It Swings at Sierra Kings...
I must say I do enjoy reading the Reedley Exponent, a small town "news" paper with a little bite left in it. (internet newspaper, which I like)
Of course, readers of this blog have come to know Reedley and Sierra Kings District Hospital as the hide out for elder abuse charged, former, local CEO, Pamela Ott.
After Ott hit the road in 2007, skidding out of the way of the SWAT team on it's way into our beloved Kern Valley Healthcare District, attempting a rescue or an investigation, but Ott got up the road a ways to Sierra Kings in Reedley.
Still noted in state Department of Justice criminal charges as a witness, Ott, stayed on at Sierra Kings, utilizing the same architects we saw here at KVHD, Aspen Street.
Aspen Street which never lifted a piece of lumber onto our hallowed grounds in the Kern River Valley, managed to put together some architecture for the people of Reedley, who recently toured the new addition.
However, Aspen Street hasn't been so lucky in it's old home of Tehachapi, where the last this reporter heard, there were tiny footfalls of attorneys about. But I did also hear from a legal type here at KVHD, that Aspen has been doing work for the military.
(The sound you heard was me laughing. More on the Aspen street military projects and the Tehachapi problems.)
So, Ott caught up with Aspen at Sierra and prior to her sudden departure last June when the Attorney General's office charged her with elder abuse, Sierra Kings was on it's way down, to bankruptcy.
And now so are we
After hearing about the hospital's financial stability in 2006, the skilled nursing facilities wonderful and humane services, the new services just waiting to be born at KVHD, it's an amazing downhill slide to see a business so important to the community take this nosedive.
But as I've explained the nosedive occurred twenty five years ago when the hospital went into debt. After the debt and the mangled construction project, there was no where to go but down.
At last months' Kern Valley Healthcare District's board meeting, I asked the financial manager, who has finally admitted to the fact that the hospital has not been properly billing for many years thus decreasing actual intake versus projected monies, why a bill for little more than eight dollars was sent out?
He said we need every dime we can get.
However, the CEO, Tim McGlew, absent from last month's finance committee meeting as well as the Feb. board meeting, did address that issue saying it is not necessarily the strategy to take as it costs more to try and bring in that small amount of money.
I always feel thankful when some reason appears on the scene at the hospital.
However, the financial situation is getting to the point of making all of us nervous. Chet Beedle told us again we would not be able to pay the August payment to Cal Mtg., the state insurer of the district's revenue bonds, and therefore the future is anything but assured.
Now, we look at our twin, I'm calling it that just to be funny, but it is odd about Ott. Anyway, they have been roiling with debt, eaten up by cutbacks, just like any other rural community hospital, it's tough out there.
But they brought in a consultant firm straight off the ACHD site HFS Consultants (Association of California Healthcare Districts, an advocacy group for rural hospitals) and an interim, CEO, Sandy Haskins, who has been doing a similar backtracking of the billing issues there.
According to the Reedley Exponent, the hospital is going back several years and offering a deal to reduce the debt by 40% if it is paid off within a month. Haskins doesn't expect to get back all the monies owed, therefore, the option is making it easier for the consumer to pay off the debt rather than write it off, keep their credit standing, and the hospital will then be able to show some cash towards it's efforts.
They are also sending out three mailing attempts to get the deal going, but they may have problems with the age of the debt, as the older they are, people have changed situations. And people probably have accrued others during this time as well.
But it's an attempt at getting money in the coffers of that hospital and fast.
They called a special meeting to make a report
And what makes it even more interesting was how Sierra Kings or actually HFS handled the situation by communicating with it's active and interested public.
They had a special meeting and gave a report of the "plan" taking place and where it was at and where it was expected to go.
That feels like bliss to me. Hospital districts offering information. I have requests into KVHD that go back three or four months. I don't complain, I collect and record. What else can I do? Barge through the doors with a hand held copier and bottle of mace?
And then there's the reporting on "non labor" expenses and supplies. Here at KVHD we talk about "variable" expenses which very much include labor and the ability to maintain it. Not having that much more luck than we used to.
I know, I hear the propaganda too, but there is still a problem with staffing at the hospital and now, the lives and paychecks of pharmacy employees have been altered too.
There's nothing like knowing jobs with retirement are on the decrease, and rarely turn out that way.
Chet Beedle the financial manager who likes to talk about and in volume, is looking to retire from KVHD.
So, were nurses and other employees I have known throughout the years looking forward to the phantom retirement plan.
We have yet to have a special meeting and talk about these collection and staffing matters. KVHD has been remiss in it's communication as it is having it's own problems understanding why the ice cream cone is melting.
We need to ask Chet Beedle. We need to ask two members of the board, and then we need to ask ourselves if we are willing to pay it forward for this hospital in the form of property or sales taxes.
They seem to be studying
Over at the well dressed Reedley hospital, the special meeting pointed out potential savings, not a lot, but enough, 150 thousand eventually. That is a lot and can be used for other purposes.
Now here at KVHD, we squandered half that money, 60K on a public relations firm which did nothing except end a contract with sixty thousand more than they started.
We have squandered our money. The records are lousy with terrible ideas which never came to fruition. And good ideas which didn't come to fruition either.
But it's the attitude I like about what is happening at Sierra Kings, they are including the community. They know they have something very important in that hospital, with it's new wing, that they need to walk carefully in these dark economic times.
KVHD is a cesspool of mismanagement to this day. Yes, there have been improvements in many areas. But it's the idea that we are hounding people for $8, when we should do a mailing or something like that to get people back in the system, paying again.
Might start with calling charity care, by another name. That won't fly. All government agencies need to get it, people, by and large want to work, but they need help to get there sometimes. If there are interim programs people will be more willing to sign up for that rather than, a your so poor you qualify for a Ukranian insurance policy.
Collections, taxes, general obligation bonds, these are the buzz words of your future KRV. Get to the meetings, get on the internet and research, and let's keep this hospital open and going.
Our elder abuse past will soon be behind us, maybe even next month, if the right plea deals are handed out and the cuffs are unlocked from the others who don't deserve them. The civil cases will get settled sooner and that will no longer play with Diane Sawyer on ABC "Where in the World did you get that news from" again.
Those who think this valley is going to stay around with inaction on the part of the community will be surprised how quickly things sink in quick sand or roll down hill. Think fast....here it comes.
