The Battle to Demand a Better Hospital

Every year, the Henry Mayo Medical Staff has a duty to elect physicians to their Medical Executive Committee (MEC). This election took place in early December and was the most contentious battle in my 23 years on Staff.
Unsubstantiated and unwritten allegations of previous voting impropriety were made by CEO, Roger Seaver, in an apparent attempt by Administration to affect the outcome of this election. Even the hospital Board of Directors, which was handpicked by Mr. Seaver, passed a “resolution” to appoint a retired Judge to oversee the election proceedings.
The Henry Mayo Medical Staff, as at any hospital in California, is an autonomous organization which has legal, ethical, and fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of this Valley. Our role is to maintain and enhance the healthcare at Henry Mayo Hospital without outside influence. Knowing the MEC might be the last bastion against special interest, 93% of the voting physicians turned out to cast their ballot and overwhelmingly defeated Mr. Seaver’s attempted takeover.
Unsettled and angry, Mr. Seaver lashed out at the Medical Staff after the voting stating members were “not honorable”. This was witnessed by a Judge and captured on videotape. Accusations like this against doctors have been presented in the past to the Board of Directors, hospital Foundation, and public in order to manipulate and create bias against the MEC and the Medical Staff.
Borne out of this, an outside physician consultant was asked earlier this year to assist and improve communication amongst doctors and hospital staff. As these meetings progressed, I continually asked why the Administration’s role in lack of communication was not delineated. To no ones surprise, it became apparent in the consultant’s final assessment that blame was to be made solely against members of the MEC, disregarding any role of the Administration. So, who paid the consultant?
A Chief Medical Officer (CMO) was hired and immediately, not only were accusations made about elections, but false “Code of Conduct” allegations were being made against physicians. Recently I queried hospital nurses and they told me they were appalled when asked by Administration to report doctors for “anything” (and would testify to this in Court). So, who pays the CMO?
Finally, the Board of Directors has passed multiple “Resolutions” against the Medical Staff and the MEC. So, who pays the Board of Directors? They aren’t paid...but please read on.
As a 501(c)3 non-profit hospital, Henry Mayo Hospital must file a 990 form to the IRS concerning financial conflict of interest from Board members. Anyone can ask for this document and obtain it. Not reported on their form is the millions of dollars Henry Mayo has in the Bank of Santa Clarita where James Hicken is the President & Chief Executive Officer and Elizabeth Hopp is the Senior Vice President/Director of Client Services...both of whom are on the Board of Directors of Henry Mayo Hospital. Were any other Board members left off the form that might have financial conflict of interest? Certainly, their exclusion from this 990 form must be known to the accountants and attorneys of Bank of Santa Clarita and Henry Mayo Hospital, but what does the IRS and the California Attorney General think about this? (Please see: Is the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital board too cozy?)
Even with the Medical Staff and MEC under a barrage of deprecating allegations, they are fiercely defending their role in protecting patient care at our hospital. Apparently questionable and threatening decision making by Roger Seaver and the Board of Directors jeopardizes the viability of Henry Mayo Hospital.
As alluded to previously on this site, the hospital knowingly has appointed a CMO whose duties and responsibilities are not listed nor defined by Henry Mayo governing documents, making us liable for sanctions from The Joint Commission (TJC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Not addressing recent sanctions by TJC puts the hospital at further risk, as do violation of HIPAA, “sentinel events”, and the above mentioned financial conflict of interest.
The Medical Staff, some of whom are your physicians, and the MEC need your support in their efforts to maintain quality and high standards at our hospital. We must demand honesty and transparency from Henry Mayo Hospital, and not the defaming and demeaning rhetoric we’ve seen from them in the past. Should the physicians and the public not have their demands met by Roger Seaver and Board of Directors, then maybe we will get justice from the IRS, California Attorney General, CMS, and TMJ.
As contentious as this battle is, it is one we cannot afford to lose.
Gene Dorio, M.D.
Gene Dorio, M.D., is a local physician. His commentary represents his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Commentary: Is the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital board too cozy?

