The Hospital.

Elliott Gorelick’s post today warrants republishing (see below here).  And PLEASE SHARE this post with others; it could protect one’s quality of life. It could safe a life.

The hospital itself told me they nearly killed me in the Emergency Department (ED) a couple of years ago, they don’t know why I didn’t die. This, during a minor (read: easy straight forward diagnosis and treatment) medical emergency (that was extremely painful, i.e., required emergency attention). Not only did I nearly die whilst in the Alameda Hospital ED, I was about 200% worse once home . . . 

Are you applying for the vacant seat on the Alameda Heathcare District Board? If so, your app is due on January 3rd.

The information about the Alameda Healthcare District Board vacancy is here.

Also, AHD Board Member Gorelick’s first post of 2013 is here.  His post contains 3 points. I’ve taken the liberty of republishing his third point:

3.  The application process for the Board seat vacated by Stewart Chen is ongoing.  Thursday, January 3 is the last day to apply so, if you were considering it, you may have to scramble.  Unfortunately, there is little chance that the Board majority would allow someone with the idea of closing the Hospital on, but perhaps you enjoy quixotic efforts.   Several times I have referred to the previous application process where the odious Williams was chosen where it was ridiculously obvious that she was the designated choice.   Unless you have been solicited to apply by one of the Board majority, don’t count on having a chance of actually serving.  - Elliott Gorelick, January 1, 2013

Healthcare.

The Alameda Healthcare District meeting is 7p on Monday, July 11th, at the hospital (second floor).

ATTEND THE MEETING.

VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION.

TO THE DIRECTION THE MAJORITY OF THE AHD BOARD IS TAKING US AND HOW THEY ARE SPENDING OUR MONEY.

The majority on the board intend to vote to approve the levy of the parcel tax on us again for 2012. And they intend to spend that $5.5M on opening up a new facility on Atlantic Avenue (extremely pricey medical retrofitting) that serves off-island patient populations. HUH? That’s right: they intend to spend the free money we give them each year to sustain on-island medical services to serve us, the residents, on a business that focuses on serving the cities off-island. HUH?

I’m outraged at the audacity of the AHD board; aren’t you?!

Read on below to better understand the absolute impudence they have shown with this new business strategy.

And this critically important reading on the AHD Board: Should the Board Majority and Deborah Stebbins Resign?

———–

In a city of around 75,000 people, a small subset, about 500 or so, residents need care for open wounds that won’t heal. They need specific in- and out-patient treatments for their wounds. But that’s a pretty small percent of our population, right?

Then WHY is the Alameda Healthcare District (AHD) spending the $5.5M in parcel tax dollars we give them on opening a wound care center on Atlantic Avenue?

The answer, directly from Alameda Hospital CEO Deborah Stebbins at last month’s AHD meeting: to serve (read: drive revenue from) off-island populations.  That’s right: their bright, shiny, new idea is to use our parcel tax dollars to start a new business to provide healthcare services that primarily meet the needs of non-Alamedans. HUH?!

It doesn’t make sense to spend all of the free money we give them on less than 1% of our population. That’s not healthcare for the residents of the city of Alameda. That’s highway robbery!

The Alameda Hospital Emergency Department (ED) sees, on average, 45 patients per day…..

One year ago.

It was one year ago this month that I almost died, languishing in a bed in the Emergency Department at Alameda Hospital from an overdose of an extremely strong narcotic (10x the strength of morphine) prescribed by the ED physician and administered by the nurse.  The nurse who had put me in a dirty room on a dirty bed apparently didn’t monitor my vital signs for hours.  The nurse who came on the next shift was the one who noticed the dangerously low blood pressure… the hospital itself said I should have died; they do not know why I did not.

So yes, it’s personal.

When I see the Alameda Healthcare District Board meetings, when I hear Dr. Deutsch speak nonsensically, when I read old documents showing the discussions and decisions identifying ways to make money by manipulating medical protocols and deviating from medical standards….when I see AHD board decisions based in weak discussions with no substance and even less foundation for strategy decisions, when I read letters from others about horrible experiences at our local hospital—and there are more than you can even imagine—, when I see the bright, new shiny business strategies that make no sense—they don’t fit what our city needs nor will they make enough money to support the hospital—, when I see the continued blinders the majority on the hospital board have when it comes to using our tax dollars in order to reposition the hospital to fit the medical services….I am completely perplexed. 

