Gee, I didn't notice, did you KVHD?

When I was a kid I use to get in trouble a lot, (as you can imagine), and my parents would ask me all kinds of seemingly superflous questions, such as "what were you thinking?" I would pretend I didn't hear them; thinking I would turn invisible long enough to avoid my reprimand.

This reminds me a lot of what is going on in our healthcare district (not ours, it was mortaged, but I'll get to that issue soon); either it's sunshine and rainbows or it's the KVHD phalanx approach: "If we say nothing this will all just go away."

But desperation as is being smelled all around the old guard: Mr. Brad Armstrong, Mr. Bob Jamison, CFO Chet Beedle, CEO Rick Carter, have no limits on what they will do to stay in power, it seems. Bullying, berating, not only the public but others on the board; unannounced board meetings are just a part of the list of wonderful contributions they are currently making. (There's more here I will be illuminating soon)

I got a call today that there was a special board meeting. Did you know? I suppose posting a special meeting that is urgent, would indeed be a 24 hour posting time in a locked, glass cabinet in the lobby of the hospital where a few people will pass by. They could possibly stop to read it and look at their watch. And I guess you could get away with not telling the public or media if it was urgent business.

But a special meeting, a closed meeting, indicates some urgency of matters that the board must convene together because there is no time until the regular board meeting to attend to this business.

However, after the meeting ended, our CEO who is now a member of the 19% mile high salary increase club, Rick Carter, peeked his head out from the locked mobile board room, and just saw me standing there.

He asked me if there were any other members of the public present that I knew of. I said, "nobody knows you just posted it yesterday."

Concerned for the public as he is known to be, Mr. Carter, searched the hospital for potential people to give his public comment to.

"I only want to have to make this statement once, I don't want to have to repeat myself," he said.

Upon his return to the outside of the hospital where I was still waiting, patiently, he looked around in possibly feigned confusion as to why he couldn't find any other members of the public or media.

"Okay, you're it," he said.

He then pulled out the agenda and began to read it to me as his interpretation of a statement. I had already read it and it was now in my pocket.

But Carter added a small additional comment not actually on the agenda. (Which is surprising because Mr. Carter is known for not speaking to public comments "not on the agenda.")

He said they discussed the existing litigation and "the board was given some direction on personnel issues."

I told him there must be some urgency to the meeting. The CEO said, "no, no emergency."

I asked if there were any votes or action taken on anthing. "No votes were taken." and "no decisions were made," were his final comments.

I reiterated, "So, no action was taken, so it was pure discussion."

"Nobody voted on anything," and he was gone.

Upon some reflection, I failed to ask who attended the meeting, so I went back into the hospital, where I saw the phalanx; the trio; Carter, Bob Jamison, and Brad Armstrong having some discussion.

Mr. Jamison gave his companions some type of bird whistle indicating I was approaching, and they sped off.

But Mr. Carter did say that all board members were present and accounted for at the meeting.

This is so ridiculous it's funny really.

Give us all a break KVHD: that's not an investigation, this is an investigation...

KVHD, former CEO, Rick Carter states in documents from February of 2009, that a report of neglect in the skilled nursing facility, was "unsubstantiated." But the KVHD investigation proves not to be so substantial:

On 11/23/08 two CNA's report to work at the KVHD skilled nursing facility and and say they find residents wet, skin rashes, a wound, and alarms not on that morning.

After making rounds they wrote up a handwritten report and gave it to the RN and LVN in charge of the SNF overnight. They both say they wrote a handwritten report, signed and dated it.

The RN and LVN are traveling nurses, who the two aides, say they gave their report to that morning.

Both CNA's who filed this report have been fired. Both have had complaints filed with the state board of nursing after their terminations.

Hospital records state that the nurses who were in charge of the SNF at the time of the report, could not be found to add anything to the hospital's own little investigation...

I just got off the phone with them.

I forgot to ask them if their licenses were under investigation too.

It took no time at all to find them and the hospital cannot say without looking ridiculous, that they couldn't have done it themselves.

I imagine the hospital has the excuse the employees had left and therefore could not be investigated by the hospital. But they would've been witnesses not the subject of the investigation.

(See stories below, "employees fighting back")

KVHD Special Meeting: a new CEO

A special board meeting has been called for Wed., April 15, 2009, 1:30 pm. The agenda states that the meeting is regarding personnel, in particular a new CEO.

Former CEO Rick Carter, resigned last week and apparently there is a replacement waiting in the wings.

Hmm.

With a partially new board of directors, we now have the chance to see what these members have to bring to the table in regards to their ability to hire rightly qualified and credentialed personnel.

Who did they select as the new CEO? And out of how many?

Will this new CEO come in at entry level salary like the traveling nurses converted from roustabouts to KVHD employees of the skilled nursing facility?

And a better question, how did they find and qualify this new CEO?

Is this board a brighter board than a year ago?

Will they or did they practice due diligence this time around and ask questions; make phone calls; see if this person will fit in with the current state of the hospital; ask themselves if this is the best person for the job?

Did they know what kind of person they were looking for, what personality, qualifications?

Or were they just thankful that somebody would take the job and opened the door?

We will find out tomorrow at the end of the special board meeting who and what the board did to select this individual. We will know if the new board is any better than the previous corrupt board.

The CEO is the crux of the organization as this person holds responsibility for patients, the public, the board,the law, the integrity of the hospital, and I would think that it should be a very difficult decision to make.

We have seen in the past that a CEO can either break or make a healthcare district.

And with a broken healthcare district we move on to another CEO.