Lately I have been thinking about boards of directors and corporate executive pay because for the last several years it has been increasingly in the news. Corporate executives being arrested for stock option backdating or swindling of funds; boards of directors asleep at the wheel or just rubberstamping whatever the Chief Executive Officer wants, and more.
It’s interesting to see that Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, gets paid by his company Berkshire Hathaway about $100,000 a year plus some perks. Or how about Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple getting a dollar a year. Obviously both men are billionaires and don’t need the money but it is an example of responsible corporate leadership.
There are plenty of other examples where corporate chiefs get a base salary and their bonuses are tied to performance. If the company does well and the owners (shareholders) are happy with the returns on their investment, then the CEO is rewarded and if the company doesn’t do well then that is reflected in the compensation too.
Good corporate boards should be made of individuals that bring some expertise or experience to the table and are active in the governance of the company. These are professionals that should not have conflicts of interest either by doing business with that company or have relatives working for the company.
That’s one of the reasons why it’s rather odd to me to see the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital (HMNMH) board of directors appear to be so cozy. Especially with all the controversy that has surrounded the hospital over the years it would seem prudent to have a board of directors that are as independent as possible.
The HMNMH Board Chair is James Hicken, President & Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Santa Clarita and Elizabeth Hopp, Sr. Vice President/Director of Client Services for Bank of Santa Clarita, is also on the hospital Board of Directors. What’s interesting about this is that the hospital apparently has millions of dollars in the Bank of Santa Clarita. That makes me ponder if these board members are looking out for the best interests of the hospital or of the bank? If the hospital decided to put its’ money in another bank would these board members still invest their time on the hospital board?
I also wondered why several doctors that are on the HMNMH board apparently have million dollar contracts with the hospital? Wouldn’t it be better to have medical doctors or experts on the hospital Board of Directors that don’t have any monetary affiliation with the facility; doesn’t that make them more objective and impartial?
There is an awful lot of construction going on at the hospital campus with more to come over the next few years and one of the owners of a construction company that appears to have a multi-million dollar contract with the hospital is on the board of directors. I would think having a construction expert on your board during a major facilities expansion and upgrade is a great idea but it would seem more sensible to have an independent expert, one with no business connection, on the board to add to the checks and balances of overseeing the construction work at the hospital. Wouldn’t that seem better?
The other thing that I thought was peculiar is that Roger Seaver the President/CEO of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital getting a total compensation package of $631,540.00. Gee, that’s more than six times what Warren Buffett makes and more than 50% higher then the $400,000 that President Obama makes. It might be better to have a more performance based compensation structure in place, one that rewards for significant improvements in health care to patients.
Now let’s face it, the hospital can pay what it wants and have whomever it wants on its board of directors. But it does raise eyebrows when you do see some of the activity described above going on and continually hear about quality of care issues. Those quality issues have been around for a long time and it may mean that the hospital facility has to go above and beyond to shake that negative stigma. Even starting at the board level with having more transparency and less perceived conflicts.
I discussed it with a few folks and one of them said to me; “That’s just how they do things in the Santa Clarita Valley; there is a lot of back slapping going on, that’s just the way it is.” But that doesn’t make it right or appropriate, does it?
It’s not hard to get the impression from some of this information that quite possibly there may be more interest in business and “back slapping” then in the administering of quality health care. That is certainly the view of some local doctors and former hospital patients.
Dave Bossert- Commentary
Dave Bossert is a community volunteer who serves on a number of boards and councils. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

From “OUR” Hospital to “THEIR” Hospital

Your loved one is ill and has been hospitalized for several days. Typically, the physician decides on a treatment plan and when they can return home. Would it bother you if the hospital CEO made these decisions based on bottomline finances instead of educated and reliable medical reasoning? This scenario is occurring across the country, and presently entangles our Henry Mayo Hospital.

Let’s face it, big business has taken over Wall Street and the banks, and little business and people like us have been hurt. A decade ago, plans were launched to take over hospitals...why?...because that’s where the money is! According to an article in one of our medical journals, the hospital industry is “out to decimate the independence of medical staffs and take away physicians’ rights. Their objective is clear: they want to place unfettered power and economic control over doctors in the hands of hospital administrators.”

Admittedly, doctors are not good business people, and they tend to have quirks of arrogance and self-righteousness that continually divide them. Taking advantage of these faults, big business swooped in and used physician medical licenses to make big profits. Yes, we’ve heard of some mismanaged hospitals going bankrupt, but most are now doing exceptionally well. Certainly, it would be generous if these hospital business people were interested in streamlining the system, saving money, and improving healthcare. But the massive profits are instead deceitfully funneled into huge administrative salaries, bonuses, pensions, and golden parachutes. Sound familiar?

A game plan by well-financed hospital business associations have lobbied many states to allow hospitals to “corporately practice medicine.” California does not. Because of this, there is an attempt to circumvent State law, which ultimately will be tested in California courts. Prime example is The City of Hope Medical Staff trying to thwart efforts by the hospital to use the position of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and a foundation to hire outside physicians. (Please refer to my October 12, 2010, commentary on this blog surrounding the controversial appointment of a CMO at Henry Mayo. Are they “setting the table”?)

These physicians are paid and under the authority of the hospital, who therefore dictates the degree and extent of care hospitalized patients receive. I’d love to cry “What about the Hippocratic Oath?!” these physicians have taken. Doctors are intelligent, and a rare breed, but sadly some are not so principled to bite the hand that feeds them.

As I’ve discussed previously in the West Ranch Beacon, Henry Mayo Hospital is governed by three entities: Medical Executive Committee (MEC), Administration, and Board of Directors. The MEC is elected by the physicians of the Medical Staff and follows By-Laws, and Rules & Regulations in maintaining State-law protected self-governance, which separates authority between doctors and the Administration. This is why physicians currently make all decisions about care of our hospitalized patients.

What if though the MEC is “majorilized” by physicians who vote to change the By-Laws, and Rules & Regulations in favor of the hospital Administration? Will patient control and decision making then be in the hands of the Administration? Of course. There are some physicians paid by Henry Mayo Hospital because they have contracts and directorships, and we have seen them financially coerced into speaking for the hospital (City Council Hospital Master Plan meetings). I wonder how they will vote if they are a member of the MEC? Conversely, physicians presently on the MEC who have attempted to maintain autonomy and self-governance have been bullied, degraded, defamed, and threatened by the Administration.

