NEWS STORY Feb 04, 2010
As many of you surely know, our nation is experiencing a nursing shortage. Well, AMN Healthcare recently conducted and published a survey of 1,399 nurses and their career satisfaction. They found that 28% of nurses do not plan to be in their current job just a mere one year from now.
In addition, 29% indicated they plan to reduce their hours or involvement, or leave the field altogether in 1 to 3 years. On top of that, another 15% plan to change or advance their nursing career, such as becoming a nurse practitioner. This totals to a 44% of America’s nurses that do not plan to be in their current positions within 3 years.
The study also showed that 55% of nurses feel the quality of care provided by nurses has declined since 5 years ago. However, 59% do not regret at all choosing nursing as a career and would do it all over again, while 64% would recommend it to the young people just starting out. (That’s still a whopping 36% who would not recommend it.)
The survey provides a glimpse into what might be the problems, including the lack of qualified educators and high turnover and retirement rates coupled with exploding demand. Many leave their jobs because of the poor work environments. Almost half of the nurses in the survey said their jobs negatively impacted their health.
What are your thoughts?
NEWS STORY Feb 03, 2010
Some mistakes are not a big deal. This one, however, is a pretty big deal. The California Medical Board admitted Tuesday that they had assigned a doctor who had been on probation to monitor another doctor under discipline.
In 2002, Dr. Andrew Rutland gave up his license after newly-born infants died during birth under his care. In 2007, he petitioned to the medical board to restart practicing medicine and won. The board put Dr. Rutland on probation, and, upon his request, appointed Dr. Christopher Dotson, Jr. to supervise him during his probation.
It is very surprising that the board did this, because Dr. Dotson himself had been disciplined before. After an incident in 1998 that involved the death of a patient, Dr. Dotson was placed on probation until 2005 by the board for gross negligence.
The board’s own rules state that only a doctor with a clean record can monitor another doctor on probation.
Last July, a 30-year-old lady named Ying Chin died after being administered Demerol and Lidocaine by Dr. Rutland in preparation for an abortion. The California Medical Board alleges that Dr. Rutland was at fault. While proceedings for that case is still underway, Dr. Rutland has been barred from performing any surgeries or deliveries in the interim. Apparently, Dr. Dotson has thus far written favorably regarding his charge, Dr. Rutland.
According to the LA Times, Dr. Dotson wrote, “In my opinion, Dr. Rutland is taking his probation very seriously and doing everything he can to more than meet the requisite requirements.”
The board finally removed Dr. Dotson as the probation supervisor for Dr. Rutland last week. The medical board claimed that the breach was the result of a “staff error.”
NEWS STORY Feb 02, 2010
While our website typically reports on the poor conduct of “bad” doctors, nurses, and other health care workers, we want to take a moment to recognize the swift efforts of literally thousands of medical workers that have volunteered to help Haiti after the earthquake.
These generous men and women have taken time from their busy schedules to help our neighbors in need. We want to give them our kudos, two thumbs up, and a “way to go!”
If you haven’t already, we want to encourage you to join us in sending a Text Message (SMS) saying “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund.
Thanks for reading and keep checking back for more!
- Medhaps Team
Jan 29, 2010 | 3 Comments
Case Synopsis
Bad Diagnosis
Dr. Jacob Yates worked at a Life Extension Institute in California when he treated Randy. Randy had been diagnosed with emphysema, which usually occurs after a long history of smoking. During his series of appointments in 1997, 
Randy had blood work done and also underwent a computer “age scan”. As treatment, Dr. Yates prescribed Randy a regimen of thyroid supplements, DHEA, testosterone, and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) – these are not generally prescribed for emphysema.
Two years later in December 1999, Dr. Jacobs sent a letter to Randy to inform him that insulin would be added to his medication regimen. Since then, Dr. Jacobs would prescribe 4 ml’s of insulin (Ultralente) mixed with the vial of HGH. The HGH and HGH-insulin mixtures were concocted in the back room of the Life Extension Institute by two unlicensed employees.
NEWS STORY Jan 28, 2010
Even though most of our stories are about medical mishaps, this one warrants a two thumbs up for the doctors involved.
Deborah Boutchyard, 51 years old, was arrested this week and charged with eight counts of fraud for using TennCare, Tennesee’s Medicaid managed care program, to illegally obtain medications through “doctor shopping.” She was also charged with theft over $1,000.00.
Doctor shopping refers to a strategy that involves seeing multiple doctors, often at the same time, in order to manipulate the health care system. Although we don’t know the actual medications that Deborah was trying to get, a common scenario would be a patient who visits 5 different doctors for “back pain” in order to get multiple prescriptions for Vicodin, Codeine, or other narcotics.
