I have been writing this blog for almost two years. I have not always been nice in what I have said about some of the people involved. Let me explain what has taken place in that time.
During Mom's brief stay at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, there were several issues with the care she was receiving. At the time, she was doing well with her therapy, and eating more than she had been. The benefits seemed to outweigh our concerns. These people are very good at using human emotions to deceive the relatives of their residents.
A large percent of the "patients " in these type places, have no choice. They require much more care than the families can provide. There comes a time, when there is no choice but to seek "professional" help. This is not something most people are experienced at. How do you decide which facility to trust with your loved one? There are plenty of websites that post reviews, most of them are " sponsored ", by the homes themselves. Then there is Medicare.gov, the governments nursing home rating site. This site has a star rating system, just like the other ones do. The problem with that, is there stars are given, based on NCDHHS inspections. The NCDHHS is not very aggressive at finding things wrong. I have the results of a NCDHHS "investigation", and there are places where it contradicts itself. The problem is that these places are so profitable, they can make sure they get a favorable rating.
When you have to make the decision to put someone you love into a nursing home, you want to believe that they are getting the care they need. You see the commercials on television, a happy older person telling how great the place is.
Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, is run by SanStone Health and Rehabilitation The ads for SanStone end with the phrase " SanStone , our passion makes the difference ". Sounds like the kind of place I would want to send my Mom . Well, if you look below the surface, it is hardly that kind of place. Medicare.gov, gives them two stars, out of five, below average. Keep in mind, that is based on those NCDHHS investigations. You can read the results of those investigations at Medicare.gov.
Here is how it works. The facility is inspected by the NCDHHS, and they find violations. To be in compliance, the facility simply has to say they will correct them. The response is written as follows
"Facility name requests to have this plan of correction serve as our written allegation of compliance.
Preparation and/or execution of this plan of correction does not constitute admission to nor agreement with either the existence of, or scope and severity of any of the cited deficiencies, or conclusions set forth in the statement of deficiencies. This plan of correction is prepared and executed to ensure continuing compliance with Federal and State regulatory laws."
So in other words, we don't admit to doing anything wrong, but if we did we would fix it by doing this______. We are only doing this to keep sucking the Medicare and Medicaid dollars. All they have to do is say they will correct something, and that's it!
I am in the restaurant business, when the health inspector comes in, I get a point score based on what they find wrong. Serious violations, have to be corrected immediately. I would like to think that anyone providing healthcare would be more accountable than a restaurant.
This is the reason I began writing this blog. The operators of nursing homes, and the NCDHHS, need to take these issues more seriously. They need to have more control over the care the patients are receiving. My goal is to help make a difference.
I hope that some of the things I mention, will help someone who has to choose a nursing home. Be ware of what you are told and ask questions. If you have a family member in a nursing home, don't make the mistake of thinking they are safe. For example in one month this year, Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation had an average of more than two deaths a week. I am focusing on Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, simply because I have records from there. I have done considerable research, and they are pretty much all the Same. There are some out there that have one star, yet they are still allowed to participate in Medicare and Medicaid.
There are non profit nursing homes, most are run by some religious organization. They generally have more staff and better training than the for profit homes. For profit homes, make their money, by understaffing. SanStone, list's Christopher Sprenger and Michal Deloach as owners, and managing employees at their facilities. In some industries, that would be called double dipping!
I'm sure there are good nursing homes out there, I'm also sure they are not SanStone properties. If you are looking for a nursing home, good luck. Just don't believe anything they tell you, and make them do their job! More later.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
Kim Britt, Todd Davis and Paul Yockey, what is your integrity worth ???
I have spent the last week going over the documents from the NCDHHS investigation of Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, and Dr. Larry Joe Russell. I have come to the conclusion that there was no sincere effort to determine if any regulations were actually broken. The NCDHHS investigators obviously wrote down exactly what they were told to. There are even different accounts of certain events, that are written by the same person. There are three different dates listed for the late entry nurses notes concerning the night Mom fell, in the same paragraph.
The complaint investigation was supposedly conducted on January 18 and 19, 2011. The people doing the investigation were, Kim Britt, Todd Davis, and Paul Yockey.
I spent considerable time in Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, during Mom's stay there. One thing is for certain, I could do a walkthrough, and find as many violations as I could write down. Amazingly, the team sent by the NCDHHS could not even find one. Even after meeting with Gail Maloney, the Western regional Director of NCDHHS, and presenting her with the proof, still nothing wrong.
It has been over two years since Mom died at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, while under the care of Dr. Larry Joe Russell. I am getting tired of getting ignored, lied to, and just plain ignored. I actually have an email from an agent, with the OIG, (office of Inspector General ) that says they have the information we sent, but they don't have time to investigate. They assured me that the information is kept on file, and if more people complain, they may actually investigate.