One truly needs to ask a critical question: Where is Henry Mayo’s Board of Directors in all of this? Unfortunately, they have already laid their cards on the table by passing multiple “Resolutions” condemning the MEC efforts to protect themselves. One can only look at the role the Administration plays in this influence and wonder when the public will ask for a conflict of interest investigation of certain Board members.

There is an attempt to make the MEC and Medical Staff at Henry Mayo Hospital be the “bad guys” as this has been propagated and propagandized to the Board of Directors, Foundation, hospital medical personnel, and even to the Medical Staff. As an involved Medical Staff member and not on the MEC, my view of these problems are clear and precise: the problem does not lie with the MEC nor Medical Staff; this bullying and hostility comes directly from the Administration, in conjunction with their plan to take over all financial control and influence of our hospital.

In life, we have only a few intimate relationships: with our spouse, our clergyperson, and our physician. Once thought to be sacred ground, the relationship with our doctor is in jeopardy and threatened. Preservation of this sacrosanct relationship is critical, and from this my hope is “our” hospital will never be called “their” hospital.

Gene Dorio, M.D.

Gene Dorio, M.D., is a local physician. His commentary represents his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Henry Mayo Hospital on the Edge of Viability

Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital (HMNMH) is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 facility required to follow governing documents for recognition of compliance, and for allowing legal accreditation. When found not to be compliant, the hospital faces sanctions that must be rectified in a timely fashion. Such has been the recent case of persistent communication problems between the Administration and Medical Executive Committee (MEC). This problem has now come full circle in a convoluted epic of power and brinksmanship, creating potential liability and putting our hospital in its greatest jeopardy since bankruptcy.
The Joint Commission (TJC) is a government agency delegated with the responsibility of assuring hospitals throughout the United States maintain consistent standards of patient care. To comply with a recent TJC sanction reciting communication problems, the hospital Administration and MEC jointly agreed to hire a Mediator who would mitigate the conflict and write a report to TJC, thus removing the hospital sanction.
Within weeks, HMNMH oddly announced creation of a new position and hiring of a hospital administrator called Chief Medical Officer (CMO), and to the surprise of the medical staff and MEC, it was the Mediator! Still with me?
Day-to-day hospital operation and function rely on committees under the auspices of the MEC, Administration, and Board of Directors. Committee members follow rules related to HIPAA and Peer Review to maintain patient confidentiality according to By-Laws, Rules & Regulations, and Hospital-Wide Policy and Procedures. The CMO position, duties, and responsibilities, are not mentioned nor defined in these HMNMH governing documents.
The hospital has demanded the CMO be allowed to sit in hospital committee meetings and peruse patient charts. The MEC has objected and feel this is a breach of HIPAA and Peer Review confidentiality. With that, every committee the CMO has attempted to attend has resulted in this objection and cancellation of the meeting, stalling hospital function and compromising patient care.
It is ironic the person hired as Mediator to improve communication has now become the source of “discommunication.”
Because I attend many HMNMH committees, I discussed this matter with my malpractice insurance Risk Management attorney. My attorney agreed that indeed, because the position of Chief Medical Officer is not defined by the hospital governing documents, physicians, Administrators, and the hospital are at risk should there be HIPAA/Peer Review litigation brought against the hospital. Additionally, governmental agencies such as TJC might sanction the hospital and jeopardize accreditation. Hospital attorneys might not agree, but I wonder what is their legal precedence?
The position of Chief Medical Officer is not new in a hospital setting, but ground work must be laid in governing hospital documents in order for the position to legally exist. This has not been done and hence the hospital may be judged to be libel.
Ultimately, the Board of Directors are responsible for this legal matter, as they voted to create the CMO position. Viability of our community hospital is at stake, so I truly hope communication is better between the Board of Directors and hospital attorneys than between Administration and the MEC.
Gene Dorio, M.D.- Commentary
Gene Dorio, M.D., is a local physician. His commentary represents his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Guest Commentary: Dissecting Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital

