(look again) Do you feel like bonding with the Kern Valley Healthcare District: well, they feel like bonding with you, generally

A cry for help

Last week at the KVHD Finance Committee meeting it became clear that there problems that could no longer be handled with the smidgen of talent we currently have working towards the future of KV district.

In the process of finding out the financial situation is dire at best, even Bob Jamison, criticized the current situation.

Issue there is, Jamison was one of the founding fathers of the problems at the healthcare district.

Let's take a look at his record. He grumbled about a credit card our CFO, Chet Beedle, wanted to obtain to utilize in purchasing supplies and medications for the pharmacy.

He called it a "stopgap" measure. Well, 100K isn't going to stop our gap, which is more of a chasm now, so it was a moot point.

Jamison has been behind some of the criminal and unethical practices which has lead to the KVHD reputation becoming laughable while at the same time, people have begun to hate the hospital.

When former, elder abuse charged, CEO Pam Ott, said "jump" Jamison did his best. He voted on the board to hire Ott, he protected her in the face of truth when she was accused of allowing people to be harmed or mistreated in the nursing facility, he engaged in slanderous activities, and even took this agenda to the radio station where he works and broadcasts.

Can you imagine having this man solve any of our problems? He was one of the problems until he lost his quorum and now is nothing more than a irritable figure of a board member. Why is he still here voters?

My guess is because his ego is bigger than his character and he doesn't know when to quit. My dog died last night the most beautiful death as if he knew how to do it. He could teach us all a few things.

If he cared about this hospital and this goes to others such as the "term limit" poster boy, Brad Armstrong, who helped bring the plague which is our long term debt more than 20 years ago.

(And, yeah right, the past doesn't matter.)

If the board 20 years ago, where Brad Armstrong sat, had done the right things, like getting all construction complete; making a plan for the future; and not allowing the overages which lead to a 20 plus million dollar debt; we would be in great shape now.

And had we not been in grips of the dark and gray area of the government, Cal Mtg., an office within the office of Statewide healthcare planning and development, we still would have been a better hospital than we are now.

In 1999, had we bankrupted on Cal Mtg. and made it out the other side, we would be a top notch hospital. We would have had the money to reinvest in ourselves. (bankruptcy as it turns out, is not an option so much as it is a possible result of years of parasitic management)

Our current accounting system, run by our financial manager, Chet Beedle, is called the "rob Peter to pay Paul," system of accounting.

That's why vendors are getting money only when they finally complain or even threaten a lawsuit.

This is not going to work, and we need to keep this hospital open.

You could be generally obligated

The newest in ideas is to go back after a general obligation bond to pay off the long term debt.
(This is from last year, one year ago since they recently told us that we are getting a new ER, sorry, I mean paying the debt or whatever they want really. It becomes their money once we relinquish our property taxes in a vote this November 2, 2010)

I thought the debt was nothing; not the problem? That's what I keep being told anyway.

Now, they've realized that the only way to get money is from this community by way of your property taxes.

And who knows what else they will add onto it so that they have a little extra money to fly people up and down the West Coast and buy lunches, vote on murals not nursing raises to fix a dangerous skilled nursing center.

Give me a break!

Now, I said I agree there is not enough money in our current tax base, as some of our property taxes automatically go to the hospital. It's not much though.

I heard an idea out of one camp about simply raising these property taxes.

Nice, considering most of the top dogs at the hospital don't even own property up here.

Again, it's a question of trust. In the federal bailout, rather than allow a floundering business to die, the government and all it's wisdom, gave billions to the same people whose business practices caused the problems.

Not real bright. And that is what must be avoided here.

There must be reorganization in the administration and hospital before a bond could even be considered.

And with Mr. Jamison and Mr. Armstrong still on the board of directors, not that they do anything, but they could use this time to step down and allow people with the future in mind to come aboard and try to help.

If they do or don't, it doesn't matter anymore as those two are really irrelevant.

We need this hospital, but we need it to serve us better than it has in the past...

Currently, on the board of directors: Kay Knight Chairwoman; Victoria Alwin Secretary of the board; Dr. Robert Gross DO, first vice chair; Bob Jamison, Treasurer; and Brad Armstrong, second vice chair.

