UPDATED: Pamela Ott on QAB 2007/here's your witness Jerry Brown

UPDATED: Preliminary hearing set again for August 20th.
as the preliminary hearing for June 22 looks like another delay until we find out if there will be a trial, the most infamous post on this blog is the day board member and radio jock, Bob Jamison, allowed Ott to go on his talk show and defend all wrongdoing and blame others.
It is the most read post on the blog, as the California Department of Justice had gone off the scent and had Pam Ott as a "witness" in their case as opposed to being charged with elder abuse and other crimes such as covering and removing information, lying to investigators, firing employees for trying to get help and on.
After Ott was brought in by the DOJ she was fired from her CEO position at Sierra Kings District in Reedley California. A recent audit by the familiar company HFS, now in town at KVHD, and a bankruptcy lead to the conclusion that Pam Ott's pattern continued. She used monies Reedley voters supported on a GOB for a construciton project for "other things." The IRS audit showed that Ott and her financial manager, Barbara Jennings may not have paid employee pension accounts for a few months as well.
Read it again, as even with a continuance in the case this week, there will be another day and the judge will have to decide if the DOJ did their job and found the evidence and the crimes.
But this interview has to be the most telling as Bob Jamison made every effort to mislead the community regarding the meltdown. And still does...)

Here’s your witness to the prosecution of Dr. Pormir, and Gwen Hughes, in the case of the State vs. KVHD: Pamela Ott.

QAB radio allowed, KVHD board member, Bob Jamison to set up a departing radio show for the ex CEO, Pamela Ott, who resigned her position amidst troubles at the hospital.

Thank you QAB, this was some really good stuff. I guess ABC allows these things to be done by their affiliate stations.

It was a media war.

In her own words (and a few of mine)


After Pamela Ott stepped down as CEO, her friend, and board member radio broadcaster, Bob Jamison brought Ott on his radio program to prove that she indeed was a victim of the horrible reporter, employees, Department of Health Services, and of course, the Knights.

Because of his incredible adherence to rules, Jamison, brought on former Sun newspaper reporter and former owner of the Kern River Courier to interview Ott, because he said if he did it would conflict with his role as a board member.

This was a long program so I will have to truncate at least the questions to save time. But I will leave Ott’s responses verbatim. Apparently, Jamison had only two commercial breaks during this incredible hour of radio; so it ran long.

Ott’s media man

Bob Jamison: We have a special program this morning and we have a special guest in the studio as you may have heard. Our special guest is the current CEO of KVHD as many of you may know she tendered her resignation-and we’ve invited Pam Ott here to talk about the situation at the hospital and hopefully clear some things up.

Before we begin, I have to once again remind everyone and to be perfectly honest about this, I am an elected member of the hospital board and as such, as Pam her tendered her resignation, it would not be considered a correct thing for me to be the one interviewing her this morning. For that reason I have invited into our studio, Dolly Ogwalla, who is the publisher of the KRV Courier. Good morning Dolly how are you?

Dolly: Oh, good morning Bob I brought a little happy spray with me and I’d like to get started asking some questions since I have plenty.

Bob Jamison: I should tell you that I’ve told Dolly that she is not under any restriction whatsoever to what questions to ask or not ask, that is strictly up to her and, other than to tell her when it’s time to take a commercial break, the show is being turned over to Dolly.

Dolly: Then Good morning Pam
Ott: Good morning Dolly

Dolly: …one of the questions about the current situation at the skilled nursing facility is the employees at the hospital. I understand they have a new management team at the SNF and people are saying that employees in general at the hospital, one in particular are not very happy. Maybe you’d like to talk to us a little about that Pam.

Ott: Let me start before the management company was brought in by the board of directors. Because a local publication which had some fact and much fantasy that was very painful-that was very painful for the staff to have that kind of information about their practices delivered in newsprint. (the reporter did it)
We had several people out on stress leaves, one with cardiac complications, at that time it was a very serious thing. More importantly is our residents who love where they live. And that is their home. And the fear and anxiety that all of that set up was, umm, pretty much unfair. Then it turned into anger for them, because they know the facility that have is fine and they’re receiving TLC. So, getting on with that after bringing in the management firm is, uh, they’re here to change systems and to assist employees in learning new and updated skills. That meant that our licensed nursing staff were not able to work as licensed nurses at the time-they are being trained now, and they are loving the training they are receiving, learning all kind of new updated skills-the nurses aides are just thrilled with all the changes being made and so think we’re going to live happily ever after with that.

Did you say that DHS?

Dolly: …the reports showed something less than standard practice.

Ott: Well, let’s just talk about what really happened there. We had hired a new director of nursing, she came from, Kindred Care, which is one of the top nursing care facilities in the country, and came to us with 36 years of experience and began to work with our interdisciplinary team which is a pharmacist, nursing, social services, etc., and stated that we are not providing standard of care, there were many things we could change, including the types of medication we used for, for residents we had with behavioral issues such as kicking, biting, screaming, punching, that kind of thing. So, she made recommendations to our chief pharmacist and our medical director on those medication changes and those changes were made.
An employee began to believe that this was somehow detrimental to our residents and so rather than reporting through the normal chain of command, reporting since the director of nurses was involved, reports to the Chief Nursing Officer, or even reporting to me, or even a board member, they went directly to the department of health who came into to do an investigation, but that’s absolutely appropriate.
So, what happened was the department of health, came in and said, based on the use of these medications we need you to go get a psychiatrist, in fact, that came in at 10:30 am in the morning, you need to hire a psychiatrist by five pm. Well finding psychiatrists in Kern County it would be easier to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (laughter), but I was able to accomplish that goal through networking. And the psychiatrist came into evaluate the residents-there’s about 17 of them whose medications had been changed and the psychiatrist said upon evaluation of each of those residents, not only are these appropriate, but recommended increasing dosage of some of the residents.
So, that was perplexing so I went back to the surveyors of DHS and said well this was the result of the psychiatrist. And they said well, psychiatrists are just padding their own pocketbook. So, of course, they’re going to tell you to keep them on those medications cause then they get to see the residents more frequently (laughs). So, that was a bit confusing and they told us, the interdisciplinary team, to go back and review all of those residents once again and we make recommendations, we, without, without, a medical license were to make recommendations to DHS on how to deal with the medication reduction. So, we did that. I was rather uncomfortable with that, because I am not an MD nor is any of the staff (laughing).

Dolly: where was the other guy from?

Ott: DHS pharmacist.

Dolly: Okay, what is DHS stand for?

Ott: The department of health services

Dolly: and he wasn’t a physician either?

Ott: He was not a physician and he was telling us that our pharmacist was acting outside of her scope of practice, but then, telling us that, uh, that we needed to make those changes without MD input. So, being uncomfortable with that, I found a psychiatrist, decided we needed a second opinion and two weeks later that other psychiatrist came in, very thoroughly evaluated each resident, called families, talked to staff and at the end of all of that recommended that all of those residents stay on those particular medications and a matter of fact, recommended increasing some of those medications based on behaviors the residents were exhibiting. So, that’s where we stood. In the meantime, DHS, came in for the annual survey which is something we do every year and they’d already pretty much made up their minds that we needed some system changes. They evaluated our staff for their ability to pass medication and I want to explain to you what that means. That every nurse introduces themselves by name. They use two identifiers for the patients, hello Mrs. Smith, what is your birthdate-we have pictures, we can match the picture with the patient, which medications they’re to receive before we administer medications, then come back to an administrative record, where we document each medication which is given.
Well these nurse who have been working with these exact same residents for many years-some of our residents have been there for up to 15 years. They know their residents like their own mother, father or grandparent, and they missed some of these steps. And they may not have necessarily said, hello I’m Susie, and I’m here to give you your medications, what is your birthdate (laughing) And so, and then, because there are sometimes four pages of medication records, we know they gave the medication, because everything is in bubble pack, and if a medication were missed being given it would still be in the bubble pack, but the counts were correct, but they did not write the medication in the medication record at all time. So, there were holes, where there should have been documentation.
So, that’s where we got into this problem with medication administration.