The West Ranch Beacon’s mantra “Sometimes controversial, always thought provoking” can describe Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. Most emergency and critical medical care in the Santa Clarita Valley is rendered there, yet most have no understanding of how our hospital functions.
I have been on the Medical Staff at Henry Mayo 23 years, and have a private practice specializing in geriatric medicine. As an educator, I cohost “The Senior Hour” on KHTS, wrote a column in The Signal “Profiles in Medicine”, and have had a television show entitled “House Call for Seniors” on Channel 20. For those who read this blog and are involved in City Council politics, you know that I fought to keep our Transitional Care Unit (TCU) open for our elderly, and questioned the recent hospital expansion through their Master Plan. As a primary care physician for seniors in this community, I consider myself to be on the frontline in healthcare, and therefore hope I can briefly present to you…without the medical jargon…how Henry Mayo functions.
The hospital is established as a nonprofit 501(c)3 which means it doesn’t have to pay taxes, but because of this status, is obligated to follow certain legal guidelines. Federal and state legislation maintains constant vigil over patient care to protect the public. Periodic unannounced inspections by The Joint Commission, California Health Department, and other agencies must be passed for the hospital to remain “accredited.”
Having practiced at Henry Mayo for over two decades, there have been tremendous strides in technology adapted by our hospital. It is much easier for physicians to now give state-of-the-art medical care to those critically ill patients. There is no doubt also that my colleagues and I have the best trained nurses, pharmacist, laboratory, x-ray, and other personnel (many of whom also live in this community) working with us at Henry Mayo Hospital.
The Medical Staff are physicians, most in private practice, some in groups, and others solo, like myself. We are bound and guided by “Rules & Regulations” and “Bylaws” that must be adhered to. There are some groups that have contracts with the hospital to give specialized care to patients such as emergency, trauma, anesthesia, radiology, dialysis, and pathology. Most of the physicians though are not contracted, nor are they paid or employed by the hospital. Payments for hospitalized patients are made to us from Medicare, MediCal, and third party payers (Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, Blue Shield, etc.). The Medical Staff duly elects members to a Medical Executive Committee (MEC) that represents physicians as a part of the governing body.
There are three interactive governing bodies at Henry Mayo…somewhat similar to the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of our government where there are checks and balances: The above mentioned MEC; the Administration; and final decision maker Board of Directors.
The Administration hierarchy is headed by Chief Executive Officer, Roger Seaver. Immediately under him are the Chief Financial Officer, Bob Hudson, Chief Operational Officer, John Schlief, and Chief Nursing Officer, Larry Kidd, RN. There are a myriad of department heads all of whom must follow highly regulated policies and procedures again laid down by federal and state agencies.
Finally, the Board of Directors are volunteer members who live or work in this community. They are the ones that must juggle all the financial and medical information to come up with the best decisions for the hospital and the residents of the Santa Clarita Valley.
Some physicians serve on the Board of Directors, some Board of Directors serve on Administration Committees, while some Administrators come to the MEC meetings. All the governing bodies therefore have links to enhance communication.
Painting this picture of functionality makes it seem all the necessary ingredients are in place for our well-oiled hospital to run smoothly. But do the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of our government run smoothly?
Mistakes have been made, but we are legally mandated to rectify these mistakes and learn from them.
Differences arise from personality, financial, and political conflicts with a recent surge in dysfunction between the MEC and Administration. Divisive issues and divisive rhetoric are emblematic of this ongoing drama. The Joint Commission sanctioned Henry Mayo for this lack of communication, and the hospital has been given a deadline to rectify this problem or it will jeopardize our accreditation.
Fortunately, this problem does not have any direct effect on patient care…yet. As I shrug my shoulders and raise my hands into the air, I think Henry Mayo’s mantra should really be: “Sometimes thought provoking, always controversial.
Gene Dorio, M.D., -Commentary
Gene Dorio, M.D., is a local physician. His commentary represents his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Good experience; no problems with pain management

I had surgery for uterine cancer a few months ago at Henry Mayo, and I have absolutely no complaints about the care I received. I had no problems with pain management; the nursing staff responded very quickly to my calls. Problems can occur at any hospital: Cedars-Sinai, UCLA Medical Center, St. Joseph’s Hospital are all well-regarded, and yet all have had their share of bad publicity for alleged medical errors and poor patient care. I am sorry your experience at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital was a traumatic one for you and your family. In my personal experience, with my own medical care and with that of other members of my family, Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital rates very highly in professionalism, compassion, and patient care.

The hospital could not handle premature birth

(From Larry) My grandfather was in there after a bout with pneumonia. He was also suffering from dementia.
He ended up being placed in transitional care at the hospital. I was horrified when I went by to see him and he was feeding himself. While this is not a problem for most people, he could barely lift his hands. He had food all over himself. I talked to the nursing supervisor about this and was told they were short staffed and would do their best.
The next day, the same thing happened. We ended up having to hire our own nurse to go over there to feed him.
When he left, he was bed-ridden since the pneumonia had left him so weak. We found he was covered in bed sores and had raw areas on his skin. It was so bad that we documented it and my grandmother filed complaints with the state.
My sons were also born here. One of them was premature. The hospital could not handle this. They had to bring in specialists from Northridge Hospital for the delivery and transport. These guys knew their stuff and saved my sons life.
Unless I am dying, I drive to Holy Cross.
My grandfather was in there after a bout with pneumonia. He was also suffering from dementia.
He ended up being placed in transitional care at the hospital. I was horrified when I went by to see him and he was feeding himself. While this is not a problem for most people, he could barely lift his hands. He had food all over himself. I talked to the nursing supervisor about this and was told they were short staffed and would do their best.
The next day, the same thing happened. We ended up having to hire our own nurse to go over there to feed him.
When he left, he was bed-ridden since the pneumonia had left him so weak. We found he was covered in bed sores and had raw areas on his skin. It was so bad that we documented it and my grandmother filed complaints with the state.
My sons were also born here. One of them was premature. The hospital could not handle this. They had to bring in specialists from Northridge Hospital for the delivery and transport. These guys knew their stuff and saved my sons life.
Unless I am dying, I drive to Holy Cross.