This board needs to do something now in terms of finding some real stop gap measures to utilize while a "strategic plan" is drafted and hopefully, well thought out.

(I have the strategic plan from 2006, and it's certainly full of hope, but nothing came of it. That's sad, considering there was time and expense, but it's now nothing more than a box taking up space in storage.)

Because of the whacked out spending spree which took place in the last four years, the hospital is in serious trouble, and there's no hiding from it anymore.

Nobody takes any responsibility there, and it's again a matter of not being able to plan for the future.

If you want to find out more about the potential increase in your property taxes or you need to know what is going on with Mt. Mesa Clinical Pharmacy, I suggest you attend the board meeting.

And the meeting is this Wed., Dec. 2, at 5:30 pm in the hospital cafeteria.

Remember, the board members are elected, the administrators are hired by the board, and the public has the ultimate say. So, say it already.

See you there.

My puppy, Johnson is sick, but while I sit by his side, I must tell you about something...

Well, it's a pet owner's struggle to not have the pets get sick over the holidays or anytime for that matter, but my new addition, Johnson, is very ill and I am sitting here nursing him, waiting and hoping that he will make it.

I'm covering our pet situation as Johnson is hovering near life and death, likely with Parvo, as the virus is apparently alive and well here in the valley.

However, Walter, my boxer, and the Thanksgiving dinner buzz kill, started the holidays with a blood fest during pie as he ripped his toe nail in two.

But that was just the beginning. I have no idea if Johnson will live or not, the story is on the pet blog. Putting it on the blog was a convenience I might add, as I don't have to call and let everyone know the status, they can just look. Thank you everyone who has been writing and calling for your concern, I will update as things change for the better or worse. (Much like I do with the hospital. I just hope it's a happier ending for Johnson.)

http://krvpetcorner.blogspot.com/

But while I'm waiting and worrying, we need to begin talking about what is happening at the Kern Valley Healthcare District.

The finance committee meeting:

We are basically on a downward spiral right now, and with no accurate projections and a volatile economy, the finances at KVHD are dire at best.

With the recent analysis written by CFO, Chet Beedle, regarding the closure of the retail portion of the pharmacy as an attempt to stop some of the bleeding in the district, it has become apparent now that there are urgent problems.

That particular analysis is being reviewed by another consultant, and as of two days ago was not finished and not available for public viewing.

The first analysis was a comedic attempt to utilize decade old data and blame everyone from the distributor to the employees so that the outlet looked like it needed to be cut out.

We don't need to lose services, we need more services to bring in more money.

They can't keep cutting or there will be nothing left.

Pay your bill: You too KVHD

You provide a service and you collect the fee for the service. That's a general business rule or common sense.

But in healthcare you have other issues which effect that particular hard and fast rule.

Patients who have a serious medical condition must be treated in the ER, by law, whether than can pay or not. (isn't that nice of the government to make us all feel so equal)

With the CFO claiming that more than 30% of the patients are uninsured, cash customers, many without the cash, there is an obvious problem with collections.

But there are programs as we've discussed before that could be used by some of these patients depending upon their financial standing, and all it takes to find out is some information.

Right off the bat the hospital CFO admitted they should do a better job insisting that patients fill out forms which could bring reimbursement to the hospital.

Then there's the back log of collections. Without knowing the particulars, as they are rarely shared, there has been a billing issue and a collection issue, leaving much money unaccounted for.

In another post, I reported that Sierra Kings District, former home of our former, elder abuse charged, CEO, Pam Ott, filed for bankruptcy.

But in their plan to restore their hospital financially, they too, are looking at trying to collect monies owed.

Write off's are great, but they're no good unless you're making money at the same time.

There was mention of putting liens on people's houses and other harsh methods of collection, but I'm not sure that the KVHD wants to push people that far at this point in their shaky reputation.

We are a small community, and these sorts of things get around fast (bloggers, what are you going to do?) and the first elderly person tossed from their home over a KVHD bill, will most certainly be part of our new website where we will be doing video interviews.

But as we have spoken about the pharmacy's situation, Mt. Mesa Clinical Pharmacy, it seems the suppliers of the medications has the same ideas about collections as we are bandying around at KVHD.