Dolly: (she says its tough for change with employees, people can be resistant about it)

Ott: Change is difficult for all of us, you’re absolutely right. Many of the staff were saying there were too many changes, too fast, this is just making me crazy.
(To shorten the length, I’ve edited out several items, but if anyone wants the whole transcript, let me know.)

Measure M is the biggest concern

Dolly asks Pam about Measure M, the general obligation bond, which would have cost community members property taxes. Ott says the seismic and construction are the biggest things to worry about.

Ott: But the biggest concern for me as I leave this valley is that we have a very serious issue with meeting AB1953 which is the earthquake seismic standard that California state says you will be earthquake safe in your acute hospital by the year 2013, and I want to tell you that is January 1, 2013, or you will no longer have a license to have an acute care hospital.

The Sticky Three board members, support their CEO

Dolly: As a resident that terrifies me, that we, that could ever be a possibility. How supportive are your board of directors in this? Have they been behind you and supportive?

Ott: I will tell you that Brad Armstrong is one of the strongest chair of boards that I’ve had the opportunity to work with in my career. Bob Jamison is brilliant, he asks the difficult questions, he challenges to make sure we do a great deal of research. Barbara Casas studies diligently, knows the issues and they’ve made tough decisions about what we need to do. And that is that retrofit would cost many millions of dollars then we end up with still a small facility. Oh, and an old building. So, they decided we do need to build a new acute care wing of the hospital.

(finally a commercial)

Ott and board responsible/employees didn’t use chain of command

Dolly: (getting phone calls from people adamant about culpability in the situation. She mentioned unhappy, disgruntled employees.) Do you take responsibility for any of the things your employees are concerned about, about being afraid to report, and some of the things.

Ott: Oh, absolutely. I am the CEO and I take responsibility for everything that happens within the organization, that’s my role, uh, interestingly enough that, uh, the board even takes responsibility, they, they, we all understand our responsibility in this, we actually, the management team being the Chief Nursing Officer, the director of nursing and myself put together an agreement with all of the staff in the nursing center to state that they understand their responsibility to report because that is part of their licensure and we signed that agreement with them stating that there would never be any punitive mechanism for reporting concerns through the normal chain of command.
Sadly, there was that director of Nursing, who, umm, who had been there during that time had put a lot of fear and anxiety into the staff by telling them that if they reported up the chain of command, to the CNO or to me, that they would lose their job and she would report their license so that they would lose their license. So, that fear kept the staff from reporting like they normally would through a chain of command.

Dolly: The other thing I’ve been hearing about is the lay offs and the firing and it’s all because they’re unhappy with there reporting or whatever, but I would like to clarify the new team has done some laying off.

Ott: Right, as happens when you bring in management team, they have a completely different focus on how to staff the nursing center and they have a very interesting model where they have RN care managers that are out on the floor doing treatmentsand the kind of thing. They believe because our nursing center is a 74 bed nursing center that we should have an administrator, or an associate administrator, who is specifically for the nursing center and that is a Chief nursing Officer model doesn’t work as effectively as have an administrator type person and so we have had to make some changes in our organizational chart, uh, just to accommodate the changes they believe will improve the functioning of the unit itself. Of course there are other issues like competency issues, etc. that have to come into play and we had to relinquish our, umm, rights to keep or not keep employees to that management team, so they can do what they need to do.

(According to the contract signed by Sycamore Management on 5/27/07, I have a copy, there is a clause where they can only “recommend” policy and staffing changes. And the firings began the day after Ott resigned, which was 5/4/07 three weeks before the management company. The owner of the management company told me he saw the articles in the newspaper and gave the board his business card and they were in; for a while until the money climbed into the millions and the problems with being in compliance were continuing. Then they were sent packing. More careful planning I see and obvious care for the residents)

Urban legend more like truth

Dolly: One of the things we talked about, I have heard this rumor several times so I want to tell it to you because to me about, but I would just like to have your response to this new urban legend. That there was an 82 year old woman in the skilled nursing facility who was overmedicated to the point where she fell out of her wheelchair that she sustained terrible injuries that she later died from. And, uh, actually it said you’re suffering under the fear of indictment, (laughing), from the ……..and you maybe charged with, what was it? Um, some kind of negligent homicide that was the term I heard (laughing harder) used. I find that just a tad amazing but especially since that didn’t make the newspaper, even the other one. So, I’d like your response to that. (still laughing)

Ott: It’s actually not even funny that someone would even say something like that but, I will tell you that the employee that reported to DHS had reported something similar to what you’re describing and we have down our own internal investigation, DHS has done a very thorough investigation, and we know of no incidents such as that.

Dolly: (asks if she had said at a board meeting that the patient would have died anyway)

Ott: Oh, for heaven’s sakes, I can’t even respond to that (laughing)

Dolly: thank you, I wouldn’t tell you if it were not something , you know.

Ott: (cuts in) We love our residents, we’re passionate about the care we our residents and we care deeply about them, that is, that’s all I have to say.

Dolly: (wants to talk about achievements)

Ott: Well, actually they are not my achievements they’re the achievements of a fantastic team, including those three wonderful board members that I discussed earlier and we have made great strides and I think this community understands this through all the terrible reporting, umm, patients continued to use us, our volumes are up. (edited: she listed achievements such as echo cardiogram, several eye surgeons, surgeons like Dr. Holly Spohn Gross, endoscopy and Gemcare.)

(Again, Ott worked with the quorum of board members, Bob Jamison, Brad Armstrong and Barbara Casas. But there are five board members, two of which, don’t get mentioned until its negative. Brown act violations as well violations of their own reporting and personnel and policy procedures occurred with these people.)

Why are you leaving then?

Dolly: Do you have anything to say about why you’re leaving us?

Ott: It’s hard to say goodbye, we have the most incredible auxiliary and so many beautiful women and men who work so hard for our healthcare services-the foundation that does such a great job. The staff that are just amazing in the care they provide and how much they care about the community as well, and I just want to say thank you to all of you for the great four years (crying).

(They begin taking a few phone calls)

Jamison: Good morning you’re on the talk show.

Caller: …I wanted to know why she is leaving? Why did she tender her resignation?

Dolly: I guess you’re going to have to answer that Pam.

Ott: eeewww, um, we have had a board that has had difficulty working together as a whole, and I’ve talked about my successes, but I have failed to help pull that board together as one-and we have so many difficult things ahead of us especially the seismic issues, I need to step aside and see if a new CEO can come in and help pull this group together so that they can make those tough decisions and move on.

(I’m gleaning that if she only had the three board members she would have stayed and everyone would live happily ever after? Except the residents of the SNF and the scapegoats)

Which story is it? There are so many

I called into the show and asked her which story was the cause of the SNF disaster: The Knights, the ECHO program was down for a year, the evil director of nursing, disgruntled employees.

Ott: when we look back it was a systems issue, about every five years this hospital no matter who the administrator was including Mr. Knight, Mr. Dalgren, and some others, has had a situation of immediate jeopardy. I believe part of that is that we are not JACHO (joint commission), we don’t belong to an accreditation group, so we just didn’t do tune ups on an on-going basis making sure we were compliant with everything.

Hart: why did you tell me last year…

Ott: (cuts in) With this new management team in place, they will be back every year making sure we’re compliant.
(of course that didn’t happen. Lots of pie in the sky promises just like with the indicted director of nursing, she had great qualifications, 36 years of experience, and Ott talked the staff into trusting this woman.)

Hart: Can we afford it? (no look at the nursing registry figures from the board meeting)

Ott: With this new management team in place, they will be back every year making sure we are compliant in all issues.

Hart: these problems could have been fixed if we looked at them three years ago; these problems aren’t new-do we have that kind of money to spend on 39 thousand, a hundred and some odd thousand, to pay in penalties?

Ott: we’ve actually been successful setting aside reserves.

Hart: that could be paid for a lot of better things like equipment and services.

“They just got a little lax, that’s all.”