AWESOME OR AWFUL HOSPITAL??

Hello, I am a long time resident of the SCV. I have enjoyed the new advertising campaign for Valencia….AWESOMETOWN. The advertisers are correct that the SCV is AWESOME. The sad thing is that the local Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital is the furthest possible from AWESOME. We need an awesome hospital not a hospital that patients are afraid to go to for care. As an example of how bad the care is, my daughter was born there last month and there was an emergency caused by the nurses that almost killed my daughter. The baby had to be transferred to another hospital. The therapist lost a tube in my daughter’s lung. The other hospital had to go in and remove the tube lost in my daughter’s lung. Henry Mayo is really an….AWFULHOSPITAL!!!! I am sure if you can go to another hospital you will be better treated. Why doesn’t the administrator respond to my daughter’s complication? No call has been made to me to ask how the baby is or even apologize!!!! I think I will in the future call the hospital “AWFULHOSPITAL” or Henry Hold the Mayo. I invite SCV citizens to click the link to a Rant and Rave about the local hospital. Maybe there are patients that are happy with the care and they should respond. The local newspaper has more letters to the editor that are highlighting the bad care than those highlighting good care. Please respond and let’s get this hospital’s problems aired out. I am hoping the hospital will respond to each and every one of the replies to this website. Let’s hope we can change the “AWFULHOSPITAL” to an “AWESOMEHOSPTAL.”

Henry Mayo Part 1: The ER, stock up on “Ammo and Water!”

This is a reprint of an October, 2008, commentary from the West Ranch Beacon news site. I have written about the hospital issue a few times before but now it is different having spent the better part of three days there with my wife Nancy. On Friday she fell down the last three steps of the stairs in our house and got a compound fracture of her lower left leg. A compound fracture is when the bone breaks and is sticking through the skin.

Fortunately, I had taken the day off from work and was at home. I was downstairs and my wife was coming down from the upstairs of the house having just retrieved a piece of paper that she was reading when she slipped. I heard her yell out as she crashed to the floor, and when I came around to the stairway she was on the floor and her left foot was oriented about 90 % from where it normally should have been. It was ugly!

I called 911 right away and the paramedics from Station 124 were at the house within 5 or 6 minutes as was an ambulance that followed a few minutes later. The paramedics were fantastic, and they put a splint on Nancy’s leg and foot to stabilize it and gave her some much needed pain relief as she was starting to go into shock. Several firefighters got her easily onto a stretcher and into the ambulance for the ride to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. I followed suit in my own car on their recommendation.

We could not have been happier with the response and the professionalism of the paramedics and firefighters from Los Angeles County Fire Station 124. Our community is lucky to have that station and equally lucky to have such wonderful firefighter personal staffing it in our community.

The ambulance took off from the house and I followed as long as I could but finally lost them at a red light that I had to stop at by the The Old Road and Stevenson Ranch Parkway. By the time I got to the hospital Nancy was already in the Emergency Room (ER) getting care.

I have not been to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in quite a while except for a tour that Roger E. Seaver, the President and CEO of the facility, gave me last year.

Both of my children were born at a hospital in Tarzana by choice even though we have lived in SCV for decades. We have avoided Henry Mayo whenever possible because of the bad reputation, real or imagined that the hospital has had over the years. Let’s face we have all heard stories or comments that the place is a “butcher shop” or a “sh@# hole”. Certainly Mr. Seaver has been doing an admirable job of trying to turn that perception around.

But nonetheless, we have made it a point to seek our medical care down in the valley south of Santa Clarita. Due to the serious nature of my wife’s injury we had to go to the Henry Mayo ER for immediate care. Believe me, if it was a simple broken bone I would have driven her down to St. Joseph’s or Tarzana in a heartbeat.

Now, I have to tell you that when I pulled around to the ER entrance there was little to no parking in that area. But I finally found a parking space not too far away and made my way over to an entrance which I quickly realized was under construction. I was directed to another entrance further away from the ambulance entrance. It was the waiting room and a hospital employee was in there and reluctantly opened a security door to let me through to the ER. By the way, he never asked for ID or a name, just let me through.

I will tell you upfront that the hospital personal that we encountered for the most part were great. The ER nurses and doctors that tended to my wife were fantastic in every sense of the word. They were professional, knowledgeable and did not hesitate to answer all of our questions.

There were some other hospital employees that wondered over to see my wife’s broken leg because it was “grotesque”, “it’s not Halloween yet”, “yikes, that’s nasty”, and so on. One orderly even took a photo with his cell phone camera because he likes to “collect” such pictures. That was downright unprofessional and weird!

The ER was clearly not big enough to handle a community the size of SCV. Add to that people using the ER for primary care and you quickly see a large problem. There was a woman in the bed next to my wife who was there because she had a headache/wasn’t feeling well and she arrived by ambulance. An ambulance!! She decided to leave on her own while we were still there.