Like Tennessee, many states are monitoring narcotic prescriptions much more closely.
Tennessee’s Inspector General Deborah Faulkner is happy, “We are enthused with the response we’ve received from physicians across the state in support of cracking down on people who try to doctor shop.”
“Before the ‘doctor shopping’ law, physicians’ hands were tied but now they can report this violation to us and we go after them.”
NEWS STORY Jan 27, 2010
Two former owners of City of Angels Medical Center (located in Los Angeles) agreed to pay $10 million to the state and federal government on Tuesday in a consent judgment involving Medicare and Medi-Cal (California’s state medical welfare system) fraud.
Businessman Robert Bourseau and Rudra Sabaratnam, MD, used to own City of Angels Medical Center. Between 2004 and 2007, Bourseau served as the hospital’s chairman, and Dr. Sabaratnam was its CEO. During this time, they paid a recruiter, Estill Mitts, to find homeless people from LA’s Skid Row and bring them to the hospital to fill the beds. Often, ambulances would be used to deliver the homeless “patients” to and from the hospital.
Once there, they received medical treatment, sometimes unnecessarily. Even those with small medical problems (dehydration, yeast infections, etc) were hospitalized two or three days before being sent “home”. The hospital would then bill Medicare and Medi-Cal for the expenses incurred.
For kickbacks of about $20,000 a month, Mitts brought the hospital 30 to 50 homeless “patients” a month. He did this by running a fake “assessment center” in Los Angeles that offered the homeless money, food, and even cigarettes.
The conspiracy unraveled when police began investigating what they initially thought was a case of patient-dumping by hospitals. It’s unclear whether any homeless people were actually harmed during this scheme.
In September 2008, Estill Mitts pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.”
In addition to the consent judgment on Tuesday, Bourseau and Sabaratnam have pleaded guilty to criminal charges of medical claims fraud and giving illegal kickbacks. The hospital’s senior vice president, Dante Nicholson, has also pleaded guilty, facing up to 10 years in prison.
Unfortunately, this scheme wasn’t just limited to the City of Angels Medical Center. During the investigation, police also raided the Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center as well as the Tustin Hospital and Medical Center. Executives at those facilities were also charged for similar crimes.
NEWS STORY Jan 25, 2010
Some of you may recall an incident last summer when a surgical tech from Colorado was arrested for stealing and reusing needles meant for patients, spreading hepatitis C to numerous patients. She pleaded guilty with the agreement to a 20-year sentence, but last week Friday a federal judge rejected the terms on grounds that the sentence wasn’t long enough.
Kristen D. Parker began using drugs experimentally in high school, including using substances such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, and LSD. After receiving jaw surgery in 2000, she got hooked to Fentanyl (a painkiller that is highly addictive). While living in New York, she lied her way through job applications and interviews to get a position as a surgical tech with easy access to drugs.
At her job, she figured out how to steal syringes filled with Fentanyl meant for patients and refill them with a sterile saline solution. She then returned the syringes back to their original places for use on patients. Eventually, she lost her job in New York, got a job at Houston, TX, and also began using heroin and “borrowing” needles.
She decided to return to Colorado in order to, ironically, quit drugs and get her life back in order. Living with her parents, she eventually recovered from using heroin and again looked for a job as a surgical tech. She began working at Rose Hospital after lying about her past and passing a urine test.
It was after starting work at Rose Hospital that Kristen found out she had contracted hepatitis C somewhere along the line. However, she did nothing about it.
Clearly not free from her cravings, Kristen began stealing Fentanyl again just a few days into her new job. Twice, a needle in her pocket accidentally pricked another employee. While the first incident only caused an investigation without her losing her job, the second resulted in Rose Hospital testing her specifically for Fentanyl. Not surprisingly, she failed that test and left her job at Rose.
It was not even a month before she found work at Audubon Surgery Center in April 2009 and continued to feed her Fentanyl addiction.
Soon, she was pinpointed during an investigation into a hepatitis C outbreak at Rose Hospital. Police arrested her in July 2009, and she pleaded guilty in September to “tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit or subterfuge.”
Kristen must now decide whether to withdraw her guilty plea, make another plea deal, or allow the judge to sentence her. As a side note, Kristen is also a mother to a young child.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne disease that currently has no cure. Currently, there are 36 confirmed cases of hepatitis C directly linked to her, while almost 6,000 patients had been exposed. All the infected are from Rose Hospital or Audubon Surgery Center so far.