The law says that they are supposed to investigate any allegations of fraud, no matter what the dollar amount. I guess that only applies, if there is more than one complaint. The same information was given to the FBI, the agent we spoke to said there was more than enough to start an investigation. We met with the same agent, on two separate occasions. That agent has since transferred to another branch of the DOJ ( Department of Justice ).
Since I started asking questions, several people I have spoken with, are no longer where they were when this began. The first was Jennifer Thomas, the medical records clerk that was at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, when Mom died. Then there was Gail Maloney, the Western Regional Director of the NCDHHS. Lara Mooney LPN, the nurse on duty the night Mom fell. Susan Habel, the director of nursing at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation during Mom's stay. Maude " Cookie" Romeo, the administrator at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation during Mom's Stay. The original FBI agent we met with was the last person that I know of that has changed jobs, since I began this quest. These are just the ones that I know of, are there more? Is this all just a coincidence, or is there somebody with considerable influence making people go away??
I am getting tired of the fight, I may slow down, but I will not stop looking.
The complaint investigation was supposedly conducted on January 18 and 19, 2011. The people doing the investigation were, Kim Britt, Todd Davis, and Paul Yockey.
I spent considerable time in Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, during Mom's stay there. One thing is for certain, I could do a walkthrough, and find as many violations as I could write down. Amazingly, the team sent by the NCDHHS could not even find one. Even after meeting with Gail Maloney, the Western regional Director of NCDHHS, and presenting her with the proof, still nothing wrong.
It has been over two years since Mom died at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, while under the care of Dr. Larry Joe Russell. I am getting tired of getting ignored, lied to, and just plain ignored. I actually have an email from an agent, with the OIG, (office of Inspector General ) that says they have the information we sent, but they don't have time to investigate. They assured me that the information is kept on file, and if more people complain, they may actually investigate.
The law says that they are supposed to investigate any allegations of fraud, no matter what the dollar amount. I guess that only applies, if there is more than one complaint. The same information was given to the FBI, the agent we spoke to said there was more than enough to start an investigation. We met with the same agent, on two separate occasions. That agent has since transferred to another branch of the DOJ ( Department of Justice ).
Since I started asking questions, several people I have spoken with, are no longer where they were when this began. The first was Jennifer Thomas, the medical records clerk that was at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, when Mom died. Then there was Gail Maloney, the Western Regional Director of the NCDHHS. Lara Mooney LPN, the nurse on duty the night Mom fell. Susan Habel, the director of nursing at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation during Mom's stay. Maude " Cookie" Romeo, the administrator at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation during Mom's Stay. The original FBI agent we met with was the last person that I know of that has changed jobs, since I began this quest. These are just the ones that I know of, are there more? Is this all just a coincidence, or is there somebody with considerable influence making people go away??
I am getting tired of the fight, I may slow down, but I will not stop looking.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Who cares how you die??? NCDHHS, the medical examiner, or the ER doctor at Pardee Hospital?
In my last post I gave some statistics from death certificates in Henderson County NC. I returned to the Henderson County NC Courthouse. This time I went through the book immediately before the last one. I didn't get the exact dates but it should be between late August and the end of October.
Dr. Larry Joe Russell signed a total of thirty seven death certificates, of those, eleven "failed to thrive". There were eight at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation.
As I was going through them I noticed another doctor from Dr. Russell's office had been signing them also. The other doctor is Dr. Kevan Hansel, currently at Lamond Family Medicine in Hendersonville. Dr.Hansel had signed six death certificates. If you add those to Dr. Russell's that's a total of forty three death certificates in under three months. That seems like quite a lot in a County that has a population of under 110000.
As I was doing my research, I spoke to an employee of the registrar of deeds office. She told me that all they do is file the death certificates in the books. They are sent from the courthouse from the Henderson County Health Department. It became apparent that there was no one looking at them for irregularities. Just like everything concerning health care, each person that looks at something is looking at something specific.
The truth of the matter is that the doctors can write whatever they want on the death certificates as long as they fill in all the blanks. The health department is looking for contagious diseases, and the clerks are just making sure all the boxes are checked.
I would expect that someone might notice if a certain doctor was signing more death certificates than others. Or if a certain nursing home had an unusually high number of deaths. It seems that there is no real interest in how or where elderly people die.
This is quite suspicious, if you consider that Dr. Russell, is one of the owners of Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation. If someone at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, died because they did something wrong, Dr. Russell just has to put whatever he wants on the death certificate. Even if the patient dies at Margret Pardee Hospital, like Mom supposedly did, Dr. Russell still signs the death certificate. You would think that the doctor who pronounces the patient dead, would be somewhat responsible for determining the cause. That's not how it works, they refer it back to the treating physician of record. In Mom's case, there is not one record that Dr. Russell ever saw her. So he just guessed that since there was no reason for Mom to have died, it was an acute coronary arrhythmia. No contributing cause, or any further explanation necessary, Dr. Russell didn't even have to offer anything else. There was absolutely no tests done at the hospital to determine the cause of death. As long as there is no visible trauma to the body, no questions asked. They could have injected her with antifreeze, and no one would ever know.