It’s not like it’s rocket science. How hard could it be to use the $5+M per year to repurpose the hospital resources and provide what we need?  The problem: they’d have to quit competing with Alta Bates and other nearby hospitals (who incidentally call Alameda the Toy Hospital…’nuf said).  And THAT my friends is an ego issue.

Clearly, based upon medical trends, rapid changes in medical technologies, and the federal healthcare program, Alameda Hospital cannot compete with contemporary medical services, or keep up with constant changes, in a region where world class services are practically within spitting distance of our city. They should not be trying.  But what they could do that would be amazing: become a series of urgent care centers. But again, the egos would have to take a hit.  And as we’ve seen, the egos and personal incomes of those in charge have been the primary foci of those leading our hospital.  It’s wrong. Worse, it’s harming people and wasting our tax dollars which could be doing quite a lot of good if spent wisely or even well.

Aren’t you tired of Business As Usual down at Clinton Avenue?  Can’t anyone see a way to a future that better serves the diversity of people—wealthy, poor, renters, homeowners, needy children—in our city?  Those in charge must be able to.  For whatever reason, they won’t.

It’s our hospital. It should serve us and serve us well. Why are all the new strategies focused elsewhere?

Way worse than we imagine.

What is?  The unethical business culture down at our very own extremely well-funded (our tax dollars!) financially-failing institution called the Alameda Hospital led by the Alameda Healthcare District (AHD).

See Dr. Jerrold A. Kram’s Letter exposing Dr. Deutsch’s latest grandiose scheme to yet again take advantage of our local medical organizations here.

It’s a long read—so stop here and go read it if you’re limited on time: Dr. Kram’s details of the latest/greatest actions of the AHD’s Grand Poobah are unbelievable, and confirm 100% my horrified take on Deutsch when I first met and spoke with him at the League of Women Voters’ panel discussion in 2010.  I urge you to read Dr. Kram’s Letter first, before reading anymore here.

Deutsch intends to poach at-risk patients by converting them to his patients, or his practice’s patients, after they are discharged from Alameda Hospital and placed into sub-acute care. This will interrupt and discontinue the patient relationships with their primary care physicians (!). AND he is scheduled to take over as administrator of the sub-acute care unit. HUH?!  And WTF?!  How on EARTH does our Hospital and AHD Board allow this?! Oh, right: the AHD Board has a majority that creates these business relationships, that places Deutsch front and center for his own revenue and their continued/expanded control, and then speaks with a forked-tongue about all of it along the way so they can scurry around the real issues and keep doing business as usual, a business which is apparently focused squarely on expanding their personal sphere of influence and personal incomes.

The AHD and the Alameda Hospital provide the public with specious arguments—wait for it, there will be one forthcoming post haste in response to Dr. Kram’s Letter—that most Alamedans fall for every time, i.e, they continue to be able to get away with it. For decades now, they have. Aren’t you ready to do something about it yet?

Dr. Deutsch’s impact on us is way worse than we imagine it’s possible to be—all Alamedans assume the best despite what is, and has been, right before our very eyes. Too many think, oh, it can’t be what it looks like. Well, it can. It is. And worse. Documentation of Dr. Deutsch’s lifetime campaign of deliberate, self-serving, unethical influence on Alameda’s medical services and organizations can be found dating back to the early 1980s.

I urge everyone reading Dr. Kram’s Letter to make formal complaints with both the State Medical Board and the FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission)—in writing, using your name (not anonymous). We all need to come together, and together publically–yes, lend your name!—stand up against what’s wrong: our hospital and AHD Board can only serve us if adhere to best medical, ethical, and business practices. Time and time again, they show they are not. We must stop the endemic and very real harm their leadership causes. Every Alameda resident is touched by this, harmed by it personally or by someone they know. I sure have been, as have neighbors and others!  Moreover, it’s just soooooooooo so wrong.  PLEASE FILE YOUR COMPLAINTS:

FPPC complaint form: http://www.fppc.ca.gov/enforce/complaint_form.1.pdf

In the state of California, there are separate state agencies for doctors, for nurses, and for hospitals. We have to report each separately.