Caller: do you not believe inadequate and sloppy healthcare falls to the board and the CEO that they should’ve checked in on that before.

Ott: I don’t want anyone to believe our healthcare is inadequate or sloppy because…

Caller: (cuts in) that what you said they we’re giving medicines without writing down and so forth, you know I’m just wondering.

Ott: They just got a little lax that’s all.

Caller: You can’t do that in a hospital.

Ott: And we’re fixing that and you’re absolutely right I take full responsibility for that.

Caller: That’s what I want to hear because I’m getting elderly and I want to know that it is fixed up, we need a good hospital here. (Ott always seems to be able to tell people what they want to hear)

Ott: You bet we do.

“What do we know about him”

Dolly: The new management team, Don Doyle, what do we know about him?

Ott: He actually started his career as an LVN, his father was a minister, and he has spent his entire life in nursing centers and so he just has an absolute passion for, um, nursing centers.
(Ott knew little about them, KVHD was ambulance chased by this firm, but she can still tell a story)

Dr. Pormir part of good staff

Dolly: (talking about good staff, and Dr. Pormir)

Ott: Dr. Pormir is over there as the director of the nursing center and he is such a compassionate, caring physician, and he has taken it upon himself to study deeply into geriatric care and long term care services.

(I’ll tell you one of the only people I saw in the skilled nursing center in Dec. 2007 was Dr. Pormir bringing presents to the residents bought out of his own pocket. Every one of them. Mrs. Knight made blankets for each of the residents as well. Celia Juni put on a show of animated characters she moved from her home to the SNF for Christmas. )

My mother was on antipsychotics?

A concerned caller asked Ott about the use of the Depakote and Zyprexa on her mother, who she said was 97 years old.

Caller: …why, why wasn’t my mother notified of this?

Ott: You know that was part of what our problem was is that, um, the DON sort of bullied the pharmacist and staff into these changes without, without properly talking to families with documenting the need. And if you call me up at work I can sit down and review all of that together because it sounds like you’re hurting from that, we can sit down with Dr. Pormir and that out together.

Caller: I mean this nurse was bullying the pharmacist? Why didn’t she say no, you want this medication go through the physician.

Ott: Because the pharmacist believed that she had current knowledge and she did some research, the interesting thing is, is that the pharmacist still working there-not in the nursing center-but here’s the interesting thing for you is that the DON and I went ot a Lumetra conference which is the quality improvement for CMS, that’s Medicare, for DHS, and we went to take some training and when we went to the training the great physician, guru of behaviors gave a lecture and these were the medications we recommended we use for the center behaviors, so he, even CMS and DHS are being trained that drugs like Zyprexa are safer than some of the old drugs like we used to use, xanax.

I visit them everyday

Dolly: there are a lot of people who like the SNF. I personally like to go over there to there (parties) and some of the things they do.

Ott: I’m actually one of them, if I actually don’t get to make my rounds every morning and get hugs and kisses from the residents; it’s not a beautiful day for me. It’s just such a special place.

(So, Ott was doing her rounds in the SNF everyday she says, looking at her special residents. But also touching them and interacting. Then she must have had some knowledge about them. She would have noticed if anything was wrong; she is a nurse of sorts. Ott would have seen that nurses were short staffed and her beloved residents were sometimes sitting in soiled clothing. Everyday strolling through the SNF would have given her a better look at the situation than Dr. Pormir or Debbie Hayes. And obviously employees were in contact. She would have known that the meds were being delivered late because of short staffing. She was administrating the SNF with the former CNO, Sharon Brucker, shortly before the investigation time frame of Aug. 1 to Jan. 25, 2007. The SNF was already in trouble as the state was imposing penalties and denying their correction efforts. Patients had lost weight, some significant, and it just went away overshadowed by the new problems. Ott and Brucker left the SNF in charge of Gwen Hughes because they were in trouble for their own restraint issues.)

The last thing Ott said before getting off the air, was don’t forget Measure M, “…because 300 employees depend on their jobs and because people in this community need healthcare services.”

Umm, thanks.

Recommended reading: Ott's interviews, emails, and newspaper quotes. And Dolly's first interview with Ott, called "tracking down the troubles at KVHD." Another clarifier would be, "Urban Legend/Revelation/responsibility.

Oh, those folks in Reedley: City to help Sierra Kings District Hospital out of the hole, for a couple months anyway...

The question to the board of directors of Sierra Kings District is did they as a public entity, with an ability to tax, try to renegotiate it's reimbursement agreement with CMAC, California Medical Assistance Commission?
According to the Reedley Exponent, a wily local paper in Reedley, who found themselves covering a hospital with leaks everywhere, all the way into the streets, as bankruptcy was called for less than a month after a CEO was called to court.

Pam Ott, the former Kern Valley Healthcare District, CEO, with the diploma from "As seen on TV," left our valley in a hurry as investigators were lurking in the hospital asking serious questions about the care of the elderly residents in the skilled nursing facility back in 2007.

But Ott, administrator for both the nursing center and the entire hospital, left a mess with policies neither updated or new policies implemented, which caused possible casualties in certain cases. Her finance manager, is the same one which currently roosts at the Kern Valley hospital right now and in the hospital's apartments, laying around charging Pay per view events, CFO, Chet Beedle. (The pay per view events is totally made up. Sorry. I must have read that wrong.)

As Reedley struggled with both it's reputation then finances, a board worthy of our hometown reticence, interim CEO, Sandy Haskins, hired in from HFS consultants after Ott was relieved of her powers and the coffers were empty, has had his hands full trying to bankrupt the hospital while keeping it afloat for the future residents.

Though in some quotes, certain Sierra King board members initially protect Ott, that goes out the door quickly as allegations of not paying the employee retirement account came flying Ott's way, as the board did not want any part of that error too. The heat is on in Reedley and that hospital is being watched by both the newspaper, and now, city hall.

With only a few options left after much research, Haskins is borrowing 800K from the city of Reedley, so they can put up 1.6 million, the Exponent Editor wrote, to get a certain credit, peculiar to a type of hospital such as Reedley, and maybe such as KVHD, our little sour puss who wants a big 20 million dollar bond and they don't want to pay for it themselves. (Why those wise guys, I could...)

Disproportionate Share Hospital Payment Program, for guys like us who have a large number of Medical and Medicare and no one cares patients.

I thought the funniest part of another solid article from the Exponent on the subject of their financially failing hospital, was the idea that the CEO, Haskins had to go all alone in front of the City Council and ask for a loan with little or no pay off, and "preliminary" guarantees that the money cannot be grabbed in the bankruptcy or eaten by the state with it's obese appetite for cash.

Nobody from the board joined him. What a bunch of crackerjacks over there. Even a city council board member made a remark.

That is in my opinion another example of an elected board in charge of healthcare that doesn't care. We have that particular disease here, except in that they do care, but only about looking good for our small community who they seem to believe is judging them like a beauty contestant.

I'm afraid my research shows our community knows little about who is in charge of possibly their life one day if the other car crosses over the line in the canyon, or rocks begin to slide after a quake or your pacemaker quits.

Haskins isn't even Reedley, he's HFS, a management type, but the board was elected by the residents of Reedley and didn't show up to answer any questions about this loan or the reason for not making a show with CMAC so that they may potentially receive increased reimbursement from the Disproportionate hospital Payment Program.

But when Ott, our former Diva of da valley, and unfortunately for the city of Reedley, their CEO too who left with a shoe at her back, she hadn't even considered this option, along with her fellow CFO, who was let go when Big Frank and Chucky came to get their money...

What about KVHD? Umm, that's the question...tis nobler to get a bond...or try and get more reimbursement? Let's ask. I'm writing to them now.

I will go forth and get you that information...she said. I said. I exclaimed! Indeed.
More good stuff from the Exponent.
http://www.reedleyexponent.com/articles/2010/04/13/news/doc4bbcc5b788dca728308113.txt

KVHD new management company HFS: what will they find here, as Sierra Kings cleaned out by Ott?