A representative from Cardinal Health explained to me that the reason the pharmacy is on a COD basis is simply because KVHD was not paying them. And he said the same thing Chet and the CEO, Tim, had mentioned at the meeting: you provide a service and you want to be paid for it.

KVHD's rob Peter to pay Paul system of accounting, (very bureaucratic chic I might add) is an example of what the cause of the problems are concerning everything at the hospital.

Yes, they need money, but they need to "make" money. And with the bi-polar economy, they are going to have to be on top of it, and play it smart and fast. Something that can't be done because of certain impediments to progress. (certain people)

Remember who you are KVHD

We are a public hospital and we may have to remember that regularly as we seem to forget this is a "service" to this community.

I'm sure it's irregular, but almost twenty years ago I was treated by a doctor and owed him over a thousand dollars because I wasn't insured at the time, but we made another arrangement: we bartered.

(This was in Santa Maria when it wasn't the big suburb of LA; it was a country town with the ability to treat each situation differently, with personal considerations taken into account. Big business and big brother have stomped out the ability to operate that way. But there's always hope)

I've told you on this blog I ran a plumbing business, so what I did was install a furnace in this doctor's rental house, and poof, no more bill.

We have to think outside the box, but we have not seen that here at KVHD yet. We're waiting.

I believe we need to decide who and what the district is to this community it serves.

Are we mere business folk or are we serving the valley, it's issues today and those we could help or hinder for tomorrow? I'd like to know and may have to ask the board and administrators.

There has been no open discussion about cutting top salaries and benefits that I know of, and no furlough days, no personal salary reduction as some Kern County employees did voluntarily early in this recession.

But the staff have taken big cuts, going sometimes from full time, to part time, to per Diem with no benefits.

If I were a KVHD employee, I would think in the back of my mind if I took less so that there would be more to help keep the doors open, I couldn't do it.

Why? Because of the irresponsible way the money has been spent and continues to be spent because of the person in charge of the finances and his two amigo's still left on the board of directors.

So, what will they do?

At the beginning of the meeting, Beedle made a point of telling us that in his comparisons with other "like" facilities, he found that all these other hospitals had general obligation bonds.

What's a GOB? A general obligation bond is paid for by the community with property tax dollars.

And now there are those at the hospital who would like to try and sell us one of these deals and then they would pay off our long term debt.

Gosh, isn't that interesting that I have said that debt is our anchor, and have argued that for years, now do I get credit?

I'm going to tell you something which is the truth, we do not have an adequate tax base, with lower property values, the percentage of property tax dollars going to the hospital is minimal.

It's true the hospital needs help, but much like the bailout fiasco provided by the federal government, they left these same top employees who drained the various corporations of money due to lousy business practices in place to do it all over again with a new pile of money.

We're not going to do that. I promise I will fight tooth and nail any "bail out" scheme which doesn't include a change in management. (it would have to be a reorganization)

No bankruptcy for us: right Cal Mtg.

I made mention again, of the fact that Cal Mtg. who insures our debt, and would have to pay it off if we default, is the only agency in the California government with money right now. They could take the hit, we should have done it ten years ago, and we would probably have a brand new hospital with services doctors and nurses would come from all around to work at.

No, we didn't do that. We were taken over basically by Cal Mtg. in 1999, as the hospital faltered under the debt. High dollar consultants came in and took a lot of money out of here under the guise of helping the hospital.

Back to square one.

In this economy we would be hard put to get this bond in the first place, but there's no way I myself would vote for a bond giving money to the mismanagers who put us in the situation we are in. That would be very stupid.

Next Wed, at 5:30 pm, in the hospital cafeteria is your chance to discuss these issues with both your elected Representatives and the administrators at the regular monthly board meeting.

The past again....

I've been tagged for talking about the past as we are supposedly trying to put it behind us. Gosh, that's true for some things, but it doesn't apply to money.

Everything that has been done to ruin this hospital's finances didn't happen today: it happened over a period of time until we have the situation we have now.

So, at I left off the blog story, with the "pre-McGlew era," and that's where we will start the next post.

Board meeting: don't forget WED. Dec. 2, 5:30 pm in the hospital cafeteria.