Here’s the information for reporting doctors:

The Medical Board of California: http://www.medbd.ca.gov/consumer/complaint_info.html
See the link on that page for the Consumer Complaint Form, a PDF file that you download.

Phone for information:
Central Complaint Unit
California toll-free line: 1-800-633-2322
Phone: (916) 263-2382

Mail your Written Complaint to:
Medical Board of California
Central Complaint Unit
2005 Evergreen Street, Suite 1200
Sacramento, CA 95815

You can verify a doctor’s medical license status and view any complaints to the Medical Board here: http://www2.mbc.ca.gov/LicenseLookupSystem/PhysicianSurgeon/Search.aspx

Until we take it back the Alameda Healthcare Distsrict and make them serve us—the taxpayers that keep them in business—we should consider renaming it the Political Healthcare District or Deutsch’s Personal Lifestyle & Pension Fund.  I mean, the place is the launching pad for everyone’s political careers—Tam, Bonta, and almost Williams [thankfully, the voters intercepted that!]. And those few–through their behavior whilst on the AHD Board—showed they:

1. Were not interested in optimizing the hospital resources for oriented medical services to prioritize residents needs

2. Were interested in optimizing their own political careers even when their ultimate career path conflicted with medical sciences, practices, and standards: their success won at the cost of healthcare to 70,000 residents!

3. Were so unethical and self-serving that they did support and enable Dr. Deutsch’s highly unethical business practices both in the medical field and on the AHD Board.

4. Are not even now speaking out on our behalves, not using their influential positions on City Council to correct things. In fact, last year, Tam spoke in support of the substandard emergency medical protocols!  And Bonta, well, he was part and parcel of those heinous business strategies that were in direct conflict of medical standards!

I URGE EACH OF YOU READING THIS BLOG TO DO ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING:

1. Make a complaint to the FPPC – Dr. Deutsch should NOT be on the AHD Board and allowed to vote on decisions from which he directly profits (he does this every year when he votes for the parcel tax!) and about this new information that Dr. Kram has exposed, and any other conflicts of interests you yourself think may warrant investigation << it’s the FPPC’s job to ascertain whether there is a problem; they can only do their job if we ask them to.

2. Make a complaint to the State Medical Board - if you’ve had problem with Dr. Deutsch’s medical practice

3. Write down your own horror story that you’ve experienced at Alameda Hospital and post it in a Note on ‘Dangerous Incompetence – Alameda Hospital’, a facebook group.

Crazy logic. Stupid culture.

CRAZY LOGIC

Blogsphere commenters say that the fact that SunCal’s Measure B failed does not mean that Alamedans do not want SunCal to develop our Point. Because so few voted in that election, the 85% that voted against it comprises a minority of Alamedans, an insufficient number to draw the conclusion that Alamedans don’t want SunCal, and therefore, Alamedans do want SunCal. To these people, Measure B’s failure should not impact our city’s going forward working with SunCal. We don’t want to impede our mayor.

Back up the trucks for a minute here: corollary thinking lead us to dismiss Gilmore’s position as our Mayor: she had 36.45% of the total vote, which is extremely low in and of itself (lowest ever for a mayoral winning bid?), but—using that same logic—as a percent of all Alamedans (who voted and did not vote both), it’s miniscule.  She’s not the mayor!

Oh but wait, she has the keys to City Hall. Dang. We have to work with her.  As we should: it’s our job to manage up regardless who our democratic system placed into the elected positions.  Which means: if we do our job, she has to work with us.

STUPID CULTURE

Yet again in Alameda: someone suffers and it gets discovered that a group of someones in positions of authority have been managing an organization and its facilities in a way that has the potential to cause harm because procedures go against common sense and industry standards of practices.  When brought to their attention, what is the response?  The Alameda Martyr rears his/her head.  OMG is the response: why is anyone complaining about them? Don’t they deserve your accolades for their selfless service? The complainer is a horrible person because the managers of the organization deserve admiration and nothing else!