If the ER was a microcosm of health care in the US we are doomed! This was reinforced by one of the ER nurses who said if there ever was a catastrophe in Santa Clarita we would all be screwed. She leaned over and said to both us, in a hushed whisper; “that we should make sure we are stocked up with plenty of “ammo and water”. (Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up!!)

Have you ever seen a ball of rubber bands? That is what I equate Henry Mayo Hospital to because it was a small community hospital that has been adding on space for years in order to try and stay up with the growth of the area.

There are two things wrong with this; 1) the hospital always appears to be behind the growth curve and playing catch up and 2) there is no real plan for what the community actually needs to sustain itself in the future. In other words, we have a hodge-podge of a hospital complex and a current plan to add more buildings and office space just like adding more rubber bands to the ball.

The current hospital complex is just not big enough to handle the current and expected population growth of the Santa Clarita Valley. This is why I felt like a gerbil running through a maze of tubes in a Habi-trail to get to where my wife was in the emergency room from the waiting room area.

What we need is a regional hospital that is on a larger piece of property more centrally or conveniently located in the Santa Clarita Valley. Now that may not jive with the current hospital owners or the hospital developer or City Council members that have received financial support form any of those participants, but that is what our community needs.

And everyone can sit around fighting and frittering away time to add a few more office buildings to an already to small, poorly located community hospital or we can be bold and come up with a vision of what our Valley really needs now and in the future. Instead of saying “we can’t” because of this or that, how about we start asking “how can we” and start down the road of actually accomplishing something for the good of all the residents that call the Santa Clarita Valley home.

Stay tuned for part II of our experience at the local “small community hospital” including the lack of security.

Dave Bossert- Commentary

Dave Bossert is a community volunteer who serves on a number of boards and councils. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Henry Mayo Part II: Surgery at a “Small Community Hospital”

This was originally published in November, 2008 as part of a four commentary series chronicling my and my wife’s experiences at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. It is an accurate account of a four day stay at the hospital which started in the emergency room, nearly five hours of surgery and then 3 days recovery in a hospital room. This part two in a series of commentaries, the number of commentaries is yet to be determined, on our experiences with Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. Part I was titled “The ER: Ammo and Water!” which covered the accident, paramedics, and emergency room treatment.

After my wife, Nancy, received immediate care for her injury, which included twisting her foot back into place in the emergency room (ER), we waited a while until a room was assigned to her. During that wait there was an influx of Sheriff Deputies into the ER with at least three prisoners from the local jail. Yes, it was a rough and tumble crowd!

What I don’t understand is why they just don’t have a permanent ER at the jail. Doesn’t it make more sense to treat most jailhouse injuries at the jail? The inmates that came into the Henry Mayo ER didn’t look all that bad. I would think cuts, bruises, etc. could be handled at the jail; you know, throw an old x-ray machine in a room, some lab equipment, a Swingline stapler, some band-aids and sewing thread and you’re pretty much set up. Right!?

Fortunately Nancy got a room shortly after the inmates arrived and we left the ER rather quickly. Once again we traversed the rat’s maze of corridors to an elevated that initially didn’t want to work once we got in and the doors closed. After a few tries of the buttons and opening the doors a couple of times it finally decided to work and take us up to the second floor.

We exited the elevated and proceeded down a long hallway to basically an elevated, enclosed hallway that connected what is the main hospital to a newer, add on pavilion. I’m thinking the architect was a guy named Rube Goldberg! Again, this gets back to my assertion that the hospital is just a ball of rubber bands with a hodge-podge of add on buildings.

The room was just inside the pavilion at the end of the, no doubt expensive, elevated hallway. We waited in the room for a couple of hours until it was time to go to pre-op. My sister brought our two daughters so they could visit with their mother before the surgery.

At about 6:15 PM on Friday, several orderlies showed up to take Nancy to the pre-op area just outside the surgical suits on the second floor on the opposite side of the pricey, yet stark elevated hallway. They put us in a small private room.

Here is the shocking thing. Someone we have known, not a family member, wondered into the post-op area with out anyone stopping them. Let’s forget for a moment that it is more or less inappropriate, inconsiderate, rude, and rather brazen for this person to invade our privacy, especially since my wife was drugged up on morphine and other medications. Somebody just freely walked in off the street and into the pre-op area! That’s just not right and is one example of the lax security at Henry Mayo.

Add to this the fact that I asked an employee the next day to use his security card to open a doorway to a stairwell and you have the makings of an eventual bad situation. That’s right; I was to lazy to walk all the way around to the proper entrance and this employee just happened to be walking by at the right moment. Never asked who I was or if I had ID; how hard would it have been to say no you have to go around to the entrance. Instead he swiped his security card to unlock a door to a stairwell.

If you go to other hospitals, for instance Tarzana, you have to check in and get a visitors badge. They don’t allow anybody to enter their facility and roam around. Is Henry Mayo that bad off that they can’t have some semblance of a security process or is the hodge-podge of buildings just that porous, with so many ways in and out, to cover effectively?

I don’t know; all I know is that it was effortless to breeze in and out of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. Let’s just pray that some thug doesn’t wonder in off the street and starts robbing people or worse.