I understand that elderly people do die, sometimes, there is no apparent explanation. However, the NC State Medcal Examiners office states that if a patient dies from something other than what they are being treated for, an autopsy should be done.
If that patient dies in Hendersonville NC, at Pardee Memorial Hospital, the decision is up to the medical examiner on call. If the patient is in the latter part of their life, and there are no visible wounds, they just ship them off to the funeral home, no further explanation necessary.
It seems to me that maybe if someone considered the treatment administered up until the point of death, they would be doing a lot more autopsy's. Nursing homes, and other care facilities, never have to worry about making mistakes. Unless they leave a mark, they are home free. That means if they accidentally give the wrong medicine to someone, and they die, they get a free pass. If they fail to read a dietary order and serve Bill a peanut butter sandwich, and he just happens to have a peanut allergy, another free pass. I could go on and on, but I think the point is clear, there is basically no accountability.
I guess this is the medical communities answer to population control. NC DHHS is the final authority on these issues, and they could care less. They are the problem, rather than the solution. They simply need to hold the others accountable for their actions, to make a difference. I can assure you that is not their goal, they don't question the doctors, or nursing homes. Again, they all get a free pass.
Dr. Larry Joe Russell signed a total of thirty seven death certificates, of those, eleven "failed to thrive". There were eight at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation.
As I was going through them I noticed another doctor from Dr. Russell's office had been signing them also. The other doctor is Dr. Kevan Hansel, currently at Lamond Family Medicine in Hendersonville. Dr.Hansel had signed six death certificates. If you add those to Dr. Russell's that's a total of forty three death certificates in under three months. That seems like quite a lot in a County that has a population of under 110000.
As I was doing my research, I spoke to an employee of the registrar of deeds office. She told me that all they do is file the death certificates in the books. They are sent from the courthouse from the Henderson County Health Department. It became apparent that there was no one looking at them for irregularities. Just like everything concerning health care, each person that looks at something is looking at something specific.
The truth of the matter is that the doctors can write whatever they want on the death certificates as long as they fill in all the blanks. The health department is looking for contagious diseases, and the clerks are just making sure all the boxes are checked.
I would expect that someone might notice if a certain doctor was signing more death certificates than others. Or if a certain nursing home had an unusually high number of deaths. It seems that there is no real interest in how or where elderly people die.
This is quite suspicious, if you consider that Dr. Russell, is one of the owners of Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation. If someone at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation, died because they did something wrong, Dr. Russell just has to put whatever he wants on the death certificate. Even if the patient dies at Margret Pardee Hospital, like Mom supposedly did, Dr. Russell still signs the death certificate. You would think that the doctor who pronounces the patient dead, would be somewhat responsible for determining the cause. That's not how it works, they refer it back to the treating physician of record. In Mom's case, there is not one record that Dr. Russell ever saw her. So he just guessed that since there was no reason for Mom to have died, it was an acute coronary arrhythmia. No contributing cause, or any further explanation necessary, Dr. Russell didn't even have to offer anything else. There was absolutely no tests done at the hospital to determine the cause of death. As long as there is no visible trauma to the body, no questions asked. They could have injected her with antifreeze, and no one would ever know.
I understand that elderly people do die, sometimes, there is no apparent explanation. However, the NC State Medcal Examiners office states that if a patient dies from something other than what they are being treated for, an autopsy should be done.
If that patient dies in Hendersonville NC, at Pardee Memorial Hospital, the decision is up to the medical examiner on call. If the patient is in the latter part of their life, and there are no visible wounds, they just ship them off to the funeral home, no further explanation necessary.
It seems to me that maybe if someone considered the treatment administered up until the point of death, they would be doing a lot more autopsy's. Nursing homes, and other care facilities, never have to worry about making mistakes. Unless they leave a mark, they are home free. That means if they accidentally give the wrong medicine to someone, and they die, they get a free pass. If they fail to read a dietary order and serve Bill a peanut butter sandwich, and he just happens to have a peanut allergy, another free pass. I could go on and on, but I think the point is clear, there is basically no accountability.
I guess this is the medical communities answer to population control. NC DHHS is the final authority on these issues, and they could care less. They are the problem, rather than the solution. They simply need to hold the others accountable for their actions, to make a difference. I can assure you that is not their goal, they don't question the doctors, or nursing homes. Again, they all get a free pass.
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