases of swine flu here. He said no. And she asked them if they tested for it, and he said, no. It seemed so obviously ridiculous that I thought it was funny.

Dr. Gross ended up answering the question saying they had tested sample type groups and there were no cases here. He went on to say there was a stomach virus going around.

But what wasn't said by me was that nurses were understaffed that night in the ER and the other nurses were tired and exasperated, to the point of saying they couldn't take it anymore.

I let the other reports from the listeners who go to this hospital slide, because we all should now know, there are serious problems which our new administrators must address.

There was let loose, so I shall join in a bit, that the personnel policies were still dated back to 1991. I knew that, as I have most of them right at my fingertips.

So, that is why when, board counsel, Scott Nave, explained the chain of command to us school kids, I believe at the March meeting, I couldn't find it anywhere written the way he explained it.

The seriousness of this is overwhelming to fathom really.

Moving right along, this hospital cannot pay for contracts and contractors which it has no money for. Where has the reinvestment been? There has been money scattered around like sprinkles off a box of doughnuts.

For instance, Administrative assistant Heidi Sage was voted

"employee of the year" last year, and recieved a two week trip to the Bahamas. That's a heck of a deal there.

Rick Carter was getting lunches and parking paid and a 19% raise.

The nursing registry costs went off the charts when I was just told

that in Bakersfield there are nurses to spare.

$100 pizza expenses were paid out in the skilled nursing facility. (You know Chet they have a $5 deal in town)

Heidi Sage, shown here, during the uncomfortable portion of the meeting.(Nobody is comfortable around a proctologist; and my job is much the same)

But apparently everything has been quite comfortable financially around the hospital as employees were flown to the Bahamas?

Mr. Jamison, an outspoken critic of everyone, but a chosen few sycophants, has played his games on the local radio stations here for a long time. He's attacked people on the air, and everyone has so far let him get away with it.

So, I've decided that the record at the hospital shall be set straight three minutes at a time, once a month. (You might want to eat light before you come to the meeting

)

Since Mr. Jamison enjoys talking, I'll start off August by reading his emails directly into the record verbatim. Then I will read all the evidence into the record each month until it finally reflects what really happened.

Bob Jamison at a loss for words? I doubt it, but I have a lot of his words and I will put them on the Kern Valley Healthcare District record which will be read for years to come.

This record will never be cleared.

Picture of Chet Beedle kissing our money good bye.

The last time the cafeteria was painted, a former employee and her family painted it for free and purchased the paint. Did they get a trip to the Bahamas? No. But now she doesn't have a job. Nice.

And finally, until, the rest of the story comes along, a picture of Mr. Armstrong, which just playing with his name, I would call him Mr. Strongarm. I called him a bully, arrogant, and he showed me nothing that indicated I wasn't right on target.

Armstrong timed my whole criticism on a watch or timer, as I ran over the three minute rule. I'm so bad for breaking the three minute rule, apparently its the most important thing to Mr. Armstrong. Other rules, well, they can be tossed aside at his leisure.

Well, Brad, you're over the 20 year rule, maybe we should put term limits in the by-laws, retroactively too!

Every month at the meeting we can talk about this and you can glare at me. You bring the popcorn and I'll bring the pain.

Truly, the emperor has no clothes. (sorry about the proctology crack. oops)