(Blogs are currently being updated, and put in a different order. Some of the things have already happened, as HFS is on board doing it's thing, which is to see if there is a way to save the hospital as it is in default on it's contractual obligations regarding the revenue bond project that has plagued the hospital with defaults and service and licensing issues, as well as staffing.)

After a disappointing sale-a-thon at the Kern Valley Healthcare Board of Directors meeting, where the big news was left for last, while we pretended the hospital had not just been taken over by Cal Mtg. the insurer of the revenue bond debt, fourteen million dollars.

Next week, we will not only be signing a contract with HFS financial consultants, we will have "tele-psychiatry." Finally, somewhere for KVHD board member,Bob Jamison, to get help and watch TV at the same time.

I love the Christmas list we're getting for believing things are so much better at the hospital. (It's always good to see the board passing out the kudos and pats on the back as they explain if the community doesn't pay we're out of business. Makes sense...on some other planet I suppose.)

We are going to have new stuff, cool things. Right? And I'm sure much like they have done, if anything goes wrong, they will stand up and take responsibility. Sorry, that's not KVHD that's Sierra Kings in Reedley.

Oh, but we have to pay for it with a general obligation bond. How do those bonds work?

Two thirds of the voters must agree to raise property taxes to pay off the hospitals' debtor Cal Mtg. Then what is left of the monies will be spent on a "retrofit."

Yes, we heard Chet Beedle and Pam Ott say for years it would be too uncertain financially to retrofit the hospital or remodel as there could be hidden costs as there could be mold from the leaking roof in the ER, or more likely asbestos in the ceiling requiring hazmat units to remove it.

They are right. But now the hospital administrators have one plan: pay off the debt and remodel the ER with the money from the community by way of property taxes in the form of a GOB.

Now these bonds have restrictions, you cannot use the monies for anything such as raises, operations of the hospital, just what the community ordered.

Hold it...Or can you?

Pam Ott almost had Measure M in her hands in 2006, until the nursing center collapse.

I was on the campaign trail with Ott and Beedle who both told me that the bond money was safe, as it could not be used for anything other than what the voters said it is to be used for.

After her rather quick departure in 2007 she headed to Reedley California somehow landing another CEO position even with a degree from a diploma mill on the internet.

Sierra Kings district hospital, currently in bankruptcy and being run by interim CEO, Sandy Haskins, of a familiar company who will be here in the KRV soon, HFS.

(HFS began it's contract only a week ago so the inspection, audit, is underway with the audit and we will see what the can find, and fast.)

HFS has been putting the pieces of it's life back together since Ott was fired in October 2009, after elder abuse charges were filed against her.

Now she might find the Fresno District Attorney interested in her recent shenanigans at Sierra Kings. (If the DOJ can't get her, maybe the DA and the good people of Reedley will)

According to this weeks article in the Reedley Exponent, a dynamic, community driven, newspaper, it seems 1.7 million dollars of "GOB" bond money was misspent. (But Ott and Beedle said that couldn't happen)

With CEO, Tim McGlew, and CFO, Cheet Beddle, and possibly the whole KVHD board counting on quickly planning a bond, construction project, and anything else that would entice the community to vote for it's "save the whales" campaign, it's good timing to look at what could have been the KRV.

It's all about trust

Many of us who lived thru the Pam Ott era and survived or partially survived, remember the promises of what the community could do by voting in a bond.

We were all ready to go and believe anything she said. I personally backed Ott and the bond.

Elder abuse charged, Dr. Hoshang Pormir, was another fan of Ott, and was photographed for many of the advertisements for Measure M. He backed Ott's play like nobody else in the hospital.

Now, HFS, trying to revive a dying hospital, Sierra Kings, finds that more than 1.7 million dollars in bond money, with very restrictive uses, has been used.

Oh my? How could that be? there are laws against it.

Well, according to the Exponent article, a government expert said by going against the will of the voters, they have lost "public trust." (along with 1.7 million dollars)

Haskins, the article said, verified the monies had been misused. Apparently, the town of Reedley was excited to vote in a bond worth 20 million and at the same time be promised new technology, another ER, upgrades on the birthing center, Adult and children health centers and seismic upgrades so that they will be standing during an earthquake.

Although monies went for other things, there was a construction project and new ER, but vendors walked away unpaid too. (Oddly, it seems they still have money left over. Good planning, it seems they planned for the misuse of the funds.)

Haskins does say that the rest of the bond monies not used are now being used properly again.

It's so easy to do a bond and build a building isn't it?

At tonight's KVHD meeting there was no chagrin as the board was confident there was no waiting for planning a future project, say in two years when the next election takes place, rather they would push forward and hurriedly get a "thingy" together for this election in November.

There is apparently no time for planning, that's out. We need to take action.
Unfortunately, because financial status reports were unclear, the KVHD board decided not to take action last year when it was apparent the hospital would be in default on it's debts by at least this year. And in default they are.
(I'm lying they knew there were problems but they waited until they are being hijacked by their debt insurer to do anything. Now the extreme measure of going to the community for money is being taken. Had we acted on this last year, could we have allowed more time for planning for the future? Would we have invited more community members in to help? We are setting ourselves up for failure and I'm going to watch it happen. I won't be happy though, but people will learn.)

What if they rush into this and then change their minds about the project, or the prices fluctuate, and the bond is written that the monies will be used for these specific purposes and nothing else?

With minimal planning and a rush job, it could happen. That could lead to a second bond or a third, etc. Or it could lead to using that money for things other than were voted in, which would be against the law. (we don't believe in the law at KVHD so it's really not a problem. And since all the agencies let us get away with "murder" I don't think anyone should worry about consequences.)

Do we really want our hospital "rushing" out a project when in the 1990's they took years to accomplish a third of what they promised and are now in default over?

I wouldn't recommend it, but the hospital is doing what "it" wants to do.

I've been in construction, it's never a good idea to rush anything, most especially a medical construction project with many different types of guidelines which must be followed. You could lose your shirt and fast with all the regulations involved.

Oh, yeah, we know that, but we haven't learned that. We are preparing to make the same mistake again. This time it could be with your money.

In Reedley the clean up from the Ott aftermath

Only the latest financial mismanagement, said the Exponent, as they had reported last month that Ott and financial manager, Chet Beedle, no sorry, Barbara Jennings, held back payments to it's social security alternative program.

Bankruptcy is an interesting process as it uncovers EVERYTHING which may have been done in error, or on purpose, who knows, nobody is going to tell the truth.

With HFS up in Sierra Kings, we have a good opportunity to see what they can do following up on Ott here at KVHD. They may see that there are similarities in the way both our hospitals were run financially.

The board of directors oversight

This article which tells a tale of blatant mismanagement at Sierra Kings, only serves as a warning of what is happening here in the KRV.

A government affairs official cited in the Exponent article said that the board lacked oversight. Well duh.

Tonight at our local hospital board meeting a moment of "who is running the show" became apparent at the end of the night.

CEO, Tim McGlew, told the board he had selected NTD an architectural firm, to put together something for them to see, regarding the bond again that will be on the ballot in November. He said he chose that particular company because the board had used them before.

Then he added, "if that's what the board wants to do."

Suddenly, a board member made a motion, and finally a sensible thing happened: Board member, Kay Knight asked what they were voting on, the company, money, what?

So, before they had heard what they were voting on, motions were made. Does this not make you think that the board is relying totally on it's CEO and CFO?

Obviously, because, one of the board members said the CEO and CFO are the heroes of the district who have cut costs and have been doing an excellent job.

So, I guess there's no reason for a board of directors then? Let's just get rid of them.

According to the article an attorney warned that the board can be liable for things that they should have been watching....and doing their due diligence.

Motioning for a vote without knowing what your CEO meant, is blind voting, pavlovian. Only easily manipulatable minds do things like that.

A tale of two types of boards

With Ott possibly facing some more criminal charges the board of directors in Reedley had something to say.

One board member said they weren't strict with Ott and didn't really know how the money was being spent. The Sierra Kings board member then conceded that the board is beholden to the community and staff.

What a board member actually took responsibility?