But hey, the phrase that we kept hearing from various care givers is that we were at a “small community hospital”. Again, I have nothing but praise for the Doctors, Nurses and caregivers we encountered but we do not live in a small community like it was 25 or so years ago.

We live in a growing suburban community on the fringes of a major metropolitan area and we all deserve to have a medical center that can fully serve our community; one where the skilled caregivers at Henry Mayo can fully utilize their talents with a modern up-to-date facility. It needs to be a medical facility that can handle the current and future population of SCV in an effective, efficient manner.

Part 3 will detail some interesting issues at Henry Mayo ranging from pain management problems to faulty communication.

Dave Bossert- Commentary

Dave Bossert is a community volunteer who serves on a number of boards and councils. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Henry Mayo Part III: Floor polishing and Equipment Malfunctions causes Unnecessary Pain

This was originally published in November, 2008 as part of a four commentary series chronicling my and my wife’s experiences at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. It is an accurate account of a four day stay at the hospital which started in the emergency room, nearly five hours of surgery and then 3 days recovery in a hospital room. This is part three in a series of commentaries detailing the deficiencies we experienced at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and why our community desperately needs a regional medical center. Part one titled “The ER: Ammo and Water!” covered the emergency room and part two titled “Surgery at a Small Community Hospital” discussed security issues we encountered. In this piece I want to showcase some facility problems that we experienced.

It was about midnight after Nancy spent nearly six hours between pre-op, surgery and post-op. The post-op nurses decided she was ready to be moved back to her room so they started to wheel her gurney out of post-op and into the hospital side of that long, expensive, elevated hallway. But we quickly realized that we could not get Nancy back to her room.

You see, the genius custodial engineers decided to “wax” that hallway all at once. Yes, the entire hallway was blocked off with a web of yellow caution tape affixed to the walls on either side. Not only that, but there was wet wax all over the hallway. This was the only way, aside from going outside the building, to get from the main hospital into the pavilion where Nancy’s room was.

Leaving the building into the dark of night with a freshly minted surgical patient was not an option. We were forced to go back into a pre-op room and wait while the nurse yelled at the maintenance supervisor on duty that night.

Now, I don’t have a PHD in custodial sciences but I’m pretty sure that I would have opted to wax one side of the hallway at a time allowing passage between the two buildings during the entire floor polishing process. But then again the architect (Rube Goldberg) should have had the foresight to add an alternate connection between the two buildings.

After waiting more than 30 minutes or so for the custodial “scientists” to clean up the wet wax and remove the tape blocking the hallway we were able to get my wife into her room for the night. I did not get out of the hospital until well after one in the morning. By the way, no security at all at the pavilion entrance which was completely unlocked; it appeared as though anyone could have walked in or out unabated.

I was back at the hospital to see Nancy on Saturday morning after getting about five hours sleep. She was still on a heavy amount of medication and was very groggy. I spent several hours with her as she slipped in and out of sleep and then went home for a couple hours.

When I returned Nancy was in quite a bit of pain and I asked the nurse to get her more pain medication. The one thing that is extremely important is pain management in these situations. There is no reason why someone should be in pain in the hospital. Unfortunately Nancy was allowed to be in pain longer than necessary because the narcotics cabinet was “malfunctioning”.

Because certain drugs are strictly controlled they are apparently dispensed from a cabinet controlled through a computer terminal attached to it. The nurse would log on with a password and ID to get the particular drug and needs to have another nurse sign on as a witness; the dose is then dispensed.

I don’t know all the details of the “malfunction” but I can tell you that Nancy was in a lot of pain and that didn’t make me happy at all. She had pressed the nurse call button several times and no one answered but she did hear other people yelling at the nurses for medications for their loved ones. She was not the only one not getting her medication in a timely fashion. The nurses were apologetic and were doing the best they could with the equipment at hand.

Does this sound like the kind of hospital our community should have? As I have said in the previous postings, we need a large modern regional hospital that has a sufficient number of beds to serve the population of the Santa Clarita Valley. Not the band-aid approach that is being proposed by the current hospital management which is adding more office space than beds.

Part 4 will deal with our final day in the hospital which was hell!

Dave Bossert- Commentary

Dave Bossert is a community volunteer who serves on a number of boards and councils. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Henry Mayo Part IV: The day from hell with a crawly bug or two!

This was originally published in November, 2008 as part of a four commentary series chronicling my and my wife’s experiences at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. It is an accurate account of a four day stay at the hospital which started in the emergency room, nearly five hours of surgery and then 3 days recovery in a hospital room. This is part four in a series of commentaries detailing the deficiencies we experienced at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and why our community desperately needs a regional medical center. Part one titled “The ER: Ammo and Water!” covered the emergency room, part two titled “Surgery at a Small Community Hospital” discussed security issues we encountered and part three titled “Floor polishing and Equipment Malfunctions causes Unnecessary Pain” dealt with some craziness with hospital maintenance and my wife not getting her pain medication in a timely fashion. In this piece I will discuss our final day at the hospital and the hell we went through.