Argumentum ad hominem, or Shoot the Messenger, pervades the culture in all organizations in Alameda. What is up with that?!  Is this why Alamedans are so afraid to speak up/out?  

To those of you in positions of authority:

I simply do not understand how your ego is your priority, all important, over your having any concern whatsoever when your actionsare shown–by objective criteria— to presage harm! I know, I know: Alamedans say, but we’ve been doing it this way for years/decades—show me the harm!  I refer back to my question: Alamedans are afraid to speak up/out, and they do not. For the most part, people in charge do not get held accountable…open, factual dialog to optimize anything is not the norm here because people take everything personal here, and then no one wants to be the one who made someone feel bad, or be the one who is The Bad One Who Complained. Wakeup call: IT’S NOT PERSONAL.  All we ask is that you simply do your job correctly.

It’s time for a change folks. If your leadership, decisions, strategies and programs are not consistent with contemporary and best standards of practices, move your ego out of the way, re-orient your focus to consider potential harm to real people who suffer, and do whatever it takes to ensure that everything under your jurisdiction, and anything you can laterally influence, is done correctly, thoroughly and as safely as possible, optimizing conditions for everyone.

How can you live with yourself for wanting it any other way?

One in six, and half of those…38% of our children are hungry?

In the County of Alameda, one in six people rely on the food banks.  Of those, half are children.

Extrapolating for our city, likely conservative numbers for the West End, we are looking at a full 38% of our children relying on the food bank for survival. This number makes sense:  34% of our kids are enrolled in the Free Lunch programs at our schools. Remember: it’s typical for more kids to need the meals than are registered for the program.

1/6 x 70,000 = 11,800, 11,800/2 = 5,900, and 5,900 = 38% of the 15,576 children in our city.

Since 2000, the US has been undergoing a shift in the geography of poverty: in the year 2000, 53.1% of the SF Bay Area’s poor lived in suburbs.  Now? It’s over 59%…and growing. The current Great Recession is only fueling this trend (source: Brookings Institute). That 59% is a number that was generated before we knew about the spike in gas prices and the upcoming spike in food prices next week.

The thing is this: we don’t have the foreclosures that other cities have. Alameda should be able to bear this recession a lot better than other cities.  So why are we failing?

We do not pay attention to the actual demographics of our city. As a city, we do not address the poverty here.  Our median family income is half of that of other SF Bay Area cities.  We have very, very few local jobs (the school is our largest employer).  We have the highest school parcel tax in the state, and we have an unending hospital tax. The residential real estate has lost up to 30% of its value.  And did you know that the average age in Alameda is 38?  And only 13% of us are over 65? The 2009 US Census tells us that 9.5% of Alameda families living below the US Poverty Line–that’s nearly 7,000 people….and growing.

Yet most Alamedans perceive our city as having a well-off (wealthier) population that is largely retired.  This is simply not true.  We are primarily working families and individuals in the prime of our lives that need a well-run city that promotes and healthy economy and a safe environment in which to live and work.

Alamedans tend to think of poverty as something that happens someplace else. Not true.  Every trend, fact, and statistic indicates that more families and individuals are slipping towards poverty. More poverty means more of the things we’ve been ignoring becoming front and center to our lives.

I live on a pretty nice street in Alameda. A bevy of wonderful neighbors. Yet here, I’ve seen family poverty. If you look closely in your own neighborhood, you probably have too.  Sometimes it goes hand-in-glove with crime (mostly drug dealing which spawns other crimes). Sometimes it does not.  But even a few resident criminals on a block can impact all the other households in the area. I’ve noticed that in wintertime, the druggies are pretty low profile, but come spring, it appears they lose their heads, become emboldened and more visible.