No, not here in the KRV, I'm talking about those people in Reedley whom I'm smitten with these days as they would be wonderful to have around here.

The one Sierra Kings board member who admitted they didn't watch carefully, now says that HFS is reporting everything. If they can't pay, the board knows about it that day and is able as a group to take action.

But out of all of this, DOJ, defense attorneys, Measure M supporters, Cal Mtg., we may actually see the truth, and with that truth, correction can be made.

You cannot make a good decision based on inaccuracies and untruths.

If the hospital runs down to the architect and says can you do all of this for us for this price and they say sure, that will be the restriction on the ballot. But as Ott and her gang have shown, all laws can be bent and broken: and people too.

I'd say print out the Exponent article and when the board comes a calling to tell you that they must have this bond: show them the article.

We need to trust the board and administration before we can even consider this bond measure.

And with a financial manager using credit cards to pay for operations costs, it's a cheesy operation which would love to suck in 20 million of "free money."

One audience member tonight summed up the issue of the debt with one practical question: why did it take 20 years to fix this problem?

As usual, no one answered. But maybe the problem with the board is they don't know what to do and hope that they can just skate by on silence and dodging questions they don't particularly like or agree with.

However, at issue is that the problem was never fixed and couldn't be obviously.

Who said that you can only go to a meeting if you agree with the board? Nobody. And in fact, if you harass or target someone for not agreeing with you, you're in violation of a few laws.

Things were strangely chipper, as if we had invited our debtor to take over the hospital. Some of the things that were said, were so out of touch with reality, I could hardly keep my mouth shut. And got gut shot for it too.

It is difficult for me sometimes to be able to explain some of what I have researched to people, board members, administrators, who don't or maybe can't think outside the box. But I feel confident that you the KRV resident, come November, will want to hear more and learn more. And I'll make sure you get the correct information.

One claim I've heard repeatedly is how good we are doing in comparison to other hospitals.

Well, it was said again tonight...

If we are doing better than most other hospitals across California, than why are we being taken over by a bond insurer? Are all the other hospitals in worse shape? How could that be, it makes no sense. Worse would mean, what, closed down? How much worse is it when you have to get a bond and refuse to consider any other options? When it makes no sense, you go to the experts and find out why. I'll get back to you on this.

Then we will wait and see what the DOJ, Etra and Ginsburg, the medical and nursing boards, the Fresno District Attorney, have to say in regards to potential charges against Pam Ott and our other cases of bad judgment.

Now if we find more evidence for you Jerry Brown, could you possibly stop the woman from taking down more than two hospitals and a nursing center? Isn't than enough?

Hopefully HFS will have not ideas, but will dig and find the things they have found in Reedley on our former CEO, Ott. And find the things that still keep us from having a functional hospital.

More to follow...
Thanks again to the people of Reedley, the journalistic integrity, the community support, you are an example for us all to follow.

And here's the article:
http://www.reedleyexponent.com/articles/2010/05/05/news/doc4be1d4b3d65c6435055285.txt

Press control button and click on link to open or just copy and paste into address bar.

We were just discussing the GOB tonight at the meeting...

Desperation showed up on CFO, Chet Beedle's face tonight when an audience member, David Derr, who seems to routinely ask one polite question per meeting, as he has just retired and has an interest in helping out the hospital, possibly or even for sure running for a seat on the board of directors (BOD).

(What a way to spend your retirement, he must be a saint, I think I'll vote for him)

His question of the month was basically has the board discussed bankruptcy as we have said, the hospital is in default for the fourth year, but now a move is being made by creditor, Cal Mtg., and a management company has been engaged to rigorously tear apart this hospital finance fiasco and audit it.

(Some people like to describe the situation a little differently, as the CEO, likes to say, that they are here to help us out. Oh yes, that's right, very much so.)

Chet explained it pretty well but not the real story, we will go into detail in the next article, as we are in an unholy alliance with Cal Mtg. they are our "credit." We cannot do anything without Cal Mtg. They are like a virus that was never eradicated twenty years of debt and damage.
(Can someone actually say it was a good idea to engage in this revenue bond program? The hospital will either fall or continue to be run within a tiny budget which doesn't give life to any dreams of progress and upgrades.)

After Chet left out the part where we could actually bargain with our creditor, but we are so reliant and the hospital management has been so "untruthful" with them as well, that we would be hard put to actually accomplish this.

Nobody in the community has come to me and said they want to pay more taxes, they keep asking about bankruptcy. The answer is simple, a mistake was made twenty years ago that has cost this hospital everything.

And now after years of being kept in the dark, having employees coming in and out of the doors, the community turning its back as there is no trust and no interest in the hospital involving them, except for one thing: Now they need our tax money.

Not only do they want it, they have to have it. Yes, it's true.

For years now, the hospital has not rang with the voices of change that were here only a few short years ago. They left because the hospital lied to them. We have been lied to openly about so many things that there is simply no trust. Even the crumbs we get thrown are not enough to quench the drought of explanation we deserve.

I almost find the bond idea offensive and relying on it, not including the board in the activity of surveying the possibilities, is rot with desperation and indignity.

People have moved away since the "Ott era" (2003 until her get away in May of 2007) and some have moved because of this hospital.

Maybe nobody has noticed, but lives have changed because of what has happened at that hospital. It's haunted with deciet which is thick and won't go away.

It may have helped if there were some honest clean up and honest counsel after the mess. Instead there was just more mess, the board voted in a "time and materials" contractor who took them for a couple million at least.

And this is why it's no surprise that the hospital is getting the cold shoulder back.

And unfortunately, tonight, the CEO Timothy McGlew did not fire the bond sales company which made a suggestion on tape that this hospital misrepresent the verbiage on the voting ballot so not to have to explain why the community should pay extra taxes for the next thirty years. McGlew did say he talked to his manager though. That's something to hang your hat on.

We were just talking about her...

I took a peek at my favorite newspaper, the Reedley Exponent, part pit bull and community advocate, with good solid information.

Last month at the special meeting when I suggested that this KVHD bond money could be misspent, as the rest of the money has been, apparently, this lit a whole round of arguments that it could not. Nothing is absolute and criminals always find a way.

I alerted the board to the fact that our own former CEO and sidekick of Chet Beedle, Pamela Ott, was recently said to have taken bond money out of Sierra Kings District in Reedley where they had voted in a GOB to build a new wing.

Wouldn't that be odd if that only happened there. According to our friend and guidance counselor on how to write bonds on the ballot and win, win, win, he had "never" seen that happen.

There's no way statistically that Ott simply is involved in a criminal case which took place around a bond issue, Measure M, and the short staffing of the nursing center, and the blindness of us all that she wasn't doing this because she didn't absolutely love our "wonderful" community.

The audit is in, read about at the link below, but Ott is now credited with being the only person a representative of Caldwell, Winters and Flores, has ever in his whole career seen be able to use the bond money in a way that the voters and taxpayers didn't want nor vote in.

We will follow closely now to see what the DA is going to do. Can the government protect the will of the people to have their money spent a certain way? Unlikely...

I'm laughing while reading it...

I'm going to use a paragraph out of Reedley because it is so ironic, as McGlew waved around a small piece of paper supposedly containing some work done by the architects we've hired as apparently the hospital is broke but willing to pay to get this bond. Eeking desperation over there.

(If he calls this a footprint, I'll faint on the spot.)

The reason we are in this situation with Cal Mtg. was because of construction costs and losses which occurred twenty years ago.

Now, we the community, as Chet used his best baby face to ask the community to help and vote for his bond, must pay off the old debt and still be beholding to Cal Mtg. for our credit, which really doesn't actually improve our situation that much, then they are going to undertake the most stressful and risky venture: do remodeling.

People divorce over these types of things.

Since at this point there is actually no way to get this bond, what will we do? Nobody has discussed the obvious things, like eliminating certain services which until such a time as the hospital can support itself, could be restored and are not shorted so much that they can't make money and become an excessive liability.

