An Open Letter to HMNMH CEO Roger Seaver

Dear Mr. Seaver,

My wife had a medical emergency that required the services of the L.A. County Paramedics and an ambulance on Saturday night while I was out of town. Once she was checked out by the paramedics, who did a great job, the ambulance took her to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital (HMNMH).

Once at the ER at your hospital my wife was left on a gurney and placed in a corridor for over an hour before anyone checked on her. Her blood pressure had spiked dangerously high at home; she had heart palpitations; and she required a CAT scan. Yet your hospital placed her out in a hallway unmonitored!
At one point she need to use the lavatory and the nurse that actually came over to her, after close to an hour, asked my wife if she had shoes because the floors were filthy despite how many times they were wiped and she “wouldn’t dare walk on them barefooted.” Her entire nightmare at your hospital lasted nearly seven hours.
One of the two CT scan machines was out of order and she learned after asking several times that some patients were being taken across the parking lot to another facility where there was a working high contrast CT machine. Her CT scan was not high contrast yet it took over 2 hours of waiting in a room to be taken to the scanner down the hall. This is something that might happen at a third world country hospital but it shouldn’t be happening SCV.
This is just another example of the numerous and outrageous stories that continue to surface about HMNMH. It is because YOU and the Hospital Board of Directors apparently are unwilling to recognize the serious issues plaguing HMNMH including the POOR management of the facility. Instead, senior management has it’s blinders on and continues to snowball the local “gold card” gentry at apparently spurious fundraisers while lining their own pockets.
Your medical facility is a joke for the size of SCV community. Senior management’s style has alienated the seasoned medical professionals and has planted the seeds of mistrust in the community. Who knows what will happen when a large scale disaster strikes our valley. God help us all!!
I promise, in the coming months, that I will do everything in my power to expose the true horrors of your hospital. In doing so, I am calling on the entire SCV medical community and patients to send me their “HMNMH Horror Stories” for publication. Any information provided to us will be in the strictest of confidence and we will not divulge our sources.
Yeah, I’m back!!
Sincerely,
Dave Bossert
Publisher, www.westranchbeacon.com and Community Activist
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.

Doctors vs. Hospital: A True David vs. Goliath

A recent fundraiser for Henry Mayo Hospital brought in $295,000, but one must wonder how much of this money is being used against your physician who has dared speak against CEO Roger Seaver and the hospital Board of Directors. This ongoing David vs. Goliath battle is truly one-sided as the hospital has millions of dollars to spend on lawyers, consultants, and public relations, whereas the Medical Staff continues to be stifled by financial crippling attempts to undermine and slander many doctors, especially those on the Medical Executive Committee (MEC). Recently in another swath of their sword to “cut off the MEC”, a letter dated May 10, 2012, from CEO Roger Seaver launches spears, behind the shield of the Board of Directors, against Medical Staff leadership making it seem this poor giant was being unfairly blocked from recruiting new physicians. This is far from the truth.
Twisting information to lift their banner of trying to fulfill “community needs” should shame them as they use your donated money in the takeover of our community hospital. As you read Mr. Seaver’s letter below, and the second letter in rebuttal from the MEC, keep in mind the increasingly outrageous salaries, bonuses, and retirements these Administrators are receiving.
Waving hospital dirty laundry should not reflect the valiant attempt by many physicians to continue providing needed healthcare to this community despite draconian attacks from this bullying Goliath. It should make you consider though there is something terribly wrong when devoted and caring doctors are assaulted and cannot be heard because the local newspaper is financially tied to hospital advertisement.
Aiding the MEC in whistleblowing is our “David” of The West Ranch Beacon, Dave Bossert, who is providing the “sling” for the reality of this Goliath to be toppled and brought back to the people.
Gene Dorio, M.D.- Guest Commentary
Gene Dorio, M.D., is a local physician. His guest commentary represents his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with including the Medical Executive Committee and Medical Staff of Henry Mayo Hospital, or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

  

To view HMNMH Letter clink here: http://westranchbeacon.com/2012/06/guest-commentary-doctors-vs-hospital-a-true-david-vs-goliath/

Medical Executive Committee Rebuttal to Seaver’s May 10, 2012 letter
June 9, 2012
Dear Medical Staff:
In a recent letter to members of the Medical Staff dated May 10, 2012, Roger Seaver, Henry Mayo Hospital President and CEO, uses disputable reasoning when he objects to established Medical Staff dues. This is not the first time this subject has arisen as Mr. Seaver continues to disregard physician self-governance in running our hospital.
State and Federal law requires a physician Medical Staff be independent from a hospital Board of Directors and Administration. Without this guideline of independence sustaining undue influence (especially financial), patient care at any hospital could easily be skewed by unprincipled, unethical, and amoral businesspeople.
Our Medical Staff By-Laws protect us from this undue influence as dues are set and determined by the elected Medical Executive Committee (MEC) of the Medical Staff. The hospital Board of Directors do not, and should not, have the right to set these dues. This is an important distinction in balance we each play in governing our hospital.
Not mentioned in his letter is the new member physician application fee and first year dues were actually increased to $2200 ten years ago under a Chief of Staff who is now a hospital Board member. Since then first year dues decreased to the present $1700.
The increase in the annual dues come from the legal assault against the Medical Staff and MEC from this Administration that other “geographic” hospital Medical Staffs do not face. They continue to hide this fact from the public to thwart MEC members who fight for the rights of physician self-governance.
At our next quarterly Medical Staff meeting, the MEC plans to again substantiate the financial rational for the amount of our annual dues. Your MEC has succeeded to reduce costs by decreasing legal fees and maintaining accounting fees. The Medical Staff must realize though the continued incursion into our self-governance by the Board and Administration, and “Corrective Action” brought against MEC members is legally expensive.
Conversely, the hospital seems to have plenty of money to spend in acting against physicians, especially when they have paid well over six figures to a Seattle medical consultant, and most recently to a survey group, to cast aspersions on the Medical Staff and MEC. Instead, this Administration and Board should consider using some of these monies directed to “recruit and retain practitioners” discussed in Mr. Seaver’s letter.
Whether you are in private practice, a hospital contracted physician, or one who belongs to an HMO, there is a threat to you and your group when the legal balance of structure is skewed by those who do not value the care of patients in our hospital.
The MEC is your last voice of reason to assure our hospital and physicians can provide quality healthcare to this community.
Your Medical Executive Committee