In my neighborhood, we’ve had up to 3 drug houses within a one-block range at a single time. Wintertime, as I said, is usually pretty quiet.  But once springtime threatens to arrive, OMG. One house was shut down two years ago; it had been a drug house since the 1950s! The adult children who inherited the home continued this, dealing drugs all night long. CPS took many of their children away. The boarded-up house remains empty, the yard overgrown, littered with trash…blight that affects everyone.  Another drug house has a beautiful garden out front. People in the 3rd drug house moved away. But then just the other day, the adult children who inherited an old house on St. Charles—from the crusty old guy who used to pee at will (!) in the front yards near Pagano’s on Lincoln—were pulled out of their home by CHP and APD teams working together looking for two men with warrants.  They pulled out four naked men and lined them up on the sidewalk; then went after others hiding like cockroaches in the closets.  That same day there was a kerfuffle on Bay at Eagle, several APD cars, fire engine and the rest. The next day, we had a murder on Buena Vista not far from Starbucks and Walgreens in the West End.

Between the crime, the AFD failures to protect us (care for some friable asbestos and crude oil in your lungs anyone?), and hospital nearly killing me combined with their strategies to make money from ensuring ambulance care inequities, the corruption in the hospital and city leadership, the impending bankruptcy of our city….I swear, over these past five years since I moved to Alameda, I’ve felt like the woman who moved from NY to North Carolina when she said: “I thought I’d bought a home in Pleasantville. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen”.  

…poverty is the chief cause of immorality and crime. Theft, violence, hatred, cruelty, all result from poverty.” – His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Between 5:00 and 5:11 pm on Friday

The Alameda Healthcare District (AHD) board posted their AHD board meeting announcement….wait for it…..for Monday, April 4th.

WTF?  They post the meeting announcement and packet exactly 74.5 hours prior to the open session of the AHD board meeting when those 74 hours are mostly our weekend?

And they wonder why no one attends the meetings. Hmmm. Maybe they don’t. Kinda makes ya think this is how they want it…

Other organizations post it at least a week before and have it listed in the papers.

It makes one consider that the AHD board prefers operating without any public participation.

It makes one consider that it’s a deliberate strategy. …

Our living dinosaur: Alameda Hospital Emergency Department.

The Alameda Hospital Emergency Department should be obsolete.  Why isn’t it?  Oh, right: something yawl voted on in 2002 that gives them the free money (tax revenue) to stay in business whether it makes sense for the city or not.  And the Alameda Healthcare District Board has proven (read up on the business strategies they enacted in 2010) that the very survival of the hospital is more important than providing services that actually fit the medical needs of the community that supports them with free millions of dollars per year.  What a business model!  Never ending millions each year for free! No expenses incurred to gain the millions. No debt.  Just free! Wow. I guess if my business had that, I wouldn’t have to align my services with my customer segment either.  So wrong.  So SO wrong.

In February 2011, out of the 267 people arriving by ambulance at Alameda hospital, 168 (62%) arrived via an AFD ambulance (source).  All AFD buses are ALS (advanced life support) ambulances, you know, the kind that have more capability than the Emergency Department (ED) at Alameda Hospital?  Yeah, that kind.

168 people were taken by an ALS ambulance to Alameda Hospital.  That makes no sense.  …

Hiatus. Sort of.

Too busy this week to post much, but I want to mention two items.

ONE: The FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) is investigating Dr. Deutsch.  They responded to my request to look into what I see is a conflict of interest.  We all know that we need medical staff on the hospital board; that’s not the issue. What is the issue is that  without the Alameda Healthcare District (AHD) board’s annual vote to levy the parcel tax on us, the hospital could not afford to exist.  Through his practice and clinic located within the hospital walls, Dr. Deutsch earns over $200K per year.  As a board member, he has never recused himself from this annual AHD vote.  This is a serious conflict of interest.  Stay tuned; I am waiting to hear what the FPPC says, and too, what the witnesses to this conflict say in writing to the FPPC. Those witnesses are Hospital CEO Deborah Stebbins, AHD Board president Jordan Battani, and City Councilmember Rob Bonta (prior AHD board member).  They know far more than I about the dependence of Deutsch’s private practice and clinic on the hospital.

TWO:  Back to our future.  Interesting in today’s Alameda Sun, John Knox White writes about the financial instability of our city….which is exactly why so many of us are perturbed at the fiduciary irresponsibility shown by Mayor Gilmore…