This is like throwing good money after bad, much like the government always does. But since Chet Beedle has blamed everyone from Cal Mtg. to the whole state of California for the problems, I say why not have the state take out a huge GOB for 40 billion, the whole state will pay higher property taxes, and then of course the money will trickle right down on top of our hospital and restore us. This way rather than the little Kern River Valley bailing out a hospital with their property taxes, the whole state will share in bailing out the whole state. And CFW will help write the verbiage on the ballot and then collect 40 million for their services. (it's just a thought)

That's what tax man says...

Not only did the audit find that Ott used the untouchable bond money, but she was also cited with mishandling employee pension monies as well. Maybe she was simply handling the monies rather than mishandling...

Here's the end quote from the Reedley Exponent about what happened with the construction project at Sierra Kings...It gets spooky when I make comparisons of these two public healthcare districts.

In October 2009, Zumwalt Construction, Inc. and a subcontractor filed claims against the hospital totaling $987,136, alleging deficiencies in the design documents, changes in the work, and other factors. The hospital disputed the claims and sought $623,000 in damages resulting from delayed completion of the project. Both parties have agreed to participate in mediation, but it is not yet resolved.

Go read the whole article, it will help you decide on this GOB being pitched at KVHD.

http://www.reedleyexponent.com/articles/2010/06/02/news/doc4c06cdf1c0177127438958.txt


Good pictures from the meeting, you'll never guess who showed up, it was a motley group...

Maybe now this picture will mean somethingn to you...

Nobody bankrupts on Cal Mtg., really...

Early word is Cal Mtg. the insurer of the Kern Valley Healthcare District bond debt is recommending we get some help in the way of financial management. (which is a nice way of them saying you owe us and we are going to be making the calls now)

Now, there are many posts on the blog regarding Cal Mtg. which I will list for you as we have only just begun...there is no happy ending in sight.

I've talked about this for a few years now and I've explained it many ways, adding all sorts of examples. I even wrote a proposal last year and garnered support for dealing with the problem then and not letting the limb rot to the gangrenous point.

Funny that we have the same financial person who has repeatedly told some really interesting, though hardly coherent, stories about how we are the only pharmacy in town who can't make money. How we needed to cut staff which lead to us going the complete opposite way and try to buy ourselves out of trouble with the likes of Don Ermel Doyle and his gang from the nursing center.

That was a great three million dollar investment.

Just like the 22 million we anchored the district with 20 plus years ago. Theres so much this hospital could have done.

And again, that's not "history" I'm talking about, I'm talking this year. Why didn't the board or administration ask to have another look by another finance consultant as they could see they were on the "killer Luge?"

I don't know, just wondering, they wouldn't have something to hide and that's why they didn't get help earlier before the storm hit. It's kind of like Katrina behavior: we saw the storm coming, were warned, but decided to do nothing.

And now Cal Mtg. who thought we were quite the country rubes back in the late 80's, (and I guess we were by the looks of it) took our bet that we could build all these great things onto the hospital and do it for 13 million which was way out of our means.

But Cal Mtg. was there with her alluring credit line, her feasibility studies, and we like money, so we took it. And when trouble started our "friends" found a likely criminal way to get us 9 million more so we could try, but not succeed in finishing our building plans.

We built an Operating room that used to actually be used, now there are a lot of colonoscopies going on up there, and a regular losing proposition, it is costing the hospital big bucks.

But the nursing center was not short staffed in 2005 because it didn't make money: it was short staffed so that money could be jockeyed over to another department which was losing money.

Like when I heard the physical therapy department was making money, and they couldn't get their supplies. The money that department makes was being moved into another department to make up their deficiency.

There is no organization anymore or if there ever was. I just know that at this point this hospital and it's satellite clinic, "the jewel of the district" are not safe places to get your healthcare.

Hey cal Mtg. if you want it, take it. Oh, yeah, you already know that.

But the bottom line is they own us.

What? I told you we own them? We do own them.

Whose on first? Right.

We pay property taxes and vote

I'm afraid to tell you reader but you might be to blame for part of this situation at the KVHD hospital.

If you live in this valley and voted in sorts such as Brad Armstrong, and Bob Jamison, then you know nothing about their contributions to the financial collapse.

Armstrong who has spent his life trying to control everything, and I say this humbly as he has a license to carry a gun and I'd rather not get any more on his bad side (yeah right), voted more than 20 years ago to screw up the future of the this hospital.

We are looking at the ghost of decisions past. Armstrong should have watched the construction more carefully and not taken the seemingly "free rural" monies backed by Cal Mtg. He has at least admitted this was a "bad decision" but doesn't he get it? He's sitting there on the board looking at the consequences of a bad decision.

But then there's Cal Mtg. themselves, a qausi government agency, in theory who was to "help" rural hospitals.

We can see from records that they not only helped, but mostly landed on their heads as many of those loans seem awful iffy. Even on the outside, I think a good analyst could detect a pattern of allowing the agency to insure the very unsure. That got this country hospital in trouble. Now we need to be saved.

Maybe a pawn shop we have a lot of unused equipment such as PhACO machines and Mammography, and there's plenty of other odds and ends.

Or how about another feasibility study by the experts at OSHPD?

I'm sure are overactive board of directors will come up with something to pull us through. Right? They have been so helpful so far.

Maybe Cal Mtg. should just dump them all and start over. I would if I had that power and you all know it. I've not been impressed by anything...well maybe because nothing has been done.

But how could they be wrong they make money

Cal Mtg. doesn't want to hear that people in this valley think we should bankrupt on them.

Because Cal Mtg. has something we are all trying to get: clout. They make money and that is a good thing these days.

But it's also odd.

Someone said to me the other day when I asked about the person's leaning toward paying for a bond or a parcel tax, aren't public hospital's non profit.

Well, you have to have some profit to keep going into the future, but non profits have a different structure. We will discuss this soon.

I'll get as much information as I can regarding this new development, and we will find out soon if HFS, who happens to be in Reedley cleaning up with a bankruptcy, will be our new neighbors.

My blog is so bloated with information, I'll try to get a list of the Cal mtg. posts so that anyone interested, can find out more.

Don't strain yourselves, this information is tedious and quite boring unless you're an obsessed writer/researcher. If you begin to understand what I'm talking about, I warn you it could be bad for your health. You will be quite irritated to see the mediocrity and arrongance which are in charge of your healthcare.

Much more to come, like a board meeting, this week, Cinco de Mayo, 5:30 pm in the cafeteria. If Cal mtg. brings the guacamole, we might bring some chips...

They're just like twins, except one is nattily dressed and the other can't afford a diaper: Sierra Kings in Reedley CA

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.

What can the small community of Reedley teach the Kern River Valley...

The small community of Reedley, California, southeast of Fresno, had a rude awakening more than a week ago, when their Sierra Kings District hospital, CEO, Pamela Ott, was charged with eight counts of elder abuse in a case that started in another rural community, right here in the Kern River Valley.

Ott, who was the former CEO/Administrator for the Kern Valley Healthcare District, resigned her position in May of 2007, as the skilled nursing facility was on the verge of collapse, and placed in "immediate jeopardy" by public health officials at least twice before she left.

(Will be bringing more quotes and pix from the May 2007 board meeting. After watching the video again, I noticed more than I did the first time around. And boy, I bet most of that isn't in the minutes. Then I was still fishing for information, now I can see clearly looking back on this video. Hopefully, we can have that up next.)

Sorry about this community of Reedley, but we could not get the support from the citizenery, media or the government, in particular the Grand Jury, to reel in our people who were responsible for short staffing our eldery residents care, while at the same time allowing a nursing director to order new medications without contacting family members, ignoring employee complaints, and finally denying any wrongdoing.

Instead, we sent off Pamela Ott, with some sort of glowing reference from the chairman of the board at the time, Brad Armstrong, and Sierra Kings District ended up with her and her skeletons in the closet.

In fact, Ott was "under fire" when she left, as employees began to get brave and talk about what had happened. I was right on her heels, but she ran, protected by the phalanx of support inside the hospital.