If this is the first part that you are reading please take time to read the others first so that you have a fuller understanding of our experiences recently at Henry Mayo. As I have written a number of times, the Doctors, Nurses and Caregivers at the hospital were terrific for the most part. But the real issue is that the facility itself is less than half the size it should be to serve the Santa Clarita Valley communities.

My wife’s final day in Henry Mayo started off early with me coming over for a visit around 8:30 AM or so. The attending physician had just left after checking on Nancy. He was concerned that her blood count was down and wanted her to see a hematologist before he would discharge her from the hospital.

He apparently had put the order in for the hematologist right after his visit and we were just waiting for that doctor to show up. I subscribe to the notion of a four hour window of time being more than reasonable when waiting for a delivery or the satellite or cable guy. So we thought a couple of hours for the hematologist would be perfectly fine.

Around noon I went out the nurse’s station and asked about the hematologist and they had no information except to say they would page him. That was fine and I went back into Nancy’s room and waited with her. And waited, and waited, and waited.

Around 1:30 PM I went back out and asked if the hematologist had returned a call from the page. No, in fact the nurse said she saw him on the floor and asked if he had come by to see us!! At this point I was starting to get aggravated and asked that they track this doctor down and find out when he was coming by.

Now it was nearing 3:00 PM with no news on when this doctor of hematology was going to visit; nearly seven hours after the order went in. I asked to see a hospital administrator and the nurse said she would call. The nurse either called and the administrator never bothered to come down or she never called in the first place. Either way no one came to Nancy’s room to talk to us.

At 3:30 PM, I finally went out to the nurse’s station and told her that I wanted to see a hospital administrator in five minutes and I didn’t care if she had to call Roger Seaver’s office, the President and CEO of Henry Mayo, to get that to happen. I was pissed off!

No administrator showed but the hematologist came in close to 4:00 PM huffing and puffing as if he ran over from his office which was in a building next to the hospital. He looked at Nancy’s chart and peppered her with some questions.

Apparently with a trauma like the one Nancy suffered it is common for the blood count to go down somewhat because of bruising and some blood loss from the fracture. Most of that blood is absorbed into the soft tissue and eventually the count will go back up. He felt that this was the case with Nancy and it was fine for her to go home.

So we waited seven and half hours for what amounted to a five minute visit by a doctor who said everything was fine and she could go home. We never saw the hospital administrator that we asked for repeatedly and essentially wasted most of day waiting around for one doctor who claimed he had only just gotten the order to see Nancy that afternoon.

So let’s recap, the attending physician says he is putting in an order to have a hematologist see Nancy at 8:30 AM in the morning. Then after waiting nearly eight hours the doctor shows up and says he only just got the order to see Nancy. Where was the communication breakdown and why did that happen?

There is supposedly a shortage of beds at Henry Mayo but the hospital did not seem to be in a hurry to discharge Nancy and free up her bed. Does that mean there is no shortage and there for they don’t need to do an expansion?

Now, during that day of hell waiting in the hospital Nancy was in pain and uncomfortable unnecessarily. She needed assistance from a nurse to go from her bed to the bathroom. When Nancy got into the bathroom she spotted a large bug crawling on the floor and was fearful it might crawl into her soft cast. She pointed it out to the nurse who said; “Oh that is a cricket, I don’t kill crickets because they are good luck!” (Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.)

Both my sister and I saw a bug in a hallway outside the emergency room the first day at Henry Mayo. I’m of the mind that a hospital should be really clean and that means no bugs in the buildings especially in the hospital rooms.

Based on some of the comments to my previous commentaries, I should just shut up about the bugs like the malfunctioning equipment or the apparent HIPPA violations and not talk about any of that. Don’t say anything negative because it’s the only hospital we have.

Anyway, after the hematologist left Nancy was cleared to go home. We gathered up her things and they brought a wheelchair to the room to take her down to the parking lot. At about 5:00 PM we were in the car and on our way home. Finally, after four days at Henry Mayo, and wasting most of the last day, we were able to get Nancy back into our house to start recuperating.

The entire experience was an eye opener for us. It highlighted the fact that our community hospital is not the appropriate size to handle the growing Santa Clarita Valley communities.

Henry Mayo is apparently only about 42% of what it should be for the Santa Clarita Valley population. The controversial hospital expansion plan would possibly increase the size by only about 8%. I say possibly because there seems to be no guarantee that if the expansion plans are approved by the Santa Clarita City Council that the hospital will get all the additional bed space they are requesting.

That my friend is a bad idea! The expansion plan is only another band-aid and if approved might bring the size of the hospital to about 50% of what is needed for our community. Are you okay with a hospital half the size it should be? Well, I’m not.

We need to see some bold leadership in the Santa Clarita City Council in turning down this expansion plan and going back to the table to come up with a vision, a plan, to fix the hospital problem for now and in the future. That will take courage on the part of the City Council; it will require members of the community speaking out and telling their elected representatives that they want a regional hospital in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In part five, I will explain my view of what we could have in SCV and wrap up this entire ordeal up in a nice tidy package.

Dave Bossert- Commentary

Dave Bossert is a community volunteer who serves on a number of boards and councils. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.