This afternoon, I spoke, with Sierra Kings District board President, Trish Johnson, and she confirmed that Ott is on an unpaid "administrative leave" until the court hearings Nov. 3 and 4.

Johnson said, "Pam Ott is on administrative leave, we've been looking at this situation, so we're far from done. I can only tell you because we are taking this very seriously, that the outcomes are not definite yet."

"So with that said," Johnson added, "we're doing what we can to keep the hospital from running rampant with rumors. There will always be disgruntled people as you well know, we don't contend to hide anything."

I asked the board President if the charges against Ott came as a surprise.
"Yes, it did. The board learned about it the Tuesday after Labor Day and we did not have any idea, we knew she had to go to Bakersfield for a court appearance, but we did not know what for."

Johnson concluded by saying that the board will be reassessing the situation with Ott in November.

The local newspaper and website," The Reedley Exponent," had some excellent coverage with a story regarding Ott, along with an opinion piece to knock your socks off. There were also some well written letters to the editor which reflect the situation at Sierra Kings District.

In editor, Cheryl Lingo's article, she quotes the board President as saying that they could not have known of Ott's past prior to hiring her.

(quote from Exponent)
"Johnson said the board was unaware of Ott's problems when she was interviewed for the CEO position two years ago. Johnson said she believes the board did its due diligence in confirming Ott."Every organization has its internal struggles, and there's no way we could have uncovered this sort of thing," she said."

In a punched up opinion piece, by Fred Hall, no holds barred, he tells it like it is about Ott resigning and even the board members resigning.

Unequivocally, in everyday language, Ms. Ott you should quit immediately for the good of the entire community and staff of the facility where you are employed. It’s simply a matter of doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons!

Hall kept rolling, and I'm going to give another sample here that may give some here in the Kern River Valley and at the healthcare district something think about.

In the interim, we can only plead with those who were placed in charge of this tremendously important community asset to do your jobs and get things cleaned up. If you’re incapable or unwilling, then get out of the way! This hospital is a public entity and not something to inflate the egos of a few or enrich others who show such incompetence in dispatching their fiduciary duties.

Here are a few comments from the letters to the editor section:

It is time for a change in the hospital’s leadership and time for the current Board to be held accountable for their poor decisions and inattention to fundamental issues.

We also have just become aware that the hospital's board of directors was fully knowledgeable concerning these problems when the contract was offered to Ms. Ott. It seems apparent that Mrs. Trish Johnson, board president, chose to overlook or at least play down the implications of these legal problems which were well known in Kern County prior to the employment of Ms. Ott.

So many of these comments are familiar to us in the valley, as we have struggled with certain board members, and administrators, such as our chief Financial Officer, Chet Beedle for several years now.

Go to the Reedley Exponent and take a look a their stories and reactions. They are planning to bring in extra help so they can rightly provide media oversight so the community of Reedley doesn't remain in the dark.

The Sierra Kings District board will being interviewing for an "interim" CEO and CFO as Barbara Jennings was terminated according to the board President.

Though Johnson resisted talking about the situation with the Cheif Financial Officer, she said the two situations were "unrelated."

However, in the news article from the Exponent, there appears to be some relationship:

Johnson maintains there is no connection between Ott's being placed on administrative leave and the firing of former CFO Barbara Jennings. "Barbara Jennings wasn't fulfilling her duties here at the hospital. These two things are not connected." Johnson confirmed that Jennings was brought on board by Ott.

http://www.reedleyexponent.com/

"YOU'RE FIRED!" former KVHD CEO, Pam Ott, terminated from Sierra Kings hospital

Sierra Kings Hospital District gives the boot to Ott:

Former Kern Valley Healthcare District CEO, Pamela Ott, shown here during the May 2007 KVHD board meeting, where she stepped down as CEO amidst troubles in the skilled nursing facility which lead to elder abuse criminal charges being filed against her two months ago in September.


Ott left KVHD while the nursing center was being threatened with closure, and civil lawsuits were being filed against the district. (No, she wasn't fired by KVHD, but was aided and abetted by the former "sticky three" board members, who sent her off to their friends from Aspen Street Architects, with letters of recommendation.)


She then went on to Sierra Kings District Hospital a month later, being hired on as CEO, with a resume containing suspicious educational degrees originating from a "diploma mill" or unaccredited program, which KVHD overlooked and so did Sierra Kings.

Reedley rids itself of Ott

When Ott was charged two months ago by the state of California, Department of Justice, Medi-Cal and elder abuse, and Board of Registered Nursing, with eight counts of elder abuse, the Sierra Kings District Board of Directors put her on unpaid administrative leave.


The former President of the Sierra Kings board, Trish Johnson, said that the board was not aware of why Ott was going to court at the time, and that the whole issue was a surprise to her. (More research of her resume would have probably lessened the surprise factor.)


Johnson said the board would wait until the November hearing to make a final decision on Ott's status with the district.

The criminal court hearings, which took place last week, resulted only in a continuance for Ott and the two other remaining defendants, Dr. Hoshang Pormir and Gwen Hughes, RN, until Jan. 5, as they all waived their rights to a "speedy preliminary hearing."


While Ott prepared for court last week, the Sierra Kings hospital board of directors, at their regular monthly meeting, made the decision, and terminated the former CEO who will be facing criminal charges as well as several civil lawsuits occurring during her leadership at KVHD.

Human resources fiasco

As I mentioned above, both the Kern Valley Healthcare District and Sierra Kings Distirct, hired on Ott with her fish market, fishy resume, work history and educational degrees. (there are several posts on the blog relating to this topic, as well as Ott's actual resume.)

Imagine that this document, the copy I have was used at KVHD, was seen and reviewed by many people in the chain of command, which makes this another "system failure" as Ott described the state of the nursing center in 2007.

There have been many people arguing recently about how the poor victims in the human resources department have their hands tied by the state and cannot do a full background check.

Maybe so, if you put no work into it at all. However, Ott's resume was so obvious that anyone reading it could have caught it and questioned it, it would have taken all of five minutes to look the degrees up on the Internet.

There is no excuse for this. All who were involved in the hiring of Ott as CEO should be fired, sued, or thrown off the board of directors. (By the way, if Ott is currently job hunting, I would recommend to a potential employer to: READ THIS BLOG FIRST, then decide. Here's your background check and it wasn't free, we all paid the price.)

Yes, Ott was the tragedy, but certainly not her resignation

Crazy as it sounds, after the threat of closing the nursing center, the cries for help from the employees, the new drug regimen, KVHD board member, Bob Jamison called Ott stepping down, "a tragedy that didn't have to happen."


Yelling and threatening, Jamison, made it clear that the only problem at KVHD was the media reporting there was a problem at KVHD. He and Ott even threatened libel suits to put the finishing touches on their story.

Jamison, who is the only person at the local radio outlet, QAB media, who can work the engineering for the stations (which allows him great influence over the owners,) engineered a plan to have Ott on the radio to explain what happened at the nursing center. He dedicated a whole hour of radio time to deny the seriousness of the problems and to offer sad excuses to go along with the lies. (See: Here's your witness Jerry Brown to read the transcript of the show)

Jamison was not alone in his grief for Ott and her departure, the two fellow board members, known as the "sticky three," Brad Armstrong and Barbara Casas, were more concerned with Ott's resignation than the meltdown of the hospital.


Brad Armstrong and Barbara Casas, openly attack the community in response to Ott's resignation. Bob Knight, at the right of the picture, tried to warn the other board members and community of the problems, but was not taken seriously because of personal attacks.


But did Jamison, Casas, and Armstrong also help Ott get the job she just lost at Sierra Kings District, by providing references? (If I were Sierra Kings and didn't want to look as ridiculous as they do here for hiring Ott, I would get out those letters of reference and march them down to an attorney who might know what to do about it.)

Again, the onus of responsibility comes down from the top. Even if none of these people ever touched a resident of the nursing center or knew their names, they created an environment of fear and dishonesty, which lead to the system failure or whatever term you want to call it, which hurt residents, families, and the future of this hospital, and in turn the future of this community.

That kind of authoritarian leadership created a hostile environment inside that hospital, where many people were threatened with termination, hours cut, pay cuts, licenses reported; anything to keep employees from questioning the administrators and their board member cohorts.

(Hitler never put one single person on a train to a concentration camp. He didn't have to do the dirty work; it was the environment of fear he created that lead people to do things they would not normally do or agree with. )

As Ott resigned in May 07, she gave the board thirty days notice, meaning she may have stepped down that night at the meeting, but she had thirty more days in power and some cleaning up to do.

Ott's last thirty, dirty days at KVHD

The day after her resignation, several employees found themselves facing the firing squad, Human Resources Manager, Michelle Rosado. (Rosado left shortly after Ott in 07)

Rosado wasted no time in getting those out of the hospital who could be a threat to the cover up of the nursing center which had been ensuing for months.

Anyone who knew me, was immediately suspect. Employees told me they were ordered to "never" talk to me. My medical care suffered as a consequence.

There was no compassion as I got phone calls from distraught staff with stories of being thrown out of their offices without time to even gather all of their things.

They were ordered off the property. The paranoid administrators then turned to another tactic and that was to try and hold up unemployment claims and people trying to retrieve money from their vacation, sick time, and retirement accounts.

Next was the insurance issue, as terminated employees were scrambling to hang onto their health insurance, they were told, like in most cases, the only option was the COBRA policy, which was overpriced, especially for the recently jobless.

So, the stress continued as Ott blamed the terminations on the nursing home management company, Sycamore Asset Management Company, who came in via Ott and the board. (I've got this on tape Sycamore...?)

Sycamore was given carte blanche to do what they had to do to pull the SNF out of possible closure, and they were handed on a silver platter, a time and materials contract, to do it with.

The board and the financial officer, Chet Beedle, allowed this company to charge almost two million dollars, for their services, which did not end the woes of the nursing center. There was no due diligence in that decision, and currently hurts the hospital which barely has five days cash on hand.

(We could use that money now. Where's Pam Ott? Would she be willing to pay our fines and the tab for Sycamore? We need the money back Pam.)

Two board members and dozens of employees tried to get thru the bulwark, Robert and Kathryn Knight, reported the CEO, but in the end, all the propaganda and defamation kept the truth buried, until now. (see blog post: Urban legend, revelation and responsibility)

Firing can be a good thing though

I think ridding yourself of employees who are irresponsible, lacking in skills, lying on their resumes, pretending not to know about criminal activity, engaging in criminal activity, showing no compassion, invading private employee information, is a really good idea.

But that's not what happened at KVHD.

In fact, people were fired for no good reason on many occasions. But the ones who were doing the things I described above, many of them are still getting a paycheck from our public healthcare district every month.

And one of the people, actually, as has been posted in this blog, invaded the privacy of two employees without recourse. He also misled the board members on many financial decisions. He was involved in a nasty dispute regarding a health clinic which ended up requiring our favorite players, attorneys.

But he's still there. Even with new board members, who should be wary of everything this person claims and says, there has been no real action to change the situation.

How can you fire people for no reason, and not fire those for a good reason?

Can KVHD make any sense of this themselves? I cannot.

If the board and administrators truly want what is best for this district and this hospital and ultimately the community's survival, then they should take their job's seriously, and make the tough calls.

To do this they must cast off any doubt or fear that they will be criticized or even lose a few admirers, when they get around to doing what is right. (it's been long awaited, trust me)

Correct the imbalances; create a new environment of participation and honesty; and rid us of the past crimes against this community.

She doesn't have a bunker

Here we are more than two years later and the Sierra Kings District Hospital is doing what we at KVHD should have done: fire Ott.

Sierra Kings is not without its own problems, as the former President of the board, was recently asked to step down by members of the community, as the hospital has filed for bankruptcy and questions about the origin of these problems still plague the residents.

Trish Johnson, did not step down as a board member, but rather a wishy washy stance was taken and she slipped into another chair, and now is no longer in a leadership position on the board, yet still a board member.

I don't think that move will satisfy the people in Reedley though, as they are willing to take up signs, speak out and walk in front of the hospital, with regard only for the community, not themselves or reputations.

I have asked repeatedly that Bob Jamison and Brad Armstrong admit their mistakes and step down from the board. I am not the only one who believes this would be best for our community: I just happen to be the only one willing to say it.

The Valley of Fear

We live in a valley of fear, as we're prone to ignore problems for the sake of our standing in the community. There are people here who would throw you under the bus in a heartbeat if it made them look better or kept them out of trouble.

I've seen that happen at this hospital over the last few years, and it is indeed sickening.

Pam Ott fed off of this environment, that is how she was able to escape responsibility for two years, and even get a couple of awards from the Association of California Healthcare Districts, ACHD, before the law caught up with her.

Bob Jamison and Brad Armstrong must believe that by stepping down from the board and allowing progress to the scene, that would somehow diminish them and their previous power.

Realize this: these two board members get little money to do what they do (which these days is nothing); they do get healthcare insurance with the district; but all in all it's not a paying job, it's a service.

And boy oh boy did they serve up quite a dish for us: colluding with each other, allowing criminal activity, engaging in criminal activity, ignoring serious and deadly problems, hiring unqualified CEO's, and yet they are still here. (It boggles the mind)

They will never have their power back, the way it was when Ott and Beedle reigned as King and Queen.

Jamison and Armstrong stay because they are not strong enough to leave. It's that simple. There is strength in character, so that answers our questions.

Final thoughts

I'm sure there will be some happy people out there who believe that Pam Ott is now getting what she deserves: what comes around goes around, they say.

I don't blame them a bit as Ott showed no compassion toward anyone, and that lack of sentiment was followed by her followers, Ott's gang. (See post: Ma's gang)

The finale may not be the way we would like it as the state of California, Department of Justice, maybe hoping to escape the trial and go for the plea bargains.

But if we can save this hospital from itself at this point, and survive the immoral and unethical years, then we can be proud of ourselves.

We have a serious situation coming from every direction at the healthcare district, as it is weakened to the point of considering even to close down a pharmacy used by residents utilizing the local district services or simply living on the south side of the lake.

If they can't run a pharmacy, how can these people run a whole healthcare district?

Is this not a model of ineffective financial planning, development, and certainly financial advice?

We have become the Kern Valley Public "thrift store" District, as the auxiliary manages to have continued success financially, and a construction project which went without a hitch, and was fully completed.

The Auxiliary, an all volunteer crew, manage to keep this district running, providing money for the rehab on the aging buildings, and rundown or nonexistent equipment. Umm, since they're paying for everything, they should be invited in on the discussion of how to run the pharmacy.

We will have more on the pharmacy soon. Please know that the employees left at the gutted pharmacy are trying their best to get your order, and that they do not have the power to change the situation. If you want to complain, talk to the man who is in charge of finance, CFO, Chet Beedle. 760-379-2681, press O, and ask for Chet.

And thank you, Sierra Kings, for setting a strong example of community teamwork, involvement, to deal with situations such as we have at our relative healthcare outlets. You have filed for bankruptcy and now have divested yourselves of Ott, whereas we should bankrupt, and fire the left over players from the Ott regime.

And also a thank you goes out to the woman (I didn't get her name, but I will) from the Board of Registered Nursing, who in court last week, asked the judge that Ott be required to check in with the agency before taking on a leadership position in any new employment she may get.

(In September when she was initially charged, Ott was not required to post bail, spent no time in jail or a jumpsuit, and her only stipulation was that she could not hold a leadership position in a hospital with a nursing center. Oh, the inequity of these decisions.)

The judge denied the board of nursing's request, but the fact that she persisted and may really understand, unlike the judge, what Ott is capable of, makes her diligent in her pursuit of justice. (Remember, I posted the email where Ott again misrepresents her credentials even further past her resume, and tells me she was a nurse practitioner. She was offering to help me as I had become ill, which was truly timed in her favor. That should be reason enough right there to keep an eye on Miss Ott.)